What Species Do You Recommend for Growing on Sawdust in the Tropics?

I live in an area where it's almost always between 60-80 degrees Fahrenheit. Usually a significant amount of humidity.

There are a few sellers in another area of the country that provide colonized mycelium blocks of different mushroom species.

We have ready access to sawdust from the local carpenter, who provides large, meter-tall sacs full of sawdust (usually of the species, Cedrelinga cateniformis)

I don't really intend to go through the hassle of pasteurizing the sawdust, and would like to use the colonized sawdust as mulch in the garden from which edible mushrooms hopefully fruit.

What would be the best species for this scenario?

Shitake would be a great gourmet/medicinal mushroom for your climate.

You would definitely want to pasteurize your wood chips and add some oat bran.

They have a fruiting temp of 70 - 85 deg Fahrenheit

But an easier mushroom to grow in a garden mulch bed would be the Winecap and they are much larger. There's a limit to how much Winecap you can consume, but they are very rich and you won't want them every day anyway...

Since you have the raw materials and climate, I would try both.

https://www.fieldforest.net/product/wine-cap-stropharia-rugoso-annulata-sawdust-spawn/wine-cap-mushroom-spawn

Scott,  I can give you two options for your situation, but generally the best option in your scenario will be the Wine Caps as William has already mentioned.  

Wine Caps tend to “self sterilize”, by which I mean that they will outcompete just about any other fungi out there.  Wine Caps tend to thrive on neglect so if you can set them up with their basic needs they should do fine on their own.

I grow Wine Caps, not so much for the actual mushroom which I consider a tasty bonus, but more for the astoundingly fertile compost they leave behind when they are done.  If you are still interested, I can point you to some more resources here on Permies.

Eric

William Kellogg wrote:
Shitake would be a great gourmet/medicinal mushroom for your climate.

You would definitely want to pasteurize your wood chips and add some oat bran.

They have a fruiting temp of 70 - 85 deg Fahrenheit

Go figure. I always thought they were for much colder areas.

Anyone know how likely failure is if you don't pasteurize your bulk substrate?

William Kellogg wrote:

But an easier mushroom to grow in a garden mulch bed would be the Winecap and they are much larger. There's a limit to how much Winecap you can consume, but they are very rich and you won't want them every day anyway...

Since you have the raw materials and climate, I would try both.

Just to clarify. We use untreated sawdust and fine wood shavings. Not wood chips.

Are Winecaps that ones that Mark Shepard in Wisconsin uses to colonize his brush/mowed tree prunings?

Eric Hanson wrote:Scott,  I can give you two options for your situation, but generally the best option in your scenario will be the Wine Caps as William has already mentioned.  

Wine Caps tend to “self sterilize”, by which I mean that they will outcompete just about any other fungi out there.  Wine Caps tend to thrive on neglect so if you can set them up with their basic needs they should do fine on their own.

I grow Wine Caps, not so much for the actual mushroom which I consider a tasty bonus, but more for the astoundingly fertile compost they leave behind when they are done.  If you are still interested, I can point you to some more resources here on Permies.

Eric

Wow. That's an excellent benefit of the WineCap. Self-Sterilizing sounds like what I'm after. Is the WineCap you're referring to the same species as the one William linked above?

On our compost pile and from the old poop bucket contents, we are getting lots of Coprinus spp. growing. If I remember correctly from many years ago (I used to be an enthusiast and used the book Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora as reference) I think all Coprinus are technically edible, but they're not really worthwhile. An interesting thing to note is that there are a lot of agoutis here, and you can feed them certain mushrooms. I'll make another post about it.

Unpasteurized substrate for wine cap is just fine. It will colonize without much effort.

Shiitake is a whole different process entirely...

Hi Scott,

Yes, Wine Caps are what William linked above and their self-sterilization is one of their best attributes.  Personally I grow Wine Caps mostly for their ability to really break down woody debris/wood chips.  The remnants they leave behind is amazingly fertile. While they are actively growing their hyphae (their “root” if you will) interact with my tomatoes, benefiting both the fungi and the plant.

Recently I had a bed that was left fallow for a year and got pretty weedy.  This spring when I pulled the weeds, the wood chips had turned into a bedding virtually indistinguishable from loamy topsoil.  The one exception was the one place where I had a piece of cardboard laying that blocked any plant growth.  Underneath there were chips that looked almost fresh.  I surmise that the Wine Cap growth and wood chip decomposition works best when plants and fungi can interact together.

Wine Caps are a good mushroom to eat but you probably don’t want to live on them.  Eating them for more than about 2 days tends to lead to an upset stomach, but I eat them anyways when I get them.

If you want to get into mushrooms, Wine Caps are a great starter mushroom.  I highly recommend it.  If you are interested, I have a long-running thread documenting my early, neophyte beginnings to now and I keep it updated so as to help others trying mushrooms for the first time.

Good Luck!

Eric

Hands down the best variety would be Pink Oyster Mushrooms. It's a native of South East Asia, so tropical. It's also very aggressive, once established it will usually outcompete mould or other contaminants. Grows well on most hardwood sawdust. In my case I have them growing on Radiata Pine (pellets). They are fast to grow, and in your climate, you would be able to harvest yeat round. Plus they are awesome to cook with.

My suggestion would be to source a local supplier of pre-inoculated grow kits and see if your growing conditions suit. Once you've mastered growing them, work backwards to master each stage.

Here's more information about the Pink Oyster, and some advice on how you would grow it. Growing Pink Oyster Mushrooms
While you are there, also check out some of the recipes for the Pink Oyster.

I would be wary of Shiitake. In nature, they grow in fairly northern latitudes. They require fairly low temperatures to fruit. So very seasonal even if you have the right climate.
Hope this is helpful. If you get some growing, I'd love to see some photos.
Brent