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             The Gardener Guy of Tulsa, Oklahoma

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Growing Mushrooms

First, here's how I grow mushrooms on logs: I buy mushroom spawn plugs and insert them into freshly cut hardwood logs. The spawn plugs (which look like short pieces of wood dowel) are prepared in a controlled environment so that they have been inoculated with a specific fungus, one that will grow - in my case - shiitake mushrooms, which are the fruiting bodies of that fungus. Each wooden plug is about a quarter of inch in diameter and three quarters of inch long. I drill holes the appropriate size and tap the plugs into the logs, about 6 inches apart in rows that are 4 inches apart. I seal the plugs with food-grade wax to keep other fungal spores from invading my logs. I keep the logs outside in a shady spot, leaning against trees.

It is important to use logs that are freshly cut, not from dead trees that might have been already colonized by other fungi. I use oak or poplar, but other hardwood trees are also acceptable. Fruitwoods like apple are not good, nor are evergreens like pine or hemlock. The fungus spreads throughout the log, and, at a certain magical moment, decides it is time to reproduce. Then mushrooms erupt on the surface of the log, grow, and I harvest them. Were I to leave them, they would eventually produce spores, their way of reproducing.

I generally start mushrooms in the winter for a number of reasons. First, I've been told that logs that are cut when the sap is down tend to last longer than those cut in summer. I also have much more time now than I do in the summer and doing anything vaguely garden-related in mudseason helps my state of mind.

Last fall I went to the mushroom spawn-producing facility of George Vaughan in Athens, Ohio. Vaughan has been producing mushrooms for his company, Mushroom Harvest, since 1996. His facility is relatively high-tech with autoclaves for sterilizing, hoods for controlling contamination, etc. His products are certified organic and contain no material from China or elsewhere overseas. It is a small, mom-and pop type operation that works well in rural Ohio.

Vaughan confirmed what I already knew, but that worries some would-be mushroom growers: there is almost no chance of getting poisonous mushrooms on your logs. Most poisonous mushrooms are soil-dwelling, and look nothing like shiitakes or the other mushrooms you might want to grow. But, Vaughan added, that anyone who is going to grow mushrooms should have a field guide to eliminate any doubts. The National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms is the one he recommends. He told me that although it is unusual, the Deadly Galerina, a poisonous mushroom, can grow occasionally grow on logs. It is a small orange mushroom that looks nothing like the mushrooms I am growing.

If you are interested in starting up, you may contact Vaughan by going to his web site, Mushroom Harvest, by e-mailing info@mushroomharvest.com, or by calling 740-448-7376. The cost of 100 spore plugs is $9.00 or 500 plugs for $18.00. His catalog says that 100 spore plugs will inoculate two 4-inch by 4-foot logs, though I usually do 3 logs with a bag of 100. The more plugs you use, the quicker the colonization of the logs, and the quicker you get results. We learned that we could even "force" shiitakes to bloom by soaking logs overnight during the heat of the summer, getting a bloom a week or so later.

Other varieties now being sold include Reishi, Oyster Mushroom, Lion's Mane, Chicken of the Woods, Maitake, Brick Tops, and Chaga. What is particularly of interest to me is the possibility of growing morels, the most treasured of wild mushrooms.

According to the Mushroom Harvest catalog, you can buy a kit that can inoculate an area of your yard to grow morel mushrooms in the soil. "Inoculation should usually occur between June and October. A bed site can be prepared with peat moss, sand and gypsum, or you can simply mix spawn into a campfire or burn-pile site. Being one of the most unpredictable species, fruiting usually occurs in 50% of established bed sites. In addition, it may not fruit until two years after inoculation." Still, that sounds very exciting to me. The cost of the kit is $20.

I don't buy lottery tickets. The odds of wining are too low for me. But I do bet on getting mushrooms, and have had great success over the years. And although I watch my pennies pretty carefully, I think I'll take a chance and order up a morel kit this summer. I'm generally lucky.

Henry Homeyer is the author of 3 gardening books. His web site is www.gardening-guy.com.