Woodchip without fungi is like a sea without fish - Ben Raskin, The Woodchip Handbook

I had a small woodchip bed in my last garden and I successfully grew Wine Cap Mushrooms. It was a small bed, 4 feet by 4 feet. Now I have over 800 sqft of woodchip and growing. I know over time, it will naturally produce many wonderful and random fungi, but I want to speed up the process, like stocking a pond with fish. The first thing I’ll do is add Wine Cap spore. Ben Raskin suggests Stropharia, Reishi, Lion’s mane, shiitake, maitake, oyster, morel . . . And his chapter is aimed at commercial growers using woodchip as a substrate. So not all of those are suitable for an urban back garden. Oyster for instance, would grow well in a plastic bucket full of chip with holes drilled in the side and as far as I know, morels are total mystery. I’m more interested in creating great soil, happy plants and the odd mushroom. So suggestions welcome. Have you used spore on areas with a deep woodchip mulch? Any recommendations for North Eastern US?


My Wine Cap bed


First Wine Cap


My sea of chip

Edward,

Don’t mix the Wine Caps with the Oysters.  They will wage chemical warfare on each other and it becomes mushroom WWIII—nobody wins.  Each fungi by itself, especially the Wine Caps, will sort of “self sterilize”—outcompete other mushrooms in favor of itself.  

I also want to try oysters but all my beds are infused with Wine Caps.  I need to find a new place to build a bed.

As for the other types, they will work on their own, but take longer than Wine Caps.

Great job on getting the Wine Caps in the first place!

Eric