Outdoor Mushroom Growing
Outdoor Mushroom Growing is more of a challenge than using an indoor mushroom kit, but if you have the resources and a little patience they are worth the extra effort involved.
Inoculating hardwood logs with mushroom spawn will provide benefits that you can only achieve by growing the mushrooms outdoors.
Advantages of Growing Mushrooms on Logs
The biggest advantage over using a mushroom kit that’s attained by growing directly on hardwood logs is that you can grow much larger quantities of delicious gourmet mushrooms over longer periods of time.
Rather than being limited to the size of a kit’s growing medium, with logs you can produce mushrooms over the entire surface area of whatever size logs you choose to inoculate with the mushroom spawn.
What’s even better is that from a single “planting”, the mushroom spawn inoculated hardwood will continue producing gourmet mushrooms over a number of years, compared to the few months of production that the typical kit will provide.
It does require more effort to get started, and a longer time before you see results, but growing mushrooms outdoors will ultimately provide you with many more mushrooms at a lower cost per pound to produce them. Not to mention that your initial efforts will continue to reap rewards for many years into the future.
Challenges Facing the Backyard Mushroom Grower
The major challenge to growing mushrooms outdoors is that you’ll need to locate a source for the hardwood logs that will be inoculated with the gourmet mushroom spawn.
Certain types of wood, such as oaks are best for mushroom cultivation, while softwoods such as pine aren’t suitable for the gourmet mushroom varieties that we’re interested in growing.
The three to six foot hardwood logs should be cut from live trees during late winter and inoculated by early spring. You’ll also need a shady spot on your property where you can store the logs throughout the growing process, as this is definitely an outdoor activity.
The simplest way to inoculate your timber is by inserting small wooden dowels that have been thoroughly infused with fresh mushroom spawn. Next week I’ll post an article with all the details for how to inoculate the freshly cut timber with the mushroom spawn and go through the various stages involved in growing gourmet mushrooms.
Other Related Vegetable Gardening Posts:
February 18th, 2006 at 4:07 pm
This looks fascinating. I’m looking for oak logs already. How big in diameter do they need to be? How old can they be? We had a lot of oaks that were knocked over by the hurricanes last year. Are they too old to be used any more? I guess so. Late winter to early spring is almost no time. I’ll get a fresh set of logs. I hope you’e next posting will explain how to get the inoculant.
February 18th, 2006 at 6:24 pm
Hi Suzanne, it’s best to use logs that are less than 14 inches in diameter and they must be freshly cut from live trees. The logs that were knocked over and have been lying around since last year are sure to have already been colonized by spawn from competing strains of mushrooms, so it’s too late to use them. There are many suppliers that sell the plugs for mushroom spawn, some of them advertise on this site. I’ll post the article on growing mushrooms on logs within the next few days.
March 19th, 2006 at 5:09 am
Hi Kenny,
Do you know of any supplier of mushroom spawn “dowels” or similar in South Africa, or who can I order from in the US?
Thanks for all the great tips and articles!
March 20th, 2006 at 10:47 pm
Hi Greg,
I don’t know of any offhand of any suppliers that are located in South Africa. Check with Fungi Perfecti, I believe that they will ship outside of the U.S.
April 5th, 2006 at 9:23 am
Hi Kenny,
I have 20 acres of hardwoods. My wife and I are getting started in the farm market thing. I would like to have fresh mushrooms for sale, I know they would do well. Is there anywhere I can go to download the information I need to get started? Or, do you know a book that does a good explanation? I’m from Michigan, so this would be an excellent time for me to get started, before it gets too warm.
April 7th, 2006 at 10:39 pm
Hi George,
I would check out Fungi Perfecti as a source for spawn, supplies, and lots of good information. There are some good books available, but unless you want to learn how to actually make your own spawn they may be overkill. I would start by visiting Fungi Perfecti’s website and request a copy of their catalog. It’s really pretty simple and a good mushroom spawn supplier catalog and the instructions that come with the spawn will give you everything that you need to successfully grow great mushrooms. I would start small though, and after you get the hand of it, then increase your production.
September 4th, 2006 at 6:44 am
I would appreciate it if you can tell me where I can get Oyster mushroom spawn in South Africa.
