- So I am Lindsey Bender.
I am the Mycologist at Field and Forest Products.
That is a small mushroom spawn company
located in Peshtigo, Wisconsin
close to Marinette, and Menominee, Michigan.
So what I'm gonna be talking about today,
is Three-Season Mushroom Gardening.
What we're gonna do,
is this is gonna be a basic presentation
covering several different types of mushrooms,
including several different ways
of cultivating or growing them.
So I thought that the cover photo today
in the shape of a heart was fairly suitable
for Valentine's Day weekend.
And it also shows a wide variety of mushrooms.
Several different colored Oyster mushrooms,
some Maitake, Wine Cap, Shiitake, King Oyster,
but all of those we'll be talking about
later in this presentation.
Okay, so at the end of this lecture
I'm hoping that you at least have a basic introduction
to all these different types of mushrooms.
Some level of interest in cultivating them
and hopefully someday you can cultivate
or harvest a basket of mushrooms as beautiful as this one.
So, introduction to Field and Forest Products.
As I said we're a small company located in Peshtigo.
We're gonna talk briefly about general cultivation rules
and then we're gonna really work our way through
different ways of growing these mushrooms
using different food types for the fungus.
So Peshtigo, Wisconsin.
It's pretty cold around here, this time of year, right?
So in terms of mushroom cultivation,
today's talk is gonna really be focusing on
Three-Season Mushroom Gardening,
starting Spring through Fall.
The two people in the photograph on the right
are Joe and Mary Ellen.
They are the ones that started this company in 1983,
and we've grown since then to have nine wonderful employees
that I'm glad to be working with.
So why mushrooms?
Obviously you guys have some level of interest in them.
Not only is there this wonderful beauty and diversity,
but there are also health benefits,
just the joy of being outside and growing something,
all sorts of different things.
So this is a really intense graph.
No need to memorize this one,
but essentially what it demonstrates
is you have a lot of options,
in terms of growing season,
there are some mushrooms that grow
really well in colder weather,
some that do better in warmer weather,
and it really depends on what sort of
fungal food you have to grow on,
as well as what season that you'd like
to have mushrooms available.
So what we're gonna do is work through those mushrooms,
from easiest to grow to more complicated ones,
and we're gonna really focus on the timing of it all,
whether they're Spring fruiters,
Summer fruiters, or Fall fruiters, or all of those.
So different fungal foods.
Really what you want to sort of ask yourself
when you're starting mushroom cultivation
is what sort of material do you have
that you would like to grow mushrooms on?
All sorts of different options starting with logs,
Oysters on straw bags,
sawdust blocks is another common one,
you can use your compost for compost beds,
woodchip and strawbeds for another sort of mushroom,
and all sorts of other things.
Although these other things are really cool and interesting
production wise and yield isn't quite
up there with the other commercial cultivation standards,
however, these are really fun and interesting.
Okay, so what kind of mushroom do you want to grow?
Let's start with this flow diagram.
This is the one that is on the handout today.
You want to start in the top left.
Do you want to do the planting yourself?
For the most part all of what we'll be talking about today
is going to be planting it yourself
or including it into your mushroom gardening.
If you'd like something more immediate
we do sell table top farms which are
sawdust blocks ready to fruit.
But for the remainder of that,
we're gonna be talking about
log cultivation, straw cultivation,
and using other resources.
So once you select a mushroom,
that's usually based on what sort of fungal food you have,
you need to acquire the appropriate spawn type.
There are several different spawn types
depending on what you need to do.
So we'll talk about these as we
move through the presentation
but I just wanted to give a brief introduction
to what spawn is.
So what we sell is a substrate that is already colonized
with the mushroom that you'd like to grow.
It's basically a seed to plant the mushroom,
which is what we call spawn.
Here's an example of a sawdust spawn.
This is our small unit.
It's basically a supplemented sawdust
that's been sterilized and then inoculated
with the mushroom of your choice.
This is often used in log cultivation.
Speaking of log cultivation,
another option which is somewhat easier to use
would be plug spawn.
These are wooden dowels that are also sterilized
and then inoculated with the mushroom of your choice.
So as I mention spawn,
it's basically this material that acts as the carrier
for the mushroom that you use in planting.
So after you acquire that appropriate spawn,
you want to acquire or get the substrate
or fungal food that you're gonna be using,
and some of those require some level of treatment,
so we'll discuss that as well.
Inoculating is basically planting the seed
of the mushroom seed.
