Considerations for Wood Chip Use

Hello Permies!

I am a hobbyist mycologist that is currently just getting back into the experimentation of things, and I wanted to seek some advice and considerations.

I am currently in Sacramento County, California. We have an abundance of varied trees (oaks, willows, pines, etc.) growing here that usually astonishes visitors, and as such, every single day trees are trimmed and felled, promptly being chipped to pieces before they then get carted away someplace where they're out of everyone's way. I am very interested in the potential we have to add food to our local food bank farms and community gardens with this material.

Given the climate - very dry summers and semi-wet but mild winters - what are the most viable mushrooms for outdoor growth in the area? I am very open to ideas and reading into plans from folks with more experience than me.

I've run into the problem that nearly every last mycologist in my area is extremely busy, and I'm a bit busy myself, so I find myself needing to reach out, and I know there's no harm in trying here!

Thank you all, and let me know if you have any additional questions!

Faye, welcome to the wonderful world of posting to the forum and asking questions.

Are there any mushroom farms in your area?  What kind of mushrooms do they grow?

Are there any mushroom suppliers inh your area?

I have heard that shiitake, oyster or wine caps mushrooms might be good.

If I wanted to grow mushrooms I would work on making your soil/grow areas happy for them. As you mentioned wood chips though also shade, and other decomposing organic matter to maintain moisture.

Happy mushroom growing!

Hi, Anne! Thank you so much for the welcome and your thoughts! In our greater area, there are a few mushroom farms, though I notice a pattern where many of these are really located near the coast or up in the foothills.

Many of these focus on commercially in-demand mushrooms like Lion's Mane, Oyster, Maitake, Shiitake, and a couple others. I'm seeing a lot of common commercial production techniques when I dig deeper, plastic grow-bags, completely climate-controlled growing areas, and meticulously formulated substrates. It's good stuff!

It unfortunately isn't too applicable to what I'm looking into, but I am still studying the findings these growers share with others and trying to glean useful bits and bobs from it to apply in any context!

I've observed that some foothill-based growers can, with some difficulty, grow shiitake outdoors, and oyster is probably capable of surviving well in some outdoor grows here! Wine caps seem to be very popular with growers, but I keep noticing that comparatively very few growers out here comment about experience with them, at least in this area.

I finally tracked down a mycologist in the community that runs a storefront and engages with novices and amateurs at least during store hours, so I plan to take a notebook and meet with him today if he isn't too busy.

I have a friend who is currently getting into their third year of growing edible fungi on woodchip.

Their advice is to start with winecap.

After a couple of years of success, they are now also growing lions mane too!

It is good that you met someone local to talk with.

Ac Baker wrote:I have a friend who is currently getting into their third year of growing edible fungi on woodchip.

Their advice is to start with winecap.

After a couple of years of success, they are now also growing lions mane too!

This sounds good to me! I keep seeing a firm and quick link between wood chips and wine caps. Embarassingly, I've never properly seen one in person nor eaten one, but the overwhelming love for them and their dependability is really pushing me in that direction. I thank your friend, through you, for the experienced advice!

Anne Miller wrote:It is good that you met someone local to talk with.

Thanks, Anne! I am optimistic, although I later learned that he is available once per week, so I anticipate that it will be a bit of a busy/hurried consultation, but really I'm still so glad that the gentleman is as close to me as he is, with the drive sitting at under 30 minutes!

While I cannot give you the specifics to California, I can generally recommend Winecaps and Oyster mushrooms to be good choices for newer mycologists to grow. They both are aggressive competitors in the mushroom world and tend to do well in a variety of conditions.

Another option would require hardwood log segments instead of chips but shitake mushroom plugged logs can be done with proper moisture management. Put them in a shady spot and use moisture to encourage fruiting over time.

I succesfully grew wine cap mushrooms in plant containers that had a layer of wood chip mulch on them in the San Francisco bay area of California. They are a strong growing mushroom, and the nice thing is that you don't have to do any upkeep - they'll just grow on their own given enough plant debris to eat. The downside is that you need to harvest them as soon as they pop up, as they start getting worse after a day or two. But that's just extra motivation to walk your garden every day!

Timothy Norton wrote:While I cannot give you the specifics to California, I can generally recommend Winecaps and Oyster mushrooms to be good choices for newer mycologists to grow. They both are aggressive competitors in the mushroom world and tend to do well in a variety of conditions.

Another option would require hardwood log segments instead of chips but shitake mushroom plugged logs can be done with proper moisture management. Put them in a shady spot and use moisture to encourage fruiting over time.

Thank you, Timothy! A lot of the word around mycology circles leads me to hesitate on starting shiitake. A local grower in our foothill region complained that they took quite a while to dial in, so my plan is to consistently grow tougher species first. That said, I have some oyster cultures and will certainly look into wine caps!

Malek Beitinjan wrote:I succesfully grew wine cap mushrooms in plant containers that had a layer of wood chip mulch on them in the San Francisco bay area of California. They are a strong growing mushroom, and the nice thing is that you don't have to do any upkeep - they'll just grow on their own given enough plant debris to eat. The downside is that you need to harvest them as soon as they pop up, as they start getting worse after a day or two. But that's just extra motivation to walk your garden every day!

Chalk one more up for wine caps being a solid place to start investigating! Outdoor conditions may have less overall fluctuation in the bay, but I think the valley can't be too terribly different from out there. Thank you so much for the info on relatively their short shelf lives, as I hadn't even thought to press around for that info yet. I think that must be one of the reasons they're virtually absent from the commercial scene but all over home mycologists' discourse!

Faye Tellese wrote:
Thank you so much for the info on relatively their short shelf lives, as I hadn't even thought to press around for that info yet. I think that must be one of the reasons they're virtually absent from the commercial scene but all over home mycologists' discourse!

To be clear, they last as long as any other mushroom on the shelf. While they are in the ground, the will become woody and unpalatable after a day or two. So you should pick them as soon as you see them.