grow mushrooms from existing?

I have found some oyster, lions mane, and eastern califlower mushrooms and would like to use these to grow more at home. I believe I saw somewhere before where someone used the stems to grow more mushrooms. Any simple videos anywhere to use. I understand it's not very likely I can reproduce the califlower mushroom.

Methods I have used to start new spawn from existing mushrooms include:

1- Set them in a glass bowl in a cupboard and let them dehydrate and drop spores. Suspend the spores in 0.3% peroxide and use to inoculate media.

Oyster mushroom spores:


Suspended in peroxide:


Three days later:


2- Chop them up and use them to inoculate media. For example by drilling holes in logs and stuffing them in, or by putting them in straw or cardboard.

3- Blend them up in water or in 0.3% peroxide and pour them over media.

4- Throw them into an old compost pile or wood debris. Or throw them around the lawn and garden.

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I have cultivated stem butts on pasteurized cardboard before. It worked until I stopped paying as much attention to it.
JohN S
PDX OR

This is an example of using cardboard:

He used the stem butts in the video to propagate the mushrooms which still had dirt/particles attached to the ends. Is this needed, or would grocery store purchased stem ends also work? Might the particles/dirt inhibit proper inoculation? Before permies, I'd thought it all had to be sterile lab conditions for people to succeed with mushrooms.

Doesn't have to be sterile. Sterile just makes it (much) more likely to get positive results.

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:He used the stem butts in the video to propagate the mushrooms which still had dirt/particles attached to the ends. Is this needed, or would grocery store purchased stem ends also work? Might the particles/dirt inhibit proper inoculation? Before permies, I'd thought it all had to be sterile lab conditions for people to succeed with mushrooms.

He's a local (for me) guy, and really seems to know his stuff. You could just buy spawn if you are worried about contamination.

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:Before permies, I'd thought it all had to be sterile lab conditions for people to succeed with mushrooms.

I am not 'worried' about contamination. I thought perhaps, the previously inoculated soil/debris might jump start the new growth, or the lack thereof might decrease success rate.

I was in the grocery store this week and they had a package of oyster mushrooms for sale. It looked like they were "moldy". What was really happening is that they were sending out new mycelia to start another spawn. I love that they do that!

I gave up trying to grow sterile mushrooms. So these days I grow only in non-sterile conditions. I figure that mushrooms were successfully competing with micro-organisms for millions of years before homo sapiens arrived on the scene.

Joseph, rather than putting the mushrooms to dry in a glass bowl, can it be a glass jar? Am I asking another stupid question?

Any container is fine... As long as it has enough air movement for them to dry and not rot. I tend to put the drying mushrooms in a cupboard, so that they don't get a lot of dust from the air settling on them.

Sometimes, I dry mushrooms on a piece of paper. The dropped spores stick to the paper. I cut the paper into 1.75" X 2.5" pieces and put one piece each into 2" X 3" zip-lock bags. Woo Hoo! Packets of mushroom seeds!!! They can be easily shipped anywhere and store for a long time... Using them is as simple as filling the bag with water and dumping it onto the growth media. I might also use 0.3% hydrogen peroxide in water if I want to decontaminate the spores a bit.

Yesterday I bought portabella babies and buttons at the grocery store. Yay!

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:He used the stem butts in the video to propagate the mushrooms which still had dirt/particles attached to the ends. Is this needed, or would grocery store purchased stem ends also work? Might the particles/dirt inhibit proper inoculation? Before permies, I'd thought it all had to be sterile lab conditions for people to succeed with mushrooms.

The dirt parts include mycelium strands, the mushroom "roots", which would be required for using stem butts - the chop this off for display in the grocery store. You could still do spore prints with them though.

I've used a paper bag to do spore prints - it works really well. You put the mushroom gills down on the paper, fold the end, put it somewhere high (for heat to dry, and so that it doesn't get disturbed) The bag has enough air to dry it, but you have to make sure that no mushrooms are touching each other, or else it's be black, slimy and stinky.

Another way to propagate mushrooms (done conservatively) would be to simply scoop up the surrounding soil/substrate that the mushroom popped up on, and transfer it to another location. Not all mushrooms work with this, nor with stem butts.

Like chantrelles and matsutakes - those have a relationship with surrounding trees that take 10+ year to create before popping up a mushroom.

"Mycelium Running" by Paul Stamets is one of the best books that I've read about mushroom propagation in non-sterile conditions. He does have the sterile lab books as well, but they didn't speak to me as much. It explains all the layman ways to have more fun with fungi.