Spawn run is that colonization time
from planting the mushroom until it's ready to fruit.
And then pin initiation and fruiting is the funnest part
because that means that you're ready to harvest mushrooms.
So you're gonna see this slide several times
throughout the presentation.
It's a good way to organize what we're talking about
and we'll be working through the substrates specifically
and then discussing the seasonality of the fruiting,
and then whether you require indoor
or outdoor facilities for that.
For the purpose of this talk,
we're gonna focus mainly on outdoor cultivation
including greenhouse and hoop house
facilities if you have those,
and mostly Spring through Fall fruiting.
We will start with the easiest mushroom to grow that we sell
which would be the Wine Cap.
Wine Cap is grown really easily on straw and wood chip beds.
It's an outdoor cultivation,
so fruiting is gonna occur Spring through Fall.
So this is a photo of our Wine Cap on the right down there.
It has that beautiful burgundy Wine Cap color.
Like I mentioned, it can be cultivated
in wood chip beds or straw depending
otherwise a combination of the two.
So let's start with woodchip beds
and we'll talk about cultivating those
or constructing the beds.
Woodchips either soft wood or hard wood works really well.
You want to avoid the aromatic wood chips like pine,
because for whatever reason those just don't work,
unless they've been either heavily leeched
or composted for at least three years.
So once you acquire those woodchips,
either soft wood or hard wood,
you want to lay down a layer.
Wine Cap does need contact with the soil,
so find an area of dappled shade to full shade works best.
You can cultivate Wine Cap in the full sun.
However you're gonna have a lot of problems
with moisture control and it's gonna require
more maintenance in terms of watering
to keep that bed nice and moist.
So once you find the appropriate location
another indication is creeping Charlie.
If you have areas with creeping Charlie,
that's a good area to plant.
(audience laughing)
Also poly-culturing with Wine Cap is great.
Squash leaves provide dappled shade
sufficient enough for a good Wine Cap crop,
otherwise you could also poly-culture
between asparagus, tomato plants,
other sorts of things, but bear in mind that
it does require that dapple shade.
So once you acquire those wood chips,
if they're moist you can go ahead and lay them down.
That first layer should be two to three inches thick.
If they're somewhat dry,
at that time you can sprinkle them with water
just to moisten them up before you plant the spawn.
If they're extremely dry, we recommend soaking.
So lay down that first layer,
then break up your saw dust Wine Cap spawn,
and just sprinkle it over the top of that bed.
You're essentially planting the seed.
And then what you wanna do,
is cover that first layer of spawn
with another layer of sawdust or wood chips.
A combination of different chip size is ideal
because that it provides,
larger chips provide longer food source,
sawdust can retain moisture
and help maintain the water content to the bed.
So once you've done that,
you're pretty much ready to go.
We recommend mulching a little bit with straw
to retain moisture,
but then basically just waiting.
Wine Cap grows fairly quickly,
so if you plant early enough,
timing is most appropriate in April or May,
you can expect fruiting later that season.
And again, if you're planting a wood chip bed,
especially with chip sizes several inches large,
those beds can last and fruit up to three years.
What you'll notice is,
fruiting is found mainly on the outer edges of your bed,
initially fruiting is fairly heavy,
and over time the amount of Wine Cap mushrooms
that are produced will sort of wane.
At that time you can rejuvenate the beds
by adding more wood chips.
Just lightly mixing them up,
and that seems to work really well.
So the other option,
is if you don't have access to wood chips,
is to use straw for beds.
Again you can plant straw beds.
We recommend especially in the Fall,
planting straw beds seems to work really well.
So I'll be discussing that option.
Acquiring straw, wheat straw works really well.
You want it to be clean and weed free.
The first step for straw beds,
would be to hydrate the straw,
and lightly ferment it.
So the photo on the bottom left
is just a photo of the tubs that we use
to hydrate the straw.
You're gonna wanna soak that for three to six days.
It allows hydration and then lightly ferment.
And the end result is rather stinky straw
with this brown water.
So we just recommend that you drain that
and then at the end you drain the water,
just let that straw dry just a little bit,
so there's not so much excess moisture.
And then lay down a thin layer of the straw,
again in a dappled shade area.
About one inch is good.
Sprinkle that sawdust spawn on their from the Wine Cap.
Another layer of straw, about two inches.
Another layer of spawn on top of that.
Essentially you're doing a lasagna layer
and then the top layer of straw,
about three inches would be good.
