PermaC and Mushrooms, important piece of puzzle

The way this guy uses "mushrooms" is apparently a catch-all term to cover the soil organisms and what we might think of as "mushrooms."

I suspect that the success of Sepp's mound cultures using wood are in a major way related to the fact that these "mushrooms" often thrive on wood. But there is much more.


"When gourmet and medicinal mushrooms are involved as key organisms in the recycling agricultural and forest by-products, the bio dynamics of permaculture soar to extraordinary levels of productivity. Not only are mushrooms a protein-rich food source for humans, but the by-products of mushrooms cultivation unlock nutrients for other members of the ecological community. The rapid return of nutrients back into the ecosystem boosts the life cycles of plants, animals, insects (bees), and soil microflora.

What follows is a short list of the ways mushrooms can participate in permaculture..."

See more:

http://www.fungi.com/mycotech/permaculture.html

I keep trying to grow mushrooms, no luck so far.  I guess I'll know I'm doing things right when I get some edible and medicinal mushrooms growing....

H Ludi Tyler wrote:
I keep trying to grow mushrooms, no luck so far.  I guess I'll know I'm doing things right when I get some edible and medicinal mushrooms growing....

I have a relatively extensive background with them and obtaining a successful yield. What method are you using, and at what phase in the process are you receiving difficulty?

I have tried plug spawn in oak logs.  I suspect my trouble is not keeping things moist enough. 

i imagine growing mushrooms would produe a lot of mulch and then you couldd gorw blue berries.
    i want to try to grow garden giants so i  have started cuttign my brambles up small to grow them on maybe i will have to get out the shredder and do some shredding slow work.
also he fed his fish on the maggots that feed on the mushrooms so mushrooms masses of mulch and maggots for hens or fish. and i would rather grow maggots in garden giants than leave bits of meat around the place.

    There is something i want to know about some edible parasitic mushrooms.
    Paul Stamets talks of some parasitic mushrooms being less parasitic than others, he talks of innoculating trees with cauliflower mushroom to prevent honey mushroom cauliflower mushrooms parasist trees without killing them while honey mushrooms are death to the forest. though honey mushrooms are more mortal to trees than cauliflower ones paul stamets supects that cauliflower mushrooms do for honey ones are more mortal and vigorouse than other mushrooms to mushrooms so can be used to control honey mushrooms.
      If some parasitic mushrooms are not much of a problem to trees then i would like to know if anyone can tell me how brutal a parasite the lions mane is because i would like to grow it but i dont want to be guilty of doing for forests. I would also like to know the same about ganderma lucidum. agri rose macaskie.   

H Ludi Tyler wrote:
I have tried plug spawn in oak logs.  I suspect my trouble is not keeping things moist enough.   

I trust it is not very humid in central Texas? What species did you attempt, oysters?

@rose: I cannot tell you whether or not Lion's Mane is detrimental to the trees it grows upon. It can grow on logs or sawdust though, (and I imagine other substrates that have yet to be experimented with) so it doesn't necessarily have to grow on your living trees if you want to play it safe.

kevin wheels, i was wondering if the lion mane would jump from dead logs logs onto live trees and so i would be guilty of killing the trees. I suppose we have it anyway in Spain there are so many oak trees.
it seems i have to find out if its legal to buy it, if i buy the spawn from another country. I tried puttign the first words that i thought might lead to an answer about what fungi you can import into Spain but google or the words i thought up, turned out not to give results.

I thought of leaving innoculted logs at the river edge in summer or half buried the the damp earth there. I hav ealso wondered if ti would not be sbest to innoculte the logs in autumn so as to give them a long time to take a hold on the logs before the dry season, though spring seems to be the time suggested for innoculating logs. If i get everything organised the logs cut for prtetty early spring, spring could be good.  agri rose macaskie.

rose macaskie wrote:
kevin wheels, i was wondering if it would jump from logs onto trees and so i would be guilty of killing the trees. I suppose we have it anyway in spain there are so many oak trees.
it seems i have to fin¡d if its legal to buyit if i buy the spawn from another country i tried puttign the first words i¡that i htought might lead to an answer about what fungi you can import into spain but google or the words i thought up turned out not to give results.
I thought of leaving innoculted logs at the river edge in summer or half buried the the damp earth there. I hav ealso wondered if ti would not be sbest to innoculte the logs in autumn so as to give them a long time to take a hold on the logs before the dry season, though spring seems to be the timne suggested for innoculating logs. If i get everythign organised the logs cut for prtetty early spring spring couldd be good.  agri rose macaskie.

The legalities of importing mushroom species internationally is not something that I'm privy to. Though, as per your worries about the mushrooms reaching the trees, I'm not sure how worried you should be. That is dependent on the conditions required for spore germination, what the fruiting schedule is for your area and if/when those points overlap. If you inoculate in spring and the logs/wood you're growing them on have a chance to absorb all that water, they will be fine throughout the dry season typically (maybe cover with light mulch and water occasionally)

I owuld cut th elogs a week or two or a bit more before innoculting them because i read that was wha tyou have to do if you cut them a bit bewfore innoculating them then the wood has time to lose its natuarl fungicides i read, If they are new cut then i suppose they will have plenty of sap in them so that they will be sort of wet. I  hav eplenty of ooak hta thas grown up from once coppiced trees so a lot of thinnish trunks that need thinning.
I cant depend on watering them, i live in madrid and dont get outto the garden all the time. agri rose macaskie.

rose macaskie wrote:
I owuld cut th elogs a week or two or a bit more before innoculting them because i read that was wha tyou have to do if you cut them a bit bewfore innoculating them then the wood has time to lose its natuarl fungicides i read, If they are new cut then i suppose they will have plenty of sap in them so that they will be sort of wet. I  hav eplenty of ooak hta thas grown up from once coppiced trees so a lot of thinnish trunks that need thinning.
I cant depend on watering them, i live in madrid and dont get outto the garden all the time. agri rose macaskie.

You wouldn't really need to water them often, maybe once or twice during the dry season. Just make sure there's some mulch or something to aid in creating the microclimate.

  thanks Kevin. rose.