Strategies to Incorporate Mushroom Production into Food Forests

I want to incorporate the permanent production of edible mushrooms within a food forest. One option I have considered is inoculating Inga feuillei (pacae) with Pleurotus djamor on the stumps. However, I understand that in order to maintain production, I would need to cut down a pacae every few years and inoculate the resulting stump.
My question is: besides using the stump as a substrate for the mushrooms, what other functions or ecological benefits would there be from cutting a pacae every two years within the forest?

What other strategies can You think of?

Thanks

R.

How come you want to grow it on pacae stumps specifically? It seems a quite useful tree (edible, nitrogen fixer, etc) and if I've understood it correctly, Pleurotus species can grow on a very wide variety of wood types. Do you have too many pacae trees?

Maybe soil dwelling fungi would work, like Agaricus and others—or mycorrhizal ones? I have the same issue—I want to grow more mushrooms but don’t want to cut down trees!

What about growing mushrooms in the food forest using another substrates like wood chips, straw, coffee grounds, or compost?

This way you get to keep that tree.

I'm a tree hugger and I love growing mushrooms too, so sometimes I cut down big branches off my hardwoods to grow shiitake, oysters, lion's mane, etc. I also use trees and branches that fall down during storms, checking them carefully for pre-existing fungi. That way, I don't have to cut down any big oak or chinquapin trees.

Like Ann said, there are lots of other substrates besides logs. Every single time I go out, I'm always looking for free wood chips, cardboard, horse manure, sawdust, coffee grounds- stuff like that. On public land, I also look for wild oyster logs that I can fit in my car. Oysters are also easy to grow on wood pellets (for stoves) and unsprayed straw.

if you have access to cow manure compost, you might try almond agaricus. There is a strain that grows well in places like tropical South America where it can be grown in raised beds outside. Here's a link to how to grow it in boxes:

https://permies.com/t/33807/Growing-Portabellos-wild

You also might try getting a good field guide to mushrooms or joining a mushroom club for a foray. You can really improve your ID skills rapidly this way and collect all kinds of good food and medicine in no time.

Finally, Paul Stamets has two books on this topic: Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms and Mycelium Running. Good luck!