If you're doing this in late Fall,
moisture loss in Winter can be a problem,
and Wine Cap will have a harder time
establishing before it's too cold.
So we recommend at that time
that you put a tarp over the Wine Cap bed
and allow that tarp to stay there throughout Winter.
It's gonna maintain some of the moisture,
as well as the heat too.
Come following Spring remove the tarp
and your Wine Cap bed will be ready to fruit.
Hands down the best option though
is a combination of wood chips and straw.
It provides the fast food that straw has,
along with the longer food that the wood chips have.
And it's a good combination for holding moisture.
Again you can just layer
straw, spawn, woodchips, spawn, straw, that sort of thing.
Wine Caps are a good sturdy mushroom.
They can get very large.
They're often times called the Garden Giant.
You can also pick them in the button form.
They have a good firm texture,
and a somewhat asparagus to broccoli flavor.
One of my favorite mushrooms.
So once you plant your beds,
there's really not much maintenance.
Just maintaining water,
about an inch a week is optimal.
It's been a dry spell,
you're gonna wanna just lightly sprinkle it.
But again shaded areas seem to have
less problems with drying out.
Harvest young for mushrooms.
Because these are out in the wild,
of course there are insects problems,
so you're gonna wanna harvest them younger,
before insects become too problematic,
and often times you can be harvesting
all the way into the Fall
when you're harvesting squash.
So the next mushroom that we're gonna be talking about
is log cultivation,
and there's a variety of mushroom species,
as well as strains that you can grow utilizing this method.
Log production is done outdoors.
Again Spring through Fall.
The variety of mushrooms,
Shiitake and Oyster are probably the most well known,
but you can also cultivate
Lion's Mane, Maitake, Olive Oysterling, and Nameko.
So now what we'll do is talk briefly about log cultivation,
what you need to do and keep in mind as you're doing this,
and then we'll go through the individual
types of mushrooms that you can grow.
Log cultivation alone,
if you're utilizing multiple strains and multiple species
you can acquire fruiting three seasons Spring through Fall.
You can see that some of those species
fruit only in the Fall while others
including the Shiitake and the Oyster
you can get spotted fruiting throughout the season.
So bear that in mind if you're looking
for a full coverage thing.
Shiitake and Oyster also have several individual strains
that have different fruiting
requirements based on temperature.
So the CW in this chart stands for cold weather strains
versus wide range strains indicated by the WR,
and warm weather strains indicated by the WW.
You'll see that the cold weather strains
tend to fruit earlier in the Spring, as early as March
and later in the Fall and Winter as late as November.
The warm weather strains then,
if you include those into your cultivation,
often times you can acquire fruiting
throughout the summer in the heat of the months
when those cold weather strains
are not going to be producing.
So one of the most important things to bear in mind
when you're doing log cultivation,
is that the tree in which you're,
or the logs in which you're cultivating
need to come from a healthy living tree.
You cut logs during the dormant season,
any time from 30% leaf color change in the Fall,
all the way into the Spring just before buds swell.
The reason being, is that's healthy living wood.
Trees that have already fallen down for whatever reason,
or show signs of disease,
often indicates that there's something else
that's already moved into that log
that would compete with whatever you're inoculating with.
Not all tress are created equal
in terms of cultivation success,
so depending on the strain you would like to grow,
there are different tree species that work best.
As a rule of thumb for Shiitake,
Sugar Maple and Oak are hands down the best.
Oysters often times are successful
on some of the softer woods, so keep that in mind too.
So, how do you inoculate that wood?
Once you've cut it down,
any time during that dormant season,
you have to wait about a week before inoculation.
If you'd like to store your logs throughout Winter
prior to inoculating in the Spring, that's just fine.
We recommend keeping them outside,
covered with snow is exceptionally good
because you're not worried
or too concerned about moisture loss.
If you cut and then wait too long prior to inoculation
that log can dry out,
and that can really hinder colonization in effectiveness.
So once you've cut your logs,
we recommend a size 36 to 40 inches long
and three to eight inches in diameter.
You want to drill holes into the log
in a diamond pattern as shown on the screen,
roughly six inches across and two inches, like a row height.
You can roughly get about 50 holes per log.
So that would be a decent inoculation rate.
One of the questions then,
is what type of spawn are you gonna use?
Sawdust spawn or plug spawn as I had shown you.
Plug spawn is probably the easiest
because it doesn't require tools.
You simply take, after you've drilled the holes,
you take that plug spawn and just hammer it in,
and then you need to seal that
over the top with a plug wax that we also sell.
