Eric Hanson

Conceit is Self-Confidence lacking the Self-Control to know that one has become Conceited.

I know that this is circular logic, but I think it is fair to be Self-Confident as long as one has the Self-Control to not dominate others.

Eric

Ok, If you have made it this far on Kevin's excellent thread about growing mushrooms, I want to let everyone know about my Wine Cap thread.  I am not trying to hijack this thread by any means.  Quite the contrary, it is so good that I have decided to add it to my central mushroom (especially Wine Cap) growing page.

Like I said, this is not a hijack.  I actually just added a link to this thread from another centralized thread, so since everyone here is interested in growing mushrooms, I am including a link back to that site.

https://permies.com/t/wine-cap-mushrooms#1372440

Kevin has given some awesome advice and shared some amazing mushroom growing experiences.  He even mentioned that he is documenting his experiences for others!  Great!  I hope that everyone can learn from all of our collective experiences.

Happy mushrooming!

Eric

Mary,

I have almost purchased a logrite log arch a couple of times.  It would have to be one of the smaller ones--perhaps the Logrite Junior of the ATV arch to use with my tractor.  But they look really nice and it is good to hear about their use.

Eric

Jeremy VanGelder wrote:

Eric Hanson wrote:At that point I would drill a single hole in the log and screw in a long eye-bolt.  I would attach the hook on the strap the the eye-bolt, crank away to raise the log end up and when it was high enough, I would roll the log trailer into position.  Then I simply let the log back down and the log was ready to go!

That is an intriguing idea. I suppose you leave the eye bolt in the log until you are pretty sure that you are done moving it?

Jeremy,

That is about right.  Using the eye-bolt was an easy way to move the log and didn't take too long to attach.  Now if I were moving high volumes of logs, this would be tedious and time consuming.  But as most of this was being done by hand--at least to the point where I could get it to the tractor--one more step wasn't all that much.

Eric

I don't have a convenient picture to show here, but I will try to describe a contraption that I built.

So I have previously described my log trailer--a little 2'x2' trailer with 4 wheel barrel wheels that I built out of a spare 4x4 x8.  It is designed so that it cradles a log along its direction of travel.

But how to get a log onto this in the first place?  That took some thinking.  It started with a fold-up ladder, the type that has 4 distinct folding sections and can fold away into a very compact area.  I folded it into a position that looked like a typical step ladder.  This gets placed over the log and log trailer.

The next part required some thinking:  how do I raise the log up?  I devised a little machine made again out of 4x4's that held a manual marine winch with a ratchet.  I doubled the strap up to make the lifting even easier.  I would lower the strap with a hook down to the log.  At that point I would drill a single hole in the log and screw in a long eye-bolt.  I would attach the hook on the strap the the eye-bolt, crank away to raise the log end up and when it was high enough, I would roll the log trailer into position.  Then I simply let the log back down and the log was ready to go!

I will see if I can drag up a picture for you.

Eric

I should have added, I use the company Field and Forest.net.   They are reasonably priced and great to work with.

Eric

Hi Iuval, good questions you have there!  I will try to get to these in the order you asked them.

Firstly though, I really don’t have a supply of logs that I can use.  What I have is an endless supply of brush alongside a fence line that needs trimming every 2-3 years.  This brush is not really conducive to plugging, but I can run it through a chipper and make small mountains of wood chips.

I then spread these wood chips into garden beds and I inoculate with mushroom spawn, in my case, frequently using Wine Caps, but feel free to use others if you like.

As far avoiding lab dependence, yes, it is possible and it can be done using the spores as you mentioned.  You could also harvest the mushroom but sever the “root mass”, pull it and replant its another spot.

But the easiest way is to either dig up some chips that have an active network of mycelium growing or simply add chips on top of those chips.

I will give one word of warning though.  This can be a bit tricky to time.  The fungi won’t push up a mushroom until it is starving, deprived of wood to consume.  Adding new chips AFTER a mushroom flush may not give you the desired results.

I mostly grow mushrooms for the effects they have on my soil.  I have a long-running thread HERE:

https://permies.com/t/82798/composting/composting-wood-chips-chicken-litter

This details my fungal journey and I keep it updated.  I have also included a link in the first entry to a page of other pages about growing mushrooms.  If you are really interested, I suggest starting there.

I hope this helps.  If I failed to address any point, please feel free to ask.

Eric

Mark,

You said it much better than I did.

Eric

Andrea,

Back when there were genuine American Chestnuts, they were well known for their ability to coppice.

Today, true American Chestnut trees are a thing of the past but there are some new varieties that have just been developed that should be identical in every respect to American Chestnuts except that they are resistant to blight.

Eric

Hmmmm,

Silver Maple certainly will grow fast and actually coppice well, but the wood quality is among the worst.  It has a low heating value, a high water content and therefore takes a long time to dry out.  The wood itself is weak and subject to rotting quickly.  The seeds are generally a nuisance (though they will quickly reproduce so there is that).  They are a fast growing shade tree and are probably best for that single application.  But I would not use them for coppicing unless I had no other alternative.

Eric