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:Yesterday I bought portabella babies and buttons at the grocery store. Yay!

Those are actually the same (if they're brown buttons)! Spore prints with portabellas are really, really easy.

I would choose steamed and cooled, compost to inoculate. They usually like rich environments, like old manure. Compost seems like the better option for me.

Tradd Cotter has a great book out about growing mushrooms.. the easiest ones, how to in great detail, etc.

I bought a mushroom kit to grow with the kids:


When it was done in the spring, I broke it up into small pieces, and buried them in a trailer load of wood chips I had spread out under a fruit tree and between my garden rows.

This fall I kept an eye out for oyster mushrooms, but no luck. Maybe it didn't take, or maybe they'll pop up next year.

Why doesn't the peroxide kill the spores you are trying to cultivate? I have taken a jar, fit screen over the mouth and boiled. Then place a mushroom to drop spores into the water.

Why doesn't the peroxide kill the spores you are trying to cultivate?

I would hazard a guess: 3% peroxide kills bacteria and other dead, infected material. For instance when you use it on a cut, it cleans around healthy cells. I think that it does kill off single mushroom spores, but not growing live mycelial tissue. So using peroxide this way may help eliminate competition of yeasts, bacterias, anything rotten or spoiling. I am not a mycologist, just a hobbyist. Anyone have a more scientific answer?

I'd not heard of the hydrogen peroxide tip, sounds interesting.

I have heard of making a slurry with spores, water, and molasses. Pour over substrate, taadaa!

I've had good luck with taking a shovel scoop of mycelium and transplanting it to a new spot.

Joseph,
Your picture of oyster mushroom spores growing after 3 days is fascinating. I would like to know more details.
It looks like you just poured the peroxide+spore solution right onto the cut face of the log. Is that correct?
What environment was the log in (temperature, moisture, indoor/outdoor)?
What kind of wood?
Was it recently cut or had it aged?
Did the log ever fruit?
Did the spores come from your own oysters, store bought, or wild?
Have you done this technique with any other kinds of mushrooms?
-Mark, Seattle

To piggy back on the previous comment, I found a lion's mane on an oak tree last week. If I had a slice of oak tree (stump or log), perhaps I could use the same method described with the H2O2 and inoculate that with the stalk I was left with to grow my own? I just read Mycelium Running and did not leave it with that understanding. Truth be told, I did read the book right before going to bed; I likely missed that part. I think I will go borrow that book from the library again.

john giroux wrote:Why doesn't the peroxide kill the spores you are trying to cultivate? I have taken a jar, fit screen over the mouth and boiled. Then place a mushroom to drop spores into the water.

(Some species of) mushrooms make peroxide as a disinfecting agent, so they are adapted to growing in the presence of peroxide. Suitability of peroxide use might vary from species to species..

Mark Lee wrote:Joseph,
Your picture of oyster mushroom spores growing after 3 days is fascinating. I would like to know more details.
It looks like you just poured the peroxide+spore solution right onto the cut face of the log. Is that correct?
What environment was the log in (temperature, moisture, indoor/outdoor)?
What kind of wood?
Was it recently cut or had it aged?
Did the log ever fruit?
Did the spores come from your own oysters, store bought, or wild?
Have you done this technique with any other kinds of mushrooms?
-Mark, Seattle

I collected about 3 different varieties of oyster mushroom spores. Two of the varieties came from fruits on logs that I had inoculated with commercial spawn plugs, the third was wildcrafted. They were suspended in 0.3% peroxide solution and poured over a piece of log, which I think was an alder that had been cut a few weeks before. The piece of log in the photo was kept in a plastic container on the kitchen counter. I abandoned this log before it had a chance to fruit, due to a family disintegration.

this is from mycelium running. fill a burlap sack with wet hardwood sawdust or shredded straw. take 4-5 oyster mushrooms and chop up fine. mix well into the sawdust . tie off and place directly on the ground in a moist shady spot. keep moist. can pile up to 3 sacks on top of each other. drape a few empty ones on top to keep in moisture . in 2-3months the mycelium will turn the sacks white. water more. the shrooms will grow right out of the sides of the bags! i use this technique to make new wine cap beds. i break up the sacks and put under my leafy plants that give shade. then top dress w/ 2-3in. of straw. takes 4-6mo. to get shrooms from wine caps but elm oysters it only takes a few months. they leave behind a nice compost!

To keep the maggots and other critters from eating your fungi, why not set up under a mini hoop house with floating row cover?

Paul Stamets suggests cutting a piece of flesh from above the gills or near the base and placing it on agar.