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Fastest growing mushroom

 
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I've never grown shrooms.

Need advice on fastest growing mushroom in an area of garden that is damp & shaded thru out the winter. Chantrels grow off the oaks here in SoCal...


 
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Location: Oregon Coast Range Zone 8A
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If you have access to woodchips/sawdust, you might want to try King Stropharia (aka Wine Caps). This species takes the summer heat well, and should grow well during a mild, wet southern Cali winter. There is a ton of info on this website about this species, but here is a video from Field & Forest to get you started:



Wine Caps usually grow very fast, and heavy inoculations can yield mushrooms in a few months. They are the easiest mushroom to grow for beginners. Good luck!

 
Tommy Teeple
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M.K. Dorje Sr. wrote:If you have access to woodchips/sawdust, you might want to try King Stropharia (aka Wine Caps). This species takes the summer heat well, and should grow well during a mild, wet southern Cali winter. There is a ton of info on this website about this species, but here is a video from Field & Forest to get you started:



Wine Caps usually grow very fast, and heavy inoculations can yield mushrooms in a few months. They are the easiest mushroom to grow for beginners. Good luck!

Thank you. Just watched a vid about wine caps in new york city last night. Yours is more informative! Awesome & I'm going to try!!!
www.edbl.net
Ps. Tell me if you got this reply?

 
pioneer
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About to try growing mushrooms outside in sweltering and humid Florida followed by harvesting their spores for further propagation and self sufficiency.

So far Almond Agaricus and Pink Oyster are two I will be trying. Almond grows on top of compost placed on other plants so it cannot be more perfect for space saving and minimal investment, maybe I will put it under the tomatoes! Or anywhere else, who knows! Pink Oyster will be a little more tricky.

Wish I had access to more gourmet Florida mushrooms, I hear porcini has a native species here but can't find spores online. Probably my favorite mushroom too.
 
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Oysters are a great way to start.
I’d get spores for many varieties and see what works in your climate.
Field and Forest is a great supplier, but I don’t want to plug too much (no pun intended.)
 
Nicholas Roberts
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Nicholas Roberts wrote:Oysters are a great way to start.
I’d get spores for many varieties and see what works in your climate.
Field and Forest is a great supplier, but I don’t want to plug too much (no pun intended.)



I was able to grow 6 varieties of mushrooms in Colorado, using just the spores of mushrooms that I bought from Whole Foods.

 
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I have tried shitake mushroom logs in my backyard (started with just two to try it out) only to find that I grow really complicated and expensive squirrel food.  The freakin' grey squirrels in my yard eat all my mushrooms.  It seemed to produce fairly quickly if I soaked the logs...but just to watch them be whisked off by the squirrels up a tree.  They sometimes will go only partway up to have me watch them as they eat my mushrooms.  I may be a bit bitter.  Of course, I might be in a better mood about it if they didn't all eat every last hazelnut too!
 
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Erika Bailey wrote:I have tried shitake mushroom logs in my backyard (started with just two to try it out) only to find that I grow really complicated and expensive squirrel food.  The freakin' grey squirrels in my yard eat all my mushrooms.  It seemed to produce fairly quickly if I soaked the logs...but just to watch them be whisked off by the squirrels up a tree.  They sometimes will go only partway up to have me watch them as they eat my mushrooms.  I may be a bit bitter.  Of course, I might be in a better mood about it if they didn't all eat every last hazelnut too!



Two logs?!?!?!?!
You didn't grow enough.  The Hopi Indians have a saying when planting corn.  "Plant two for the rabbit, two for the rat, two for the crow, two for the deer, and two for you."  What is that, ten logs.  We always had too much when we were growing up; too much corn, apples, tomatoes, peas, chilies, strawberries, gooseberries,....you get the drift, and we are 11 siblings.  Really what we had too much of was too much work.  It takes a lot of work to produce that much food.  Speaking of work, those squirrels will out-work  you every day of the week, so work smarter.  Grow some mushrooms for them too.  Here in New Mexico 6a/6b we water the rodents all the time.  Its because if we don't, they find and chew through the drip irrigation lines looking for a water.  Co-incidentally, the snakes take advantage of this water too and do quite a good job at controlling the rodents.  
 
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I LOVE your philosophy for sharing!
 
Erika Bailey
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@Marco
I figured I'd see if 2 were too much work, and if I had to do 5 times as much work to get any--definitely not worth it.  I have 3 huge hazelnut bushes and have not gotten any hazelnuts since the first year they produced--about 7 years ago.  I think the desire to eat of the small wildlife on my in-town plot grows with the increase in food production.  They don't stop at sharing levels!
 
pollinator
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For my fellow Floridians and other hot weather dwellers...

There are Shitake cultivars that will grow in fairly hot weather. Up to around 75 degrees F.

https://www.fieldforest.net/category/shiitake-warm-weather-strains

I also wasted a lot of time and energy by not knowing that if you don't get the spawn into the logs within a week or two of dropping the tree that you aren't getting any mushrooms.



 
Marco Benito
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Erika Bailey wrote:@Marco
I figured I'd see if 2 were too much work, and if I had to do 5 times as much work to get any--definitely not worth it.  I have 3 huge hazelnut bushes and have not gotten any hazelnuts since the first year they produced--about 7 years ago.  I think the desire to eat of the small wildlife on my in-town plot grows with the increase in food production.  They don't stop at sharing levels!



Erika,

This is true!  They operate on instinct and their instinct tells them to work, work, work,...and get ready for the winter and spring mating season.  They are like my chickens in this regard, they do not have an off switch; it's go, go, go or eat, eat, eat all the time.  

Maybe you can grow mushrooms inside a coop-like structure essentially fencing the critters out.  That would take some doing and you would have to have room for that. Anything worth doing is worth doing right.
 
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I’m almost certain that porcini is a mychorizal mushroom, which would make it almost impossible to grow.
 
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