Regards
Tony Ballentine
September 7th, 2006 at 9:43 pm
Tony, I can’t recommend a mushroom spawn supplier in your country, but check out some of the links on this page for sources of edible mushroom spawn and other fungi growing supplies. Also, the comment above that was posted on March 20th includes a link to a gourmet mushroom grower in the U.S. that markets mushroom growing supplies, fungi spawn, and gourmet mushroom growing kits. I believe that they can ship mushroom spawn outside of the U.S. and if not they may be able to provide you with a source in South Africa. Good luck growing your own edible mushrooms.
September 15th, 2006 at 5:40 am
Thanks Kenny, will give them a go
May 17th, 2007 at 11:19 am
I would like to now if i could purchase mushroom grow kits in south africa.
June 23rd, 2007 at 11:36 am
Hi, I was wondering if you could tell me a good book to grow/make my own spawn. I have done the kits, but personally I think that the cost is pretty high, and have plenty of room to start my own spawn.
June 23rd, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Hi Esther, I agree that the mushroom growing kits aren’t as economical, but they are convenient and easy for new growers and for growing edible mushrooms indoors. Fungi Perfecti has a ton of information, books, and mushroom growing equipment and supplies. They also conduct classes and seminars to provide hands on instruction and training for cultivating gourmet and medicinal mushrooms. Another option that falls between the convenience of mushroom kits and the value of using mushroom spawn is to purchase spawn or mushroom plugs to use in inoculating your own hardwood logs.
December 10th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
Hi Kenny, some info for you, there is a South African supplier of oyster etc spawn
http://www.exoticspawn.co.za
August 18th, 2008 at 1:57 am
South African gourmet and medicinal mushroom farms and consultants.
Golden Oak Mushrooms
November 30th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Have you ever heard/ Is there a “rat’s ear mushroom”? Here in our country, we call it literally a rat’s ear because it resembles it. It’s not as revolting as it sounds, in fact it’s edible. I just wanted to know what it’s popularly known as.
By the way, I love your site and I’m still on to reading every article
November 30th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Oh, by the way, the first photo (Click here) is the rat’s ear I was asking about.
This second one (click here), I’d like to ask if edible.
Thanks in advance 
November 30th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Auricularia auricula-judae – commonly knoownas the Jews Ear or Wood Ear.
The name Jew’s Ear comes from a legend which claims that this mushroom first appeared on the tree that Judas of Escariot hung himmself from.
They are consumed extensively in the East, comonly sold dried. They are used in soups and sauces, primarily for texture, as they have almost no flavour.
For more info on mushrooms see:
http://www.goldenoakmushrooms.com
June 27th, 2009 at 9:21 am
[...] Growing Gourmet Edible Mushrooms Outdoors [...]
June 28th, 2009 at 11:55 am
Hi, I never knew about all this! This is amazing!
I hope this isn’t a dumb question, but I think hickory is considered a hard wood, right? Would hickory be good for growing mushrooms? We live in Florida and we have both oak and hickory trees on our property. We need to cut down a couple of hickory to accommodate my garden, so it would be great if we can use them for mushrooms.
June 28th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Hi Debbi O, hickory is a hardwood and can be used to cultivate mushrooms. I’m using hickory logs for my latest crop of mushrooms that were inoculated a few weeks ago. Shiitake, maitake, reishi, and one log of lion’s mane, can’t wait to see how well they do!
June 28th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Thanks! I don’t suppose you can grow portobellas on a log? I know they need to be kept in the dark, but that’s about all I know.
June 28th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
I live in Wisconsin. Does anyone know if you can use this method in an area with a cold winter?
June 28th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Hi Mark, yes you can grow mushrooms in your region using the hardwood inoculation with mushroom plugs method. I would recommend inoculating your logs in the spring after the frost free date, but the cold weather shouldn’t affect the mushroom spawn once they have had an opportunity to become established and start colonizing the logs.
August 4th, 2009 at 3:05 am
I am currently growing mushrooms in Caprivi Region, Katima Mulilo in Namibia in different ways. The first method that I tried was to grow mushrooms by covering with soil and it really gave good results.
