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Growing edible mushrooms other than oyster and shiitake..?

 
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Hello there, I've been growing mushrooms for sale at the market for a long while now. For better or worse, the secret is out with regards to how easy it is to grow shiitake and oyster mushrooms at home, and it's a lot harder to make money off of them because when I go to market I'm one of 15 or 20 people with their own mushrooms. I'm wondering if there is a way to grow other edible, exotic mushrooms at home or on one's property. I'm purchasing three inoculated oaks for truffle production, but I won't see truffles for about 5 years with those so I want to produce other mushrooms — chanterelles, hen-of-the-woods, porcini, portobello and especially, especially matsutake mushrooms. I actually don't eat mushrooms at all, by growing them and selling them is how I will be able to afford to purchase a farm and live the life that I want to live.
 
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why not grow Morels? grow morels

you can find spawn for many mushrooms, just do a search for fungi perfecti or just mushroom growing kits

Redhawk
 
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Morel is the third i'm attempting to grow. The first 2 being the same as yours.

Portabellas. Not sure how they grow (media, climate, etc), but thats one we buy. Its so big you can turn it into a veggie burger on its own. Heck, you could sell them cooked at the market if they allow that.
 
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I have three named varieties of morels and one unknown variety. One kind is from the Morel Habitat kit. It’s much cheaper to buy syringes and sterilized grain bags. I have 8 more three pound bags started. They cost about 50.00 total.  I started the habitat about a 18 months ago and the last a few weeks ago. I hope at least one of last years planting’s produces this year.

Bryant, did you try the kit and did it produce?

I planted some blewitts about a month ago.
 
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Lyudmila-
A lot depends on the individual climate you are in.  Some grow better outside, others inside.  Some are easy to gather in some places. Some are difficult to gather in nearly all places. In some places, it is difficult to gather very many to sell at all.  It also depends on how big your inside space is and how big your outside space is.  Do you own it? Then you can change it.
John S
PDX OR
 
Bryant RedHawk
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I have done one kit of morels but I didn't follow their directions to the letter, instead I started the spawn in an area I had already prepped to grow them, so the spawn took off fairly quickly.
I hope to get around to doing at least one more kit of morels to have enough every year to dry some for later use.
 
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Hey Lyudmila, welcome to permies :)

I've read about cremini/portabello and it seems like that venture wouldn't pay off very well as the market tends to be a bit saturated. (white button is the most cultivated mushroom after all)

Along with a few others that replied, I'll also be trying to grow morels this year. From what I've read, they have a symbiotic relationship with Elm Trees (probably a few other trees to) and around here Elms were the pioneer trees planted on all the farmsteads, so I'm hoping I'll get a patch created.

You could try reishi or maitake, as everyone wants to make a tea out of those these days. I'm not certain on the proper way to grow them, but it likely will be similar to shiitake.

Something easily forgotten is that you could sell a different type of oyster. If your market is filled with white oysters, trying growing blue, yellow, pink or king oysters - this makes the assumption you have an indoor setup though. There are usually 3-4 different colour of peppers in stores, all of which sell well. Cooking has a lot to do with colour&presentation and if you are the one offering a product that deviates from the norm, people will come to you so they can cook with produce that stand out.
 
Ken W Wilson
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There are two types of morels that do not seem to  need a symbiotic relationship with trees.  Morchella rufobrunnea and a black morel, Morchella importuna.  They are also called landscaping morels. They should theoretically be easier to grow than varieties that need trees. I haven't been growing them long enough to know this from experience.

http://www.mushroomexpert.com/morchella_rufobrunnea.html

http://www.mushroomexpert.com/morchella_importuna.html

If anyone is interested, I’ll find the links to buy the spores and sterilized grain.
 
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How about king stropharia mushrooms?

Anyone at the local markets selling those?
 
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