Dead leaves as a fruiting substrate

I was wondering, are there any mushrooms that could be grown on dead leaves? We just put 24 bags of leaves from our yard on the curb.

I'd at least use them for compost or mulch.

I believe blewitts and Stropharia rugosa annulata could grow in leaves. I haven't tried it. Not enough leaves.

I think Ken has a good point. Both wine caps and blewits can use leaves as part of their substrate.  Blewits would probably use a higher proportion.  Wine caps grow best on a substrate of mostly hardwood chips.

However, they are mostly grown outside, in a patch, because they are the types of mushrooms that require some form of bacterial interaction in order to produce well.  People have problems when they try to produce them using only sterilized methods.  Scientists don't understand the precise interaction very well, but it seems to be rather complex.  It makes sense when you think that they've been growing in nature for a million years or more.

Wine caps in general are much easier to grow than blewits. I've tried both. Wine caps are generally considered the easiest mushroom to cultivate outdoors in a patch.  

We bring in leaf mulch from other, non-botanically related plants in our community to our yard.  We try to use all leaf and plant growth as mulch in the yard.  That's the idea of permaculture: mimic nature and its wisdom, most of which we probably have not yet discovered.

Nutrition comes from the biological digestion of organic material, creating diverse life in the soil and in what you eat, then in you.
John S
PDX OR

If you fruit your cultures on a substrate of pure leaves you wont get much of a flush, maybe one or two shrooms.  You could supplement with bran or do a huge spawn to sub ratio. I think its a great idea to supplement with brown leaves or meadow grass. When you do so you add local microorganisms. The actinomycetes for instance which some strains like Port's won't even fruit without the presence of actinomycetes which are found in the compost or in the pete moss casing layer they are grown with.

Nutritional content of the sub is super important if you want all the medicinal and nutritional benefits of the shroom.

Can tree dry leaves make mushroom substrate

The mycelium grows because it is eating the substrate.  The leaves would need to have a certain amount of moisture in them to be digestable by the mycelium, so no.

John S
PDX OR

I will use autumn leaves as part of my debris mix (mostly woodchip) to encourage fungal activity in my garden pathways. I notice quite a bit of Winecap growth in these spots along with the disappearance of the leaves with time. There also, just so happens, to always be a ton of worms in these areas so I can't completely contribute the processing of leaves to just fungal activity.

I'll also see plenty of ink caps, stinkhorns, dog vomit, and other varieties of fungi in these spaces.

I'm hoping to see if Blewits will grow with this kind of material mixture.