Starting a mushroom plantation in a forest

Hello to all!

For a little while now I've been toying around with the idea of starting a mushroom farm, one that is actually capable of making some money at the end of the month. I've been interested in permaculture and horticulture for years now, but never thought of it as something that could be done for profit until a friend mentioned that mushroom producers invest relatively very little and are getting surprisingly high payments per pound of produce (particularly those who grow some species of Pleurotus).

Now, I have located an interesting piece of land near my city (I live in Asturias, Spain). It's around 7.300m2 (a little less than two acres), a beautiful creek crosses it and, perhaps what's most interesting about it, it's currently mostly covered by a forest of chestnut trees, oaks and poplar trees. So I've been thinking: would it be an insane investment to buy it (it's very cheap, it sells for less than 10,000$), and try to start a moderate production of mushrooms on it? Shiitakes, perhaps, and if I decide to go foolproof, Oyster mushrooms in greenhouses scattered among the trees? Does anybody in this forum do something of the sort right now, or has tried to do it in the past? I think that, at least as for distribution channels and potential buyers go, I will surely have a good deal of available market space. In case I decide to go for it, and before I actually invest any money, I plan on literally going store by store, supermarket by supermarket and restaurant by restaurant asking if they would be interested in buying locally-produced, organic and fresh mushrooms. Perhaps I could offer to produce and deliver certain mushrooms species specifically to cater their needs, starting small and serving just a few businesses, then expand in time.

To be honest, I'm excited at the prospect of starting a rentable business at the same time that I respect and protect a forest. But, also to be honest, I'm a 22-year old, senior Philosophy college student, with limited funds. Full of energy and willing to make a living from something else than my degree, something that allows me to pursue Philosophy as a passion and not as a business interest; unwilling to become yet another grey professor begging for a grant, but still, as I say, currently with limited funds. So, in the opinion of the most expert contributors to the forum, is this idea too risky? Of course I know it's risky, but is it too risky, perhaps? What pieces of advice could you offer for a project like this one, and, if you can, for a person like me?

Many thanks for reading! Be sure that I'll appreciate any sort of input that you may provide.

Hi Miguel,
I am no expert in mushrooms, and I don't live in Spain, but I do know that where I am in the US mushrooms seem to always do well, whether at the healthfood stores, restaurants, or local farmers markets. Another option is to dry them and sell them directly to consumers through a website, assuming you or someone you know is good at social media marketing and ad copy. Drying them would be easy and you could build your own solar dehydrator.
I'm excited for you - I think you have a wonderful possibility! I'm sure someone more experienced with mushrooms will give their thoughts.
Good luck on whatever you decide!

We have started inoculating logs with mushrooms in the forest at our new place. So far we bought spore plugs and started some food species (oyster, shiitake) but also medicinal reishi and turkey tail.

You might look into whether there is a market for medicinal mushrooms in your area as they may be significantly more valuable than the edible ones.

Another thing you might look into, considering the species present in your forest, is whether truffles can be encouraged to grow there. I don't have truffles here, but whenever I am able to get any good local mishrooms I am trying to plant them. So far I have done this with chanterelles and morels. I soak mushrooms in water and blend ghem up. I read that doing this and then with a small amount of molasses for 48 hours is even better. I need to get some molasses. Then I just pour this around in the woods. Replanting the butt end of mushrooms that might have some mycelium still attached is supposed to work too. I don't know yet if any of these methods are working as we only started doing this last month.

I know that the univerity of Kentucky extension service offers free classes on all aspects of this. there are some videos on youtube that they posted that are very informative.
ive looked into it and don't like cutting live trees down but if you have access to a place where logging is going on where there are hardwood spices that support certain varieties of fungi growth and have a way to transport the bits and pieces that the log truck does not carry away it can be a very viable income source with fairly small outlay of funds.

In our case we had a large maple tree fall in the driveway so we didn't have to kill a tree. From that we had plenty of cut logs to do all our inoculations with logs left over. I think anyone with acees to a little bit of woodland would be able to harvest enough windfall trees in the course of a year. Don't use old weathered wood, it should be fresh within a couple of months to minimize contamination by wild fungi that got established first.

Sorry, that word was access! I can't type on this phone.

this is such a great topic that got me motivated and called a friend who is connected to some loggers working nearby and may have just gotten a source for the leftovers that don't go on the log truck. said they were cutting lots of white oak, poplar and hickory
now where's that list of what types of valuable fungi grow well on what kinds of trees.

https://www.ashevillefungi.com/blogs/news/tagged/logs

This might help match logs to mushroom species.

Annie Collins wrote:Hi Miguel,
I am no expert in mushrooms, and I don't live in Spain, but I do know that where I am in the US mushrooms seem to always do well, whether at the healthfood stores, restaurants, or local farmers markets. Another option is to dry them and sell them directly to consumers through a website, assuming you or someone you know is good at social media marketing and ad copy. Drying them would be easy and you could build your own solar dehydrator.
I'm excited for you - I think you have a wonderful possibility! I'm sure someone more experienced with mushrooms will give their thoughts.
Good luck on whatever you decide!

I agree with Annie. Especially post covid when even more people than before are discovering the need for long term storage foods and keeping their bodies healthy. Culinary and medicinal dried mushrooms fit both those qualities. Here are a couple of articles on how some in the USA have succeeded. This one is about a guy who started in his basement and grew it into a thriving business. GrowingCulinaryandMedicinalMushrooms  And this one focuses on shiitake mushrooms, showing how various people grow them in different ways ShiitakeMushrooms