J. Edwards

Hello Kevin,

Fowler Nursery Inc, or Sierra Gold Nurseries are both places that may be worth checking out. I'm not sure if they have them in stock, or their reputations as businesses; however, at least it's two more places that carry Krymsk 86 rootstock.

Personally for your situation, I would use the Krymsk 86 rootstock only, even if I had to wait an extra year or two.

Worst case senario,  special order it from Cummins Nursery. Cummings Nursery is worth calling up, and finding out if they can order it in. From my understanding they will take custom orders, if the order is 1000 custom grafts or rootstocks. Since thats more then you need, see if you can do a co-op type buy, with several people buying together. You can advertise on local or regional classifieds like Craigslist or Permies to see if thats an option through networking.

Since you would be buying in bulk wholesale for a custom order, you could also sell some rootstocks retail, or do some custom grafting of disease resistant varieties, known to do well in the Willamette Valley region.

Those are my best suggestions.

Hello Richard,

My suggestion would be stop turning the bedding, it stresses the worms out. The other suggestion is let the medium hold a little more moisture. If its like a rang out sponge, it might be to dry, since the medium when squeezed should yeild at least a few drops still. The worms being down at the bottom is an indictation they may like more moisture in their medium. The other suggestion to increase reproduction, is give them better quality feed. If you increase their protien content, by supplementing their food with high protien plant based foods, like blue green alge or duck weed, that should help. One other thing, make sure the bedding is a pH of 7. Always adjust your bedding to 7 pH days befor adding your worms. Since most bedding is slightly acidic, garden lime works to neutralize the pH, and it provides some healthy minerals in the bedding.

Hello Carla,

I see why your suddenly nervous, not knowing what you've gotten yourself into. I really depends on what you purchased, that will determine what you do with them. Was it spawn you purchased or fruiting blocks? Fruiting blocks are typically ready to fruit once fully colonized, so then just fruit them out, by following the fruiting instructions for that species. If it's spawn you purchased, thats a whole different story, and one that will involve lots of work. Since not all the mycelium species you purchased prefer Oak as a substrate. That means you will need to find or make, appropriate substrates for the mycelium species, and make that substrate ready for innoculating. The Reishi depending on which particular species you bought, prefers various types of hemlock logs. The Puffball depending on what type, may require a substrate mix of various things, and everything else may do well on Oak, though Maitake grows with Oak, it doesn do logs from my understanding. Turkey Tails will grow on Oak, but from my experience, they really like Alder logs better, if its an option.

You may need to store your spawn in the refrigerator, while you do some resurch, and get your substrates in order. Logs are fairly easy to do, but it gets more complicated when the mycelium species prefers a mix substrate to fruit on, especially if that process requires pasteurization, which most mix substrates do at minimum for best results.

If you are set up to steralize and inoculate fruiting blocks, you may prefer specialized substrate mixes, customized for each species, to speed up colonization and fruiting production: Though that may be lengthened by outdoor temperature conditions.

I would recomend in depth researching at least the Puffball and Maitaki, because those two may require substrate mixes for best results. The others can be used for innoculating logs, with the appropriate log species selected. I would check the scientific name on your reishi variety, and make sure the hemlock available in your area, will work for it.

Those are my best suggestions, besides resurching the products, before you buy them : ) Oh the power of the buy now button.

Hello Dee,

I would look into The cold hardy Camellia Sinensis, and Gogi Berry. They both will grow in half shade, and if you like green tea or Gogi berries your in luck! There are plenty of other options I'm sure; however, those two should work just fine. The Gogi is deciduous and the Camellia should be evergreen.

Hello Priscilla,

It's not so much space, as it is available forage, and that available forage changes with the seasons, in addition, to other environmental factors, like unusual changes, droughts or extreme temperatures which effect vegetative regrowth. Forage is measured in animal unit months or AUMs, meaning enough forage dry matter and digestible nutrients/protein to sustain the average cow for 1 month. There is even an average weight around 1000 lbs if I'm not mistaken, and a AUM equals about 25 lbs of adequate dry matter forage per day for one month. Dry matter means dry forage with no moisture, and this dry matter forage must be quality enough with digestible nutrients and protien content enough to sustain a healthy cow. Of course different animals have different needs, so sometimes certian animals like Bison do better on lower protien contents, meaning what may be considered low quality hay for a beef cow, will be adequate for a Bison, so knowing your spacific species and or breeds exact nutritional needs, can help asses if your available forage will be adequate. There are averages and conversions, that let you know baised on average weight, how many sheep, goats or other animals will average one AUM. Most herdsmen get good at evaluating standing forage, and will base each grazing rotation length on the forage in the paddock when they turn the livestock out in that feild. You can measure a feilds dry matter content, by cutting and drying a measured proportion, to the desired graze hight, then drying it in an oven, to weigh the dry matter, and multiplying your test area, to meet the dimensions of your full paddock.

Once you know your dry matter content of the particular paddock, you will know how many AUMs you have, at that point in time. Then evaluating the different forage species, their average percent of the given dry matter they make up, and their individual nutritional values, like digestible nutrients and protien content: which typically all very depending on the different forage crops stage of growth. You can then asses if you will need suplemental feed, to make up the difference in any nutritional short comings of that paddocks available forage.

