Growing mushrooms on Willow

I have a question for you mushroom growers: is cultivating on Willow significantly more difficult that other wood types?

The only reason for this would be that willow 'stays alive' for a long time after its cut. I have access to a huge willow tree that needs frequent pollarding. I had shoots coming off of my willow shiitake, and velvet shank logs for up to 6 months after innoculation. Would anyone with experience expect this to mean the fungi will not be growing, due to the antifungal enzymes present in living logs? The logs have been out for 9 months, and no fruiting yet. I remain hopeful.

The other question would be - is it possible to 'kill' a willow log straight after cutting by soaking it extensively in water? My thinking is if waterlogged for long enough normal biological processes will stop, and innoculation would then be easier. Or are there any other ways to kill it? some kind of heat-treatment?

thanks you knowledgable folks.

Maybe the partially alive willow would be a wonderful growing medium for chicken of the woods.

S Bengi wrote:Maybe the partially alive willow would be a wonderful growing medium for chicken of the woods.

Thanks, that's a good point. I have seen chicken of the woods fruiting on an otherwise healthy-looking willow tree.

I agree using any biotrophic fungi would be better suited for living material.

If you stack your willow logs and change out the base (or have an impervious base) while pulling shoots they should die 'relatively' quickly. I've observed oyster mushrooms on dead willow one time, perhaps an easier cultivar for difficult materials.

As you pull shoots off, there comes a time they fail to regrow. Have you observed this yet? A few weeks after this should be prime time for inoculating necrotrophic fungi.

I have been trying to find some natural media to grow oyster mushrooms on here at my farm..  Nearly all of my trees are various species in the pine family and not great for mushrooms though the white fir trees seem to do alright around here with mushroom growth.

I got to thinking of willow trees as I have several dead 40 foot tall willow trees and a number of live trees that need to be trimmed back along the county road.

I did a search for "oyster mushrooms on willow tree wood" and found this post.

I was thinking of doing totems with willow rounds or rough cut willow boards and put a mix of paper, sawdust, wood pellets and sawdust spawn between the rounds or boards.  I have access to a fair bit of willow wood in the area, if I could use it to grow oyster mushrooms that wood (pun intended) be quite handy...

Willow is rated very good for oyster mushroom cultivation.  Oysters like the softer woods like that.  Willow is suitable for shiitake, chestnut and reshi also, but your yields will be lower than using other tree species.

Totems should work fine.  That’s a technique I haven’t tried yet.

Leo,

I would think that willow would make a great mushroom substrate, especially for one of the more aggressive mushrooms like an oyster.  I would bet that if you shredded them in a wood chipper the wood would be thoroughly “killed” and suitable for a wide variety of mushrooms.

I say go for it and let us know how things work out.

Eric

I have been noticing mushrooms growing quite frequently on the white fir trees here and was thinking of trying white fir for oysters, white fir is in the Pinaceae family the same as red fir, spruce, larch, hemlock etc are, and all trees in the pine family tend to be rather antifungal in nature.

There is a vast supply of white fir around here for me to use so I am also hoping that white fir will be useable for growing oysters and or lions mane as well.  I may also try "Bears Tooth" mushroom, it grows naturally on fir trees here in the PNW and is closely related to lions mane.  It is apparently just as tasty as Lions Mane and has the same medicinal benefits.

I found coral tooth growing on a willow stump, is this likely?

Coral tooth (Hericium coralloides) is found on hardwood stumps, logs and dying trees, especially in eastern North America. That would include willow. It also has a lookalike in the same genus that occurs on conifers, especially fir logs.

Couple questions: Where did you find it? Do you have a photo?

Which Mushroom grows best on a Willow stump? And how do I go about getting that started?

Oysters are your best choice. Nameko is another one for willow. Lion's mane, chestnut mushrooms and comb tooth are rated as "satisfactory" on willow. Turkey tail is another one. Stumps should be freshly cut  and free of any mold. This is best done in the early spring, but could be done now in colder climates where it rains in the summer.

There are two main methods. One is the totem method, here shown on logs, but you can modify this for stumps:



The other method is to drill holes  in the stump then fill them with plugs. (Shown in the first part of this video):



Check out fieldforest.net for more info:

https://www.fieldforest.net/category/growing-mushrooms-on-logs

Field and Forest has the best selection of spawn and they are always super helpful. Good luck!