Wow great discussions, came across this forum completely by chance. I have been glued to the sharing of all your experiences on wine caps. Last summer I was bitten by the mushroom 🍄 bug so decide to jump in. Decided to try little of this and little of that so.....did couple buckets with blue oysters, inoculated about 8 logs with shitakis about 4 logs with lions mane and yes.....a bed of wine caps. So far haven't been to successful but I believe that the best is yet to come especially with the wine cap bed😁. All that being said just a small rundown of how and where it all stands today.
1- Blue oysters buckets (2) didn't do so well got couple of small flushes but nothing close to what I've seen. Does that mean I will not try them again. WRONG. More reason to try again and learn from that experience, loved the taste and texture...little nutty, earthy and wow sauteed with onions the best.
Method- Took bail of straw and put handfuls in a 55 gallon drum and used a weed wacker to break up strands into about 2 to 3" pieces. Then did a cold pasturiezation
Process with hydrogen peroxide soaked the straw over nite wrung it out and stuffed buckets with it layering spawn in between. Buckets had 1/4" holes around for fruiting and holes in bottom for drainage. Put the lid on put in crawl space and waited. Couple weeks buckets were loaded with mycelium and started seeing pins forming in the holes, so far so good. Took the buckets outside and that I believe where it all went down hill from there. Think they dried out and struggled from that point on.
2- Inoculated logs with shitakis plugs and lions mane spawn. Logs have been in the woods since early summer and hopefully this spring will see some action. Can't wait for the lions mane.
3-And now my wine caps, again all this happened with no previous experience so don't be to rough on me just want to join in and hopefully give little help (doubt that) but also gain knowledge from mushroom novices like myself. I like the light hearted conversations and examples you guys are giving because there's a lot of science out there that frankly puts me to sleep and gets my head spinning. So.....for my wine caps I chose an area close to our gardens but an area that is mostly wild and full of russian olive brush and etc. Dappled sun and shade. Found a suitable pocket and went to town about 2 feet wide by about 10 feet long irregular shape thru some cardboard down some hardwood chips spawn then did it again about 3 layers watered each layer then topped off with chips and straw. We had a very dry summer and watered best I could. Was actually little concerned but kept my fingers crossed. Would peek under the straw now and
Then didn't seem to be to encouraged. Well its been about 6 months now and the mycelium growth has been crazy😁😁. I'm hoping for great things this spring. Of course tho if something can go wrong it will the other day I was out working on our greenhouse and saw my wife's chickens in my mushroom patch just having a good old time 😤. Not a good moment right there, almost had fried chicken that night. Anyhow my fingers are cramping up and I'm excited to expand the mushrooms to other areas of the property with pockets through out the woods and then let the grandkids go mushroom hunting.
