# Mushroom cultivation



## cdub (Oct 9, 2008)

The recent thread on wild mushroom photos reminded me to post photos of the edible mushrooms I am growing. I really want to get into the whole cultivation process but I don't have the money or space for the equipment, so I bought a "kit" which includes compost that is pre-inoculated with spores and upon arrival in the mail is nearly fully colonized by the mycelium. Add a little wet peat moss to the top and presto! Mushrooms! The first crop or "flush" of mushrooms came exactly 15 days after I received the kit in the mail. See the progress below. I don't know why my images are links instead of photos, but whatever. 

Anyone else cultivate edibles? (the culinary kind, not the psychedelic kind!)

Compost & peat moss mixture after 4 days.






Mushrooms at 14 days. The little shrooms called "pins" started appearing about day 10.










The first harvest!





I now have more mushrooms that I can eat! I guess I'll bring some to work and share.


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## swamprad (Oct 9, 2008)

Very, very cool, I'd like to try this, too!


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## Hien (Oct 9, 2008)

Too bad, nobody is growing straw mushroom in the States.
The fragrant, flavor & taste is heavenly, it is really better than all other mushrooms on this earth.
Not the watery, canned version that taste like paper which are served in asian restaurants.
The fresh harvest ones are big egg shape, the flavor is sealed in even after cooking, then the flavor is release when you take a bite.:sob:


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## Candace (Oct 9, 2008)

I send a mushroom kit to my MIL every Christmas. But she lives in Eureka, CA where the climate is cooler. She puts them in her garage and they go nuts. She's a vegetarian so enjoys them greatly. Fun stuff. Just stay away from the wild ones ;> My aunt, who has Down's Syndrome, ate a bunch of wild ones and that was not a good time, I can tell you.


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## Ron-NY (Oct 10, 2008)

there are some very tasty wild mushrooms...I have a bark pile that I inoculated with puff ball mushrooms. I also love morels....mmmm. These are the only 2 that I am super comfortable collecting.


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## goldenrose (Oct 10, 2008)

I sent kits as gifts for Christmas one year too! I ordered from an outfit in Oregon, or maybe it was Washington state?


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## NYEric (Oct 10, 2008)

I eat the wild ones, I just touch them to my toungue and if they sting then I chuck them.


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## John D. (Oct 10, 2008)

Ron
Do you (or anybody else) have a recommendation on a good identification guide for wild shrooms?


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## Candace (Oct 10, 2008)

Yes, a good guide with photos would be an excellent Christmas gift for my MIL, so I'd second the request for a recommendation. Although a guide wouldn't have helped my aunt LOL as she was shoving whatever she could find in her mouth.


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## charlie c (Oct 10, 2008)

John D.

I have "Mushrooms and Toadstools" by Else and Hans Hvass that I've used for years (and I'm still alive). It is a reprint from 1974, but a Google search turned a number of sources.

It's relatively small 4.75 in (11.5 cm) wide, 7.25 in (18.5 cm) long, and 5/8 in (1.5 cm) thick. Easy to tuck in a pocket when out in the field. Lots of accurate colored illustrations and diagrams. Used to carry it when I did a lot of stream fishing for trout. Brings back pleasant memories of wild trout and mushroom and fiddlehead fern dinners. And I'm with Ron-NY. love those big puffballs.

charlie c


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## Jorch (Oct 10, 2008)

Neat! i've tried one of those kits before too 

About christmas gift.. can someone recommend a good website for ordering these mushroom kits? I'd love to order one in the states for my friend and her kids (who is in San Francisco) for Christmas.  TIA


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## NYEric (Oct 10, 2008)

Argh, memories of carrying my Orvis 2 weight around for lunchtime practice! :sob: 


charlie c said:


> Used to carry it when I did a lot of stream fishing for trout.
> charlie c


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## goldenrose (Oct 10, 2008)

Jorch said:


> Neat! i've tried one of those kits before too
> About christmas gift.. can someone recommend a good website for ordering these mushroom kits? I'd love to order one in the states for my friend and her kids (who is in San Francisco) for Christmas.  TIA


I've gotten kits from them a couple of times & would order again!
http://fungi.com/kits/index.html


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## Candace (Oct 10, 2008)

I've ordered my kits from Charlie's Greenhouse. They run around $40 with shipping. You get a box of pre-inoculated mix and they grow like crazy. I think I found the same exact kits that Charlie's carries for a bit less last year. But I can't remember off-hand where I got them...they were the same exact kit.

But, I like the site Rose linked to. Much more varieties to choose from. Maybe I'll give them a try this year.