That essentially seals in the moisture
and keeps other contaminants from moving into the logs.
The next option then is using sawdust spawn.
Similarly you're gonna drill the holes into the log
using that pattern,
and then you can use a variety of tools
from as simple as a funnel,
and hand filling with that sawdust spawn, those holes.
Otherwise we have plenty of handheld inoculater sticks,
all the way to almost fully automatic inoculation machines.
Really depends on how big your operation is,
and how much you value efficient timing.
Inoculating logs can be wonderful or it can be a chore
if you're planning on inoculating several hundred.
So after you've inoculated those logs,
you've essentially planted the seed.
Now you have to allow that seed to grow
and colonize that entire log.
Once it's ready then,
sometime later it's going to show that it's ready to fruit.
Incubation time varies from different mushroom type,
and as well as strain.
So Oysters mushrooms tend to be a little quicker.
Some of our cold weather strains for Shiitakes,
incubation is about a year before you're ready to fruit.
This is our incubation location.
It's in our wooded area under the forest canopy.
That's good to keep it out of the sun,
and also low to the ground.
It maintains that moisture during colonization.
We also recommend that you keep them just above the ground.
You can see on the slide that we also have logs under there
just to hold them right up above the forest floor.
Otherwise pallets work really well.
So once incubation is ready,
you can manipulate those logs
into a better stacking formation.
This helps with ease of picking
and moving those stacks,
if you'd like you can form those right on pallets as well.
Here is our fruiting yard.
Again you want to do this under the forest canopy.
You're basically just utilizing that natural environment.
The shade and maintaining moisture.
And here's an example of fruiting Shiitake logs.
Here's another example of a fruiting formations.
And Shiitake's ready for harvest!
So I've mentioned Shiitakes a few times.
I think we should probably talk about some of the specifics.
Shiitake is a really meaty mushroom
with a strong garlicky flavor.
It's probably one of our best sellers,
and Shiitake's are really well grown on log cultivation.
So I already mentioned we have a wide variety
of strains available for Shiitake.
It really depends on what temperature
you're looking to fruit.
The wide range strains, our really well producers
are West Wind* and W46.
Those also have a wider temperature range for fruiting
so it allows good coverage throughout the season.
If you'd like some earlier fruitings
and some later fruitings in the Fall,
we recommend incorporating cold weather strains in,
and our Golden Oyster mushroom
is a really good warm weather strain,
that even in the mid summer
you can provide fruiting with that one.
So in terms of summer,
you can see that the orange bars indicate
when fruiting is available.
There is still that gap in the middle of summer
where natural fruiting is challenging.
Unless we have a colder summer,
often times Shiitakes will sort of
go dormant until the Fall.
However, Shiitake mushrooms in log cultivation
can be force fruited.
Essentially what this is,
is extending that growing season
when fruiting isn't usually available
by taking those logs and soaking them
in a cold water tank eight to twelve hours.
You set them back up in fruiting formation
and that initiates pin formation and full fruiting bodies.
Okay so log based cultivation of Shiitake,
in terms of inoculation time,
you're gonna be cutting that wood
during the dormant season, during the Winter,
and inoculating in Spring.
We suggest using a variety of those strain types,
but also including other type of mushrooms
you can provide more variety and extending the season.
So next another species that you can cultivate easy in logs,
would be Oyster mushrooms.
Again this one has cold strains, warm weather strains,
and wider range strains.
And also Oysters have this
beautiful variety of different colors.
Golden Oyster mushrooms,
pink mushrooms, gray, white, and tan,
So this one can be cultivated
very similar to what we talked about
cutting longer thinner logs.
If you have larger diameter logs
these can also be used for Oyster cultivation
using the Totem Method.
So for these if your diameter logs
are eight inches or greater,
inoculating using the Totem Method can be quite effective.
Here's a diagram explaining that.
Essentially what you would be doing is some time
during the dormant season you can cut this wood,
take it inside and using a garbage bag
or other large plastic barrier,
you want to put some of that sawdust spawn on the bottom,
a large diameter log section,
anywhere from twelve to eighteen inches tall,
right on top of that bottom layer of spawn.
You want to put another layer of spawn on top of that,
another section of that large diameter log,
and you're essentially forming a Totem or a sandwich,
you're sandwiching the spawn.
Then once you're done with that,
you put a thin cap or a thin layer of log on the top,
just to help hold moisture.
Take that garbage bag and close it up
very loosely with a rubber band.
