M.K. Dorje Sr.

Jon, I've been growing Indian Free peach trees in western Oregon from seeds for about 26 years now. I've also grown a bunch of other curl-resistant varieties, including Frost, Avalon, Charlotte, Patio Peach, Nanaimo, Oregon Curl Free, Summer Salish (Q1-8) and Golden Prolific nectarine. But Indian Free is my favorite. It ripens late in the season and has a unique flavor. It also seems to be self-pollinating for me as well, but having other seedlings or other varieties nearby should help improve pollination success. Like Joao said, Frost is another excellent choice for western Oregon and will help pollinate Indian Free as well.

I've got several Indian Free peach tree seedlings for sale at my mini nursery. We re-open in January. They come in various sizes, but should be a lot cheaper than the grafted ones at One Green World. I also have seeds and could sell you some at a very reasonable price. Just purple mooseage me if you're interested.

Below are some photos from my oldest Indian Free peach (26 years old) and some of this year's harvest:

Here are some mushrooms I found on the Oregon Coast last month:

M.J. Wayne wrote:I have no clue what these are. Several cedar trees, and only cedar trees, had these on their branches. Pictures were taken in spring of 2024.

M.J., that looks like Cedar-Apple Rust, a common disease that affects  both cedar and apple trees:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnosporangium_juniperi-virginianae

I have been using some Biointensive growing techniques for years, especially to grow root crops in my heavy clay soil. If you're interested, you might want to check out the book by John Jeavons entitled How to Grow More Vegetables. Here's a video that explains the double digging technique:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BTwQyNtpaE

Emily, if you can, please post some photos, especially showing the underside and gills. I would be willing to wager you have something else, but you never know. And it goes without saying, please DO NOT  eat the mushroom! Just about every edible mushroom species has lookalikes, many of which have not even been named or studied for their edibility by mycologists yet. It is NEVER safe for beginners to eat wild mushrooms until they have received advice and confirmation from an expert. We had a mushroom poisoning incident here at permies last year and I don't want to see another person get sick.

We received about four inches of rain here in western Oregon last month and have been blessed with a very productive fall mushroom season.

Thank you so much for posting this!! I really appreciate all the effort you're putting in to save the chestnut grove. I called all four contact numbers. I left a message for the first three and then I talked to Angus (sp.?) at the Chestnut Foundation. He said they were also against the construction of the AI data center and he would be contacting other members of the foundation to see if they find a way to save the trees.

Recent polls show that an overwhelming majority of Americans oppose the construction of more AI data surveillance centers. It's something that both conservatives and progressives can agree on. I hope that if enough people unite against this, we can save the trees. Keep up the good work!

Please note that I always avoid discussing politics at permies completely, but this one time, I hope we can all agree that the chestnut grove is something worth protecting.

M.K. Dorje Sr. wrote:Kara, I've had excellent luck with Summer White Oyster plug spawn on alder logs.

https://fieldforest.net/summer-white-oyster-pleurotus-ostreatus-plug-spawn/

The Summer White  strain is great for me because it fruits in summer when most other mushrooms are scarce.

I would try to inoculate as soon as possible to take advantage of the mild temperatures and fall rains. You don't want your logs to dry out at all or get contaminated from spores floating around. But normally I do spawn runs for mushroom logs in the late winter inside large plastic bags to keep moisture levels stable and temperatures between 60 and 70 degrees. But it's more important to have clean logs. Also- I always avoid grain spawn because it is like candy for rodents and they will stop at nothing to eat it!

Here's what Summer White Oyster looks like:

I think grain spawn is for starting spawn from cultures or spores. I would just stick with the plugs and sawdust spawn. Plugs are great for the hole-drilling method and sawdust works well for the totem method where you stack the logs up and wedge the sawdust in between.

Kara, I've had excellent luck with Summer White Oyster plug spawn on alder logs.

https://fieldforest.net/summer-white-oyster-pleurotus-ostreatus-plug-spawn/

The Summer White  strain is great for me because it fruits in summer when most other mushrooms are scarce.

I would try to inoculate as soon as possible to take advantage of the mild temperatures and fall rains. You don't want your logs to dry out at all or get contaminated from spores floating around. But normally I do spawn runs for mushroom logs in the late winter inside large plastic bags to keep moisture levels stable and temperatures between 60 and 70 degrees. But it's more important to have clean logs. Also- I always avoid grain spawn because it is like candy for rodents and they will stop at nothing to eat it!