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## Leo Schordje (Oct 10, 2008)

Rose,
That link you provided, http://fungi.com/index.html is the website of Paul Stamets - he is THE EXPERT, world wide on cultivating edible & medicinal mushrooms. His main business is geared toward providing expertise and pure innoculum of medicinal and uncommon culinary mushrooms for large commercial mushroom farms. He produces these hobby kits as a secondary business. He has written the most detailed and in depth cultivation guide availabe in English. His online store has the better field guides, and a left over fact from his graduate college days, he was at one time the world leading authority on identifying Psylocybes mushrooms. :evil:

Rose, you hit the jackpot in terms of the best technical site to get into Mushroom Growing in the USA. 

Hien, I did not see Straw Mushrooms on the list, but if this site doesn't have them I believe for a price they would get or create spawn for you. They have spawn available of a number of other Asian mushroom species. 

Leo


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## kentuckiense (Oct 10, 2008)

Those look delicious. I must try this.


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## Eric Muehlbauer (Oct 10, 2008)

I've grown both shiitake's and oyster's from kits...while its fun, the cost of the kit never matches the value of the yield....This summer my son convinced me to pick some Boletus out at my LI place. They turned blue the instant they were picked...not a good sign for anyone picking mushrooms who is long out of college..... The messsage on the internet sites generally said "avoid any Boletes that turn blue..." Take care, Eric


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## Jorch (Oct 10, 2008)

Thanks for the link and info!


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## Hien (Oct 11, 2008)

Leo Schordje said:


> Rose,
> That link you provided, http://fungi.com/index.html is the website of Paul Stamets - he is THE EXPERT, world wide on cultivating edible & medicinal mushrooms. His main business is geared toward providing expertise and pure innoculum of medicinal and uncommon culinary mushrooms for large commercial mushroom farms. He produces these hobby kits as a secondary business. He has written the most detailed and in depth cultivation guide availabe in English. His online store has the better field guides, and a left over fact from his graduate college days, he was at one time the world leading authority on identifying Psylocybes mushrooms. :evil:
> 
> Rose, you hit the jackpot in terms of the best technical site to get into Mushroom Growing in the USA.
> ...



Leo, a lot of the mushrooms have been used as food & herb in Asia for longevity.
Now, scientists find out that many of them are anti-cancer, lower cholesterol etc.., may be that explain the longevity part. If you cut the chance of having cancer..& other diseases , obviously you live longer.
For example wood-ear mushroom keeps the blood runs smoothly & not clotting, less chance of stroke and heart attack.
Unfortunately, most if not all asians , myself included, who live here adopt western diet or ingredient, and left out the traditional ones.


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## smartie2000 (Oct 11, 2008)

yummy...i love fungi of all sorts. I've gotta try a kit I just had dried shiitake in my dinner


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## Heather (Oct 11, 2008)

This is very cool. A great gift for my sister's BF for x-mas. Thanks for the head's up! 

(I'm only *just* starting to like mushrooms at age 36. The smell of them sauteing made me ill as a child and it's been one of the hardest foods for me to overcome, but I'm learning to. Hence, though, I had no idea these kits existed! Very cool!

Next on the list to learn to tolerate=beets...BLECH!)


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## biothanasis (Oct 11, 2008)

WOW!!!! I was thinking of this a couple of years but I did not have the faintest idea on how to do it!!!! I hadn;t searched eighter on this matter... but as I and my girlfriend love them too much, we are defiantely going to grow some! Is there any kit for european "candidates"??  Thank you...


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## Heather (Nov 13, 2008)

Okay, so I got this for Jane and she's wondering about the watering:

"Hey, Directions say no tapwater unless boiled...quick question tho, if i filter with Brita, it removes 99% of the chlorine, so that should be ok right?"

Any clue? I thought distilled would be okay but she said it said "no distilled" in the directions.


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## cdub (Nov 13, 2008)

I guess it depends on the variety and source of the kit, but I used tap water and I still got a load of mushrooms. Who knows if I had used distilled if the crop would have improved.


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## Leo Schordje (Nov 13, 2008)

boiling the water sterilizes it - that is the key, no wild fungi spores


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## Heather (Nov 13, 2008)

Thank you!


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## Rick (Nov 15, 2008)

There is a cool mushroom cultivating place near me (in Summertown, TN) called Mushroom People. The owners name is Frank and is very knowledgeable on just about everything "fungus".

I have been consulting with him a bit lately on the use of fungi (including edibles) for waste water treatment and solid toxic waste degradation.


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