You want to allow some air to move through
from the inside of the bag out
to allow oxygen and CO 2 exchange,
but that bag also forms a barrier
to help hold high humidity in there
and help that Oyster mushroom colonize.
If you do this early enough
you can put these out in the Spring
and expect fruiting throughout that growing season.
Oyster mushrooms as well as Shiitake and other ones,
log cultivation you can get fruiting for several years.
So you want to, when you're moving these logs out
again choose an appropriate environment for them.
It's outdoor cultivation so
under a forest canopy is a really great place.
If you find that there isn't much natural rain.
Watering these logs is a good idea
to keep them moist enough
to keep that mushroom mycelium colonizing the log
as well as stimulating fruiting.
So the next species that we're gonna
be talking about is Nameko.
It's much less known but very beautiful mushroom.
This one is a natural fruiter in the Fall time only.
So if you're inoculating logs,
it's a similar timing with Shiitake
in that you're inoculating some time
during the dormant season in the Winter
and then placing those logs outside for incubation
and then fruiting some time in the Fall.
Again these logs can last for multiple years.
Nameko has a really good earthy flavor
and a somewhat gelatinous material,
on the outside when the mushroom is young,
as you can see in the bottom left photo.
If you allow it to mature up,
you can get open caps like the top right photo
and it has that good texture
and can be used to thicken soups
if you'd like to incorporate that into your cooking.
Olive Oysterling is another mushroom variety,
a little less known.
Again this is a fruiter only in the Fall.
It's a much tougher mushroom
so it requires longer cooking,
but it's well worth cultivating
if you're interested in providing
a variety of mushrooms that fruit naturally in the Fall.
And Lion's Mane and Comb's Tooth.
There are two different species,
but very closely relate.
Cultivation technique is the same.
The only real difference is that Lion's Mane
can fruit in the Spring and the Fall.
Comb's Tooth is limited to Fall fruiting only.
Similar to Oysters these can be
cultivated on the longer thinner logs.
However, the Totem Method seems to work
exceptionally well for this one.
Sugar Maple seems to be the best wood type too
so if you have a Sugar Maple
then this is a great option.
Lion's Mane and Comb's Tooth have a chewy texture
and a somewhat flavor with that a little imagination
can remind you of shellfish.
So the last one that we're gonna talk about
that can be log cultivated is Maitake.
It's at the end because this one is a bit more challenging.
It's certainly worth it if you've ever had Maitake,
or Hen of the Woods.
It is a wild mushroom found in Wisconsin
but you can cultivate it with some extra work .
Grows really well on Oak trees.
A larger diameter, if you wanna cut,
we recommend roughly eight to ten inches tall,
larger diameter approximately ten inches wide,
and the process to which this,
you need to treat the substrate
is a bit more challenging because
you need to sterilize it before inoculation.
So those other logs once you cut them,
they're ready to go after about a week for inoculation.
With Maitake you need to use a pressure cooker
to sterilize those Oak sections.
So if you want to purchase Maitake spawn,
we're gonna send you a Maitake growing kit,
including these autoclavable bags.
Essentially what you're doing is
putting that section of wood in the autoclavable bag
and using a pressure cooker to sterilize for 90 minutes.
Then you're gonna allow that to cool
and then inoculate.
You would be doing this generally in February,
so that colonization can occur indoors
and by May you can do a shallow burying of this log
somewhere outdoors in a forested environment,
and harvest late August or early September
for a Fall fruiting.
Maitake is a Fall fruiter only
so if you've ever been out in the woods
and you're lucky enough to find the wild stuff
you'll notice the Fall seasonality of it.
But this one, again has an earthy flavor,
and if you crumble it over a saute' pan
you can get it nice and crispy
and that can be incorporated on the top of pasta dishes,
cheese pizzas or any other sort of dish.
Okay so that was the end of log cultivation.
Let's talk about another strategy for cultivating mushrooms.
We're gonna focus on straw cultivation
which is an indoor cultivation practice.
However if you have the facility necessary
for indoor cultivation this is the commercial way
many times people are growing Oyster mushrooms.
So that's what we're gonna be talking about.
If you do have the means to do this,
you can provide fruiting year round.
So Oyster mushrooms, we've already talked about
a variety of strains that are available.
One of the other benefits,
is you get this variety of color.
We have pink Oyster mushrooms, and gray, as well as golden,
and it makes this beautiful mixed basket
especially at Farmer's Market or on the table.
