Hello friends! Once again I'm emerging from winter blogging hiatus just in time for the spring planting season to begin. It seems like that stretch of time between November and March has become a bit of a challenging time for me to keep up with my little corner of the internet, but I'm grateful that this time of year always allows me the opportunity to dust off the blog and get excited to share our garden adventures in the seasons ahead.
While the seedlings are still small (more on that in a later post, hopefully), @dksart and I started our adventure with a new "growing" medium this past month--mushrooms!
After getting a few big old trees taken down, it was the perfect time to finally get some mushroom spawn to see if we can grown some of our own fabulous fungi to add to our 2024 harvest. My sister was so kind as to get us the Shiitake plugs from North Spore Mushrooms as a holiday gift. I have read that they are one of the more forgiving varieties to grow, not to mention they are delicious.
We've been lucky enough to harvest some Lions Mane from the backyard on old logs in the past, but Shiitakes will be a fun one to try to deliberately inoculate the logs with! We opted for the plug spawn, but they also sell sawdust spawn that you can use in a similar manner. The process was fairly simple after we watched a few videos for reference.
Here is our basic process:
Step One: Use a drill with the proper sized bit to make the holes for your plugs. @dksart was smart enough to mark the bit with a piece of tape so he drilled the correct depth.
Step Two: While he drilled the holes, I melted the wax in an old slow cooker to have ready once the plugs were in place.
Step Three: After he drilled the holes, it was time to pop in the inoculated plugs.
Step Four: Seal the plugs with the melted wax.
Step Five: Place your logs in an area that doesn't get too much sun so they don't dry out! We've got ours next to the deck in the shade so we can wet them down during times where we don't get much rain.
And now...we wait! Apparently it can take quite a while for the mushrooms to get to the fruiting stage, especially since our logs are quite hefty. The good thing is they may fruit multiple times, so hopefully they'll be worth the wait!
A few of the other videos showed how to grow mushrooms in your garden beds as another way to not only enjoy them to eat, but also to help add nutrients back into your beds. Wine caps may be next on my list...
As always, we are just having fun and trying to learn as we go. I love not only the process but having something to look forward to watching as the growing unfolds. Not to mention the more food we can grow on our own the better, right?
I look forward to once again connecting with the @gardenhive folks and seeing what everyone else is trying to grow this year!
Shiii take it you guys are gonna have some fung...
It was either that or the time we were shrooming at Disneyland but I think that's a different community.
Haha, no magic in these mushrooms, I don't think. Unless you count being miraculously cheaper than anything you can buy.
How's the knee healing up?
Awesome idea to add mushrooms to your garden of which you actually know for sure that they are edible haha! Love the idea of growing them in your garden beds too. Looking forward to how this unfolds :>) 🍄✨💚
@vincentnijman! How are you? Yes, I don't feel very confident foraging out in the wild, so I'm happy to know these will be edible, haha!
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That is surely a nice addition to your garden. I agree, shiitake mushrooms are so delicious. The chewy texture, too.
They are definitely one of my favorite mushrooms! Fingers crossed they are happy with these logs and give us a good harvest!
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WOW! Shiitake planting sounds like fun! I'm also looking into planting of some mushrooms, but for now we're still getting our garden set up the way we want to, so this will have to wait a couple of years...
It's good to hear from you 😊 Happy gardening!
Hey there! Glad to hear from you, as well!
Yes, we are very excited for our first attempt at mushrooms. I've been thinking about it for a while, so getting the trees taken down seemed like perfect timing to finally give it a go. Luckily this set up was much less labor intensive than the usual gardening chores.
I look forward to checking out what you'll be growing this year!
Awesome way to do it, I had no idea using logs and tree stumps was an option but it makes perfect sense. Might have to try this approach myself one day — thanks!
I am finding this whole adventure quite fascinating. Mushrooms are pretty amazing when you really start to delve into them! I hope you get a chance to give it a try. I think we've got a lot of waiting for anything to really start showing on these, but I'll be sure to update the process as it goes along. :)
Aren't they just? I've seen a few documentaries and have always been fascinated by fungi when I see mushrooms out bushwalking. Was just talking with someone this morning about the underground mycelial networks of forests and the inter-plant communication they facilitate. Just amazing.
I look forward to seeing more about your mushrooms down the track! 😀
Pretty cool, always fun to try something new. Keep us posted on their progress as I may want to give it a try.
This year we will be trying a few new veggies that I know you have grown in the past and have had a lot of luck with, Zucchini Rampicante, Lemon cukes, and Candy Rooster.
I wrote these down last year, wanting to give them a go. It took me a while to find the paper I wrote them on, but I got it.
Happy gardening my friend.
I bet you'd be able to find some good logs for growing 'shrooms! These were probably a little big, but hopefully will still work just fine. I'll be so excited to see any signs of "life" that I'll be sure to post.
I hope those do well for you! I'll be looking forward to seeing how they grow in your neck of the woods. Which reminds me it's about time to plant some more seeds in the greenhouse...
It has been a long Winter and getting my hands in the dirt is just what the doctor ordered. I ordered the same kit yesterday and I'm also excited to see how we do. What species of wood did you use? I have both oak and hard maple logs that should work just fine.
You mentioned that you watched a video on the growing, I didn't see it on the site where I ordered the mushrooms from, did I miss it or did you find the video on another site?
Thanks for the info and good luck to you. We'll have to compare notes as we go along.
I suppose a link to the video would have been helpful in the post:
We used oak for ours, but I imagine the maple would work, too! I'll look forward to seeing how yours come along!
Thank you for the link. It should be fun to share how we do. With both of us having green thumbs and comparing notes, we've got to have some success the first time around.