If you use the same large paddock, like say 10 wide open acers, for 10 goats, the goats will over graze the desirable forage species, and change the pasture dynamic, which typically destroys the feild quality and biodiversity in your pastures. This is why most people are switching over to rotational mob grazing, with daily paddocks that have one days forage. Goats left to their own devices, will over graze browse species, and those shrubs will die off.

I personally can't answer your question, without knowing your exact environment, and even the uniqueness of every individual season as it comes, including the types of forage available, and their individual stages of growth relating to nutritional quality; however, hopefully I've pointed you in the right direction to calculate that for yourself, and how to best manage your feilds, to maximize forage, by using rotational mob grazing, which alows lots of healthy regrowth before regrazing, while still keeping forage quality high.

If the goats average about 100 lbs each, the10 goats, depending on their size and breed, equals about 1 AUM, but remember breed can dictate needed forage quality. So dairy goats, like many conventional breeds, won't do well on all forage, as they need high quality feeds; however, there is one meat breed that does well on all forage, and its the Kiko goat.

Hello Su Ba,

More diverse compost means, a broader spectrum of nutrients incorporated within. Different sources of organic matter, often accumulate different micro and macro nutrient densities, based on the plant species, and the plants part used in making the compost. Those different nutrients can effect how your compost breaks down and can also have some effect on the biome present in your compost The biome in compost can also shift depending on the stages and age of the compost. If you understand your compost ingredients well, you can make custom compost with a targeted nutrient profile, based on the nutrient characteristics of the ingredients you add, to target spacific nutrient needs of a soil: that is if you also understand how the environment of your composting situation, may also effect those nutrients in the course of making the compost. Personally I prefer diverse compost, but all compost made with healthy ingredients is good, and I would use mono compost too, without hesitation. Horse manure makes a great mono compost, and its easy to find in bulk. That same mono compost also makes great worm bedding, feeds the soil biome, and will be a great base compost/mulch layer to diversify from with other available imputs.

Hello Fredy,

Yes you can stack them vertically, though it may present more of a challenge keeping them hydrated in that orientation. In nature the logs or stumps that stand vertical, and get inoculated by whatever means, still have an extensive root system, that is in ground contact, to wick water up into the stup/log, through capillary action, which provides adequate moisture to establish the mycelium. How ever you orientate the logs isn't as important, as understanding the dynamics which may effect the substrate hydrology, to maintain optimal mycelium moisture levels in your logs. Maybe have a shallow catch pan under the contact end of the logs, like some turned up visqueen about 1 inch deep, so the water hangs around a little longer, to compensate for any lack of surface area or ground contact, that would naturally increase the hydration potential, from other forms of orientation.

Its all just temperature, moisture, atmosphere exchange, preventing infection and light cycles: if you already have an adequate substrate. Meet those needs as desired by your spacific mycelium, in the required developmental stage, and not many other factors equate to much regarding successful production. Just make sure when fruiting comes, they have room to fruit out, without drastically contorting the fruiting bodies.

Hello Kelly,

Typically there are mushroom buyers, that buy from harvesters, you could sell to at wholesale prices. You may need to travel to their location, to sell them in bulk, but they will buy at bulk wholesale prices, which aren't typically the best option if you have the ability to market them yourself. My suggestion to maximize your net gains, would be market to restaurants in more distant towns, maybe with a one time or weekly delivery schedule. Find restaurants that do seasonal menues or seasonal specials to create enough of a weekly market, to be worth the travel to that location. You'll typically get better prices for fresh mushrooms, and restaurants typically are a good customer. My other suggestion would be, check out various farmers markets in any towns you make deliveries to, and see if any farmers market vendors will buy your mushrooms, to bolster the varieties of produce they carry: as sometimes those extra specialty items, increase the sales of their other produce. Once you have established enough sales to make delivery profitable, you can expand on those sales to maximize your travel efforts to that location. Typically there is a big city within a few hours of most locations, and those areas are where I would recomend consolidating your marketing efforts for fresh delivery.

Hello Andrea,

There are bushing varieties of Mulberry, that if im not mistaken, some get to a max of about 10 ft: though I'm not sure how they rank on the flaver scale, as different varieties, don't all tast equal. In the sections limited by height, the bushing Mulberry will save you lots of work, and be healthier for the bushes. Goji Berry may be another crop to consider, and it stores well for long northern winters. My experience from a permaculture perspective, less annual maintenance is better. Annual topping, also known as pollarding or coppicing, is high maintenance, its also typically not good for the trees overall long term health. That annual topping only increases your work load, and when the reward for that extra work, is less fruit production, it's not really mutually beneficial. So in true permaculture fashion, there typically is a better option available, that you and your trees/bushes, will be much more productive with, and with less unnecessary work.

Hello Samual,

I would recomend a soil test to know with certainty whats happening in your soil. Sometimes to much of certian micro and macro nutrients can give the symptoms of deficiency, and without testing to determine exactly whats happening, the problem can go from bad to worse. This means even with pinpointing the nutrient symptom, you still need to determine whats the exact cause trough testing. Unfortunately putting chuncks of refined iron and copper in your soil, complications the diagnosis, as it could easily be applied to heavily, or have other advertise side effects that alter pH, or stress the soil biome effecting nutrient uptake or utilization. Thats why it's always best to use amendments that occure naturally or are at least frequently used for agriculture applications, which also have known safe rates for general and spacific applications.

Thats my best suggestion, baised on the circumstances, and will get you difinitive answers to solve the problem, without further unnecessary or unwanted complications, that could further compromise the health of your tree.