Straw cultivation with a variety of strains,
you can get the production indoors year round.
And what we recommend is to look at
a variety of those strains.
If you see the photo on the right,
those are polypropylene bags stuffed with straw.
So the straw needs to be treated
prior to growing the Oyster mushroom
which is why we're talking about it a little bit later.
This requires more effort for cultivation
but yields can be quite good with this method.
So what do I mean by some work involved before planting?
You need to do some form of pasteurization.
There are three methods with this.
You can do a cold pasteurization
which is manipulating the pH,
hot pasteurization using heat,
or a fermentation which involves soaking for several days.
Essentially this step is to make the straw selective
for the Oyster mushroom mycelium.
When it comes time for inoculation
you're basically gonna pack those straw bags very tightly
and layer every several inches
some of the Oyster mushroom spawn.
Inoculation is a matter of two to three weeks
in roughly 75 degree temperatures
and then they're ready to be moved
into the fruiting room for fruiting.
So this cultivation unlike logs
is a fairly shorter time period
and can provide more regular fruiting schedule.
With Oyster mushroom cultivation,
light is absolutely necessary.
Oyster mushrooms can get a tad leggy
if there isn't enough light.
So even in the Winter time it can be a bit of a challenge,
when our days are a tad shorter than usual.
The middle photo is an indication of another option
that you can use if you're not comfortable with
using the one time use plastic bags,
bucket cultivation is something that
we're just getting into.
It's great if you have limited space too
because they're easy to handle and also stackable.
And there's just a reminder that light is important.
So moving on from straw cultivation,
another mushroom that we can grow, or two actually,
would be our Almond Agaricus as well as our Blewit.
These are outdoor cultivations
and with the Almond Agaricus
if you have a hoophouse or greenhouse setting, that's ideal.
Summer and Fall fruiting only.
So let's talk about some of the more specifics of that.
Here's an example of a compost pile on the bottom left,
one of our compost piles at work.
If you have any sort of organic material,
if you're adding kitchen scraps,
that sort of thing,
just add it to a compost pile.
I'm sure many of you have.
There are several mushroom options
that you can grow utilizing that organic matter.
So let's do brief introduction to our Agaricus.
I mentioned our Almond Agaricus mushroom strain.
I'm sure most of you have had the white button mushroom.
This one is quite similar.
It is a different species but it's cultivated
in a very similar manner on fully composted materials.
The white button mushroom is the left,
that species is Agaricus bisporus.
Our Almond Agaricus or Almond mushroom,
is the one on the right,
and it's subrufescens is the species name.
All Agaricus species are grown on this compost,
but our Almond is special in that
it requires a higher temperature
which is why greenhouse cultivation is ideal.
So if you're planting Almond Agaricus,
you're gonna be planting that in the Spring.
It is highly sensitive to freezing temperatures
so generally this is an annual crop,
but it can provide,
it's quite a bit of work,
but it can provide substantial fruiting
throughout the growing season
especially if you have that indoor setting.
You'd be planting in May to June
and given a greenhouse setting
you can suspect fruiting
anywhere from the end of July all the way into the Fall.
Okay, so I'm just gonna walk you through
our Almond Agaricus plot that we set up last Spring,
and had quite a bit of success with as you'll see.
We actually had a turf grass area
that we wanted to put our hoophouse on.
We didn't have time to treat it or till it, or choke it out.
So we wanted to see if we were able to choke it out
at the same time as planting.
So what we did is we started,
our idea was to poly-culture in the greenhouse
because in Peshtigo our growing season is quite short,
so we wanted to poly-culture tomatoes
along with our Almond Agaricus mushroom.
So we started by digging holes to plant our tomatoes
and filling them with compost.
Our soil is also quite sandy
so we like to give those tomato plants a head start
with all that compost.
We laid down a watering hose along those lines.
We found that that's probably not necessary
because you're also maintaining the moisture of the compost.
It didn't seem that watering this way,
especially last season, seemed to be necessary.
So after you've done that,
the next step is to lay down the compost
and plant the tomato plants.
You can see that we recommend four to six inches.
To choke out the quack grass we laid down cardboard
and a mixture of feedbags that we
utilize for our grain spawn.
Lay down that layer right on top of the grass,
and then four to six inches of the compost
surrounding those tomato plants
and then the next step was to top that off
with either more feed bags,
a thicker layer of straw to mulch,
or some sort of layer that's gonna
hold the moisture into that compost.
Here you can see we're planting
the Almond Agