does anyone grow wood ear mushrooms/fungi?

was looking into what it takes to grow "wood ear" one place that sells liquid inoculant wants to also sell 5lb bags of oak wood dust for like $30.
was wondering if anyone is growing these and what type of substrate you're using?

I am not growing these,  but am interested in what others have to say. If it helps, these are often called black fungus in Asian markets, at least here in the U.S.

If you mean Auricularia auricula-judae then I've never seen it growing on oak it springs up everywhere here on dead elder, I have once found it on rowan. I've had luck with making a heap of dead elder branches and then plonking a few infected branches on top, it spreads very easily, but then it grows all over here so it's probably not a very fair test.

yes--black fungus, an essential ingredient in properly prepared Chinese garlic sauce recipes

They show up naturally on dead oak branches and logs (zone 6). I kind of cultivate more of them by smashing them in paste and squeezing that between barks and dead wood. Maybe you can find some mushrooms in the wild after rain and save some money.

Oh wow looking them up there are a multitude of different Auricularia  species so different ones grow on different woods. It's really hard to find information as everyone seems to lump them together but Auricularia auricula-judae is not found in the US so you can ignore my comment about elder. unless you are using a source of cultivates/imported spawn. Auricularia angiospermarum is probably what is growing on those oak logs and might be what you are being sold as wood ear.

May Lotito wrote:They show up naturally on dead oak branches and logs (zone 6). I kind of cultivate more of them by smashing them in paste and squeezing that between barks and dead wood. Maybe you can find some mushrooms in the wild after rain and save some money.

May, how well does that work? How long does it take, before they increase in number? We had a handful, last year, but I'd love to bump up their production!

Hi Carla, I looked back at pictures I took. Oak tree was cut on 2019, I saw woodears in 2020 and started spreading them. We had a wet spring and I harvested several pounds of mushrooms. Dead logs with intact bark and not contaminated by other fungi are the best.

Hmmm... I wonder if we've any of those logs left, from last year, that fruited them...

They are easy to grow indoors as well -would suggest to try hardwoods (oak, poplar, beech, etc). Works best with grain spawn (not liquid inoculum)