Last winter I buried a bunch of rotting wood into small hugelcultures. The hugelcultures are on a very dry, windswept hillside. Despite their positions and the lack of rain this season they are busting with mushrooms. I also grow shiitake mushrooms on my farm and it got me wondering if mushroom cultivation could be achieved in this manner constantly?
Paul Stamets has commented about how when he finds a mushroom in the forest and takes it home, he finds it growing on his property the next year. Trailing spores > mycelium > fruiting mushroom bodies.
John S
PDX OR
Scott Stiller wrote:Last winter I buried a bunch of rotting wood into small hugelcultures. The hugelcultures are on a very dry, windswept hillside. Despite their positions and the lack of rain this season they are busting with mushrooms. I also grow shiitake mushrooms on my farm and it got me wondering if mushroom cultivation could be achieved in this manner constantly?
Do you know what kind of mushrooms they are?
How deeply covered is the wood? What with? Anything else growing there? I'm curious if the fungi are soil fungi or wood fungi.
I don't know what kind they are but I wished I did. The thing is this is a really degraded piece of land that had no hummus, no goodness. Now with a mix of rotten and fresh logs there's life under the surface. I'm really itching to get some inoculated logs in this and other areas to see what happens. I planted cabbage in March. It has survived a very hot and dry summer in full sun and elements. Now it's going to head. At its base there are mushrooms growing out of wood I buried eighteen months ago. Purely amazing!
That's very cool, I can see why you are excited. I think mushrooms that grow on logs will grow if the logs are buried but not too deeply. I don't know what the maximum or optimal depth is. Would love to know how deep the soil is where yours are growing. If you take photos we might be able to ID them too.
Thanks Rose. I snapped a couple pics this morning. I dug ditches and buried the longs in the bottom and started stacking. The logs just under the layer of dirt are the ones sprouting mushrooms. Thanks for your reply!
Could be a parasol mushroom (you know not to eat anything unless you positively ID it yourself right?). I thought Parasols grow in soil, but t'internets tell me decaying matter also for some species. It could be that you have created the right microclimate for them with the hugel either way.
I have found Stropharia aeruginosa growing in the hugel mound! Not edible but very pretty. Plenty of people use buried logs for cultivation and certain species (like hardwood reishi I think) are supposed to enjoy it better than above ground. Especially in dry areas, it should help.
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