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.

Shiitake Mushrooms.jpgIt 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.



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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 8th, 2006 at 7:29 pm and is filed under Mushroom Growing & Edible Fungi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

13 Responses to “Outdoor Mushroom Growing”

  1. Suzanne French Says:

    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.

  2. Kenny Point Says:

    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.

  3. Greg Saunders Says:

    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!

  4. Kenny Point Says:

    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.

  5. George Weber Says:

    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.

  6. Kenny Point Says:

    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.

  7. Tony Ballentine Says:

    I would appreciate it if you can tell me where I can get Oyster mushroom spawn in South Africa.

    Regards

    Tony Ballentine

  8. Kenny Point Says:

    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.

  9. Tony Ballentine Says:

    Thanks Kenny, will give them a go

  10. Kobus Truter Says:

    I would like to now if i could purchase mushroom grow kits in south africa.

  11. Esther Says:

    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.

  12. Kenny Point Says:

    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.

  13. Neil Says:

    Hi Kenny, some info for you, there is a South African supplier of oyster etc spawn

    http://www.exoticspawn.co.za

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