How long has your winecap bed lasted

Hello!
I’ve been growing winecaps for two years now and I am thrilled with their performance. I was under the impression if the winecap beds are kept topped up with fresh wood chips then they will continue to produce. However, I have encountered information that no matter how much you feed them they will stop producing after 4-5 years. I would like to hear about your experience with growing winecaps for over 5 years without introducing newly purchased spawn. Do you have a 6 year old winecap inoculation? Any tips on keeping it going and not purchasing more spawn?

Great question, I wish I had an answer for you.

I am on year three with my Winecaps so I am no help.

Same, I'm about three years in, so no experience with older beds. I will say that I've added material every year and the mycelium has spread to the new media just fine, so I don't know why it wouldn't be infinitely sustainable.

Started mine about six years ago in the garden and moved it to the outer project. Where i inoculated the first bed my daughter accidently dumped a load of  oak shavings, it popped up there last year at 7 feet from the spot.
In the project garden i stopped feeding it wood debris for years now, just no time, and it popped up far from where i started it, i've found a load of woody stuff and dumped it on top. It rained, so if i'm faster than the snails hopefully it will grow back.

Thank you Hugo! It is encouraging to hear you have some long lived mycelium. The information I encounter that says winecaps only fruit for 4-5 years has all been written by sources that not so coincidentally also sell the mushroom spawn, so it seemed like bias information with no real supporting evidence given. My understanding would be that the mycelium just needs something to “eat” and it’ll keep going. Would love to hear if anyone else has some more supporting evidence for or against this!

I did not do enough to make it feel at home. If i were inclined to i would take a bit of mycelium from where it's obviously dominating and restart it in a bed of fresh wood clippings. Make it colonize this and respread clumbs all over. The amazing thing about winecaps is that they survive and flourish in the wild without being dominated by other wild mycilia. Although the world of mycelia is vast and it might struggle to fight and win against all of the differing species in the kingdom. So the one beating Winecap can come to domineer in a space. I think that's what happened in my case. It's a numbergame and strategical feeding could have kept mine going for a lot longer i have no doubt.
I had it in my pathways, and found it liked straw just as much, i spread spawn all over my walkways but it dissapeared somehow. Probably not enough to eat and spread too thinly.