The second method was to grow mushrooms by using rice straws that soaked to ferment for two days, later dig a trench of about 1mx2m. After that, I put the first layer of grass and then placed the inoculated substrates on top of the grass.The inoculated substrates are then covered with the second layer of grass and water the inside, then covered the top with a clear plastic sheet using small pvc pipes to avoid the plastic from touching the production. After 3 to 4 days, the pinheads will start shooting out for fruiting and after a day or two, your fruitbody is ready for harvesting.
I will send pictures showing all the steps. This is one of the simplest ways of growing mushrooms for home consumption.
August 4th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Hi Kwenani, thanks for sharing your techniques for growing mushrooms outdoors in Namibia. It’s always interesting to different methods that gardeners are using to cultivate mushrooms and I would love to see the photos, you can send them to me at the email address listed in the contact section in the right sidebar or footer on this site. Thanks!
August 9th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
I am interested in growing my own mushrooms but it sounds like its a bit late to start in August. I live in Canada. Would it be to late If I were to cut a few oaks down now? And which would be Better? Spore prints or syringes? And how long would it take from start to finish? And would different strains of mushroom take longer then others? I plan on using golden teachers but will choose a different strain If there are easier ones. And should I be worried about contamination? Will the spores survive on the logs through canadas cold winters? Thanks.
August 9th, 2009 at 11:40 pm
CJ, spring is the best time to begin the process of growing mushrooms but they can be started as late as four weeks prior to winter setting in, so you do still have time to inoculate your oak logs. I am not familiar with using spore prints or syringes to grow mushrooms but using plugs or sawdust pawn would take thirty to sixty minutes to inoculate an average six foot section of hardwood log.
A few species of mushrooms take longer to start fruiting but the average time is 9 – 12 months from inoculation to fruiting. I think the shiitake and oyster strains are pretty easy to start with. As long as the spawn has had a chance to acclimate before consistently cold weather set in the spores should tolerate the cold winters. Good luck growing your mushrooms and don’t forget that the logs need to be cut three to four weeks before you actually inoculate them with your mushroom spawn.
September 12th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Hey Kenny, what other logs besides oak work well? I have a lot of birch trees around me. Will they work well? I also have hardhack. I inoculated hardhack a couple of years ago, but the results have been disappointing. I cut them in late winter and inoculated them with spores, sawdust and covered with parafin wax (per instructions). Got a few but not that many. Your thoughts?
September 12th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
Hi Bob, Birch trees aren’t usually highly recommended but I’ve found that they will work. My first mushrooms were shiitakes inoculated on birch logs and they did great and produced for a lot longer than I expected them to. I’m not familiar with the “hardhack” that you mentioned, but other good choices are popular, locust, and elm.
September 17th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
[...] posted a video about mushroom log inoculation, and wrote several articles on the subject including; Outdoor Mushroom Growing and Growing Mushrooms [...]
September 29th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Hey Kenny. Great website! I’m a newbie to growing mushrooms. Do you have any other resources, specifically blogs, that are about mushroom growing? Thanks!
December 1st, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Hi,
thanks for the info.
I start to have a mushrooms compost and micelle product.
I like your spawns
December 11th, 2009 at 7:43 am
Please provide me with a quotation on mushroom seed i.e Button to be sent to Maseru and Welkom.
January 30th, 2010 at 9:28 am
It is a really helpful information about mushrooms. I live in a village and mushrooms are very important for us,
there is also a very useful guide that i got great information about mushrooms:
http://agricultureguide.org/
February 12th, 2010 at 7:28 am
Mushroom is very healty vegetable. We all like it’s taste much!
February 14th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
Can Birch logs be used here in Vermont?
February 14th, 2010 at 1:22 pm
Hi Bob, yes birch logs can be used to cultivate mushrooms but they are generally not considered to be as good as some of the thicker barked hardwoods like oak and poplar. My first try at growing mushrooms combined birch logs with shiitake mushroom plug spawn and they grew just fine and kept me supplied with large crops of delicious shiitake mushrooms for many years after they began fruiting. Good luck with your mushrooms and let us know how they produce for you in Vermont.