Putting out mushroom spawn in winter

So I got all my beds topped off before the holidays with fresh wood chips. I think that they won’t do much in the cold weather if I put the spawn out now but would the colder weather hurt it?

Long story short I’ve had and still having surgeries from a wreck and would like to get this chore done sooner rather than later if it won’t hurt anything.

Thanks

Oh I’m 8a/8b kinda right on the line in central texas

If you are in 8 then you should be just fine. I have experience with growing mushrooms in 5 and with the compost. At the farm I worked at we grew Shitake, Lions Mane, and Oyster.
I suppose you should elaborate on what kind of mycelia you are trying to cultivate??
You could always try to mulch over it with leaves or something else that would promote the growth and keep a layer of insulation on it.
If you put it outside in your garage to acclimate to the temps gradually, then the fungi will cist up and they will survive the colder temps (unless it's a delicate cultivar).
Hope that helps

Good Growing

Winecaps. No interest in the produce I can’t stand mushrooms. Just wanting to break the wood chips down as quick as possible.

If it's wine caps you'll be just fine. Those are all over here in Wisco. I will tell you that you should offer those up to a neighbor or sell them for a few dollars to help recover the cost of the spawn. People love those things!  
They love straw too.

Remember you can always add Nitrogen to help with the breakdown.
Carbon + Nitrogen = decomp. Urine is a great source, Old skunky beer, or really hot/raw animal manure if it's clean of chems and meds.
I would stay away from ammonia.

Joe,

I think that this should be a good time of year to get your Wine Caps started.  And yes, they are great for breaking down wood into nice, fertile, usable garden bedding.  I would think that the relatively cool days would be the perfect time to get the fungus growing in the bed.

Good luck on your project and keep us updated.

Eric

Ok cool. Thanks for the info. I will go ahead and order a few bags of spawn. And yea I won’t let the shrooms go to waste. Friends and family someone will be happy to have them. Or maybe even slurries. Typically I just use random mushroom for that tho.

I have no idea what mushroom I used for wood chip before just something that was growing already.  I’ve just read so many of Eric’s post about winecaps being ravenous decomposers that I want to give it a try.

I got way behind on compost this year and also didn’t get any leaves from outside the property so this will be a major factor in the garden this year. I’ll be lucky to get more than 5cft of compost and essentially no leaf mold.

So I got my order placed. 10lb of winecaps. I had initially heard that field and Forrest was a good place to order they were slightly cheaper with .5 lb more in each bag but wanted almost 21$ to ship. I looked at a few other places that didn’t have them listed or were out of stock. So I settled on mushroom mountain. $25 for 5lb with free shipping.

I will need more but that’s for later if I get the additional beds done soon which may or may not happen.

Joe Hallmark wrote:So I got my order placed. 10lb of winecaps. I had initially heard that field and Forrest was a good place to order they were slightly cheaper with .5 lb more in each bag but wanted almost 21$ to ship. I looked at a few other places that didn’t have them listed or were out of stock. So I settled on mushroom mountain. $25 for 5lb with free shipping.

I will need more but that’s for later if I get the additional beds done soon which may or may not happen.

I would suggest you go to your local supermarket. Find the organic mushrooms. Look at where they are from. Usually they are semi-local. Get a hold of them and ask if you can get some of their compost (spend growing media). It will still have active mycelia in it.  Usually you can get it for a song.
That way you are helping solve a waste issue. You can usually get a whole lot more for your money!

I agree with the suggestion for finding local mushroom farms to get their spend compost.

Our daughter gets all she wants for free.

Hmm I haven’t really thought about that. Certainly is worth some checking into. Thank you

I did a job where they had a mushroom farm right down the road. They sold their compost but it was cheap even for a very large load. I never got any because I was hours from home.

Will research that for future needs

Well the spawn arrived today. I guess I assumed it would be considerably more colonized. Is this typical? I’m attaching a pic as best as I could get it but it’s kinda hard to show through the package.

Most of the Winecap spawn I have received has been heavily colonized.

Morel spawn I have ordered has been much less.

I'd let that baby cook for a while, the mycelium should fill it pretty quick.

Ok let’s pretend I’m not absurdly impatient and didn’t put them in the chips like 3min after they arrived…. How would one do that? Just put them in the fridge for a bit?

There is a lot that goes into it. The "proper" way would be best described by this link - https://storables.com/articles/how-to-store-inoculated-spawn-bags/

The big thing is the temp/humidity to encourage mycelium to run. Winecap mycelium is aggressive and tends to be forgiving.

Hypothetically if you did spread them into chips before the bag was fully colonized, you will still probably get some mushrooms but in a much smaller footprint. Once you get a flush, you can then use the fruits to then innoculate new spots via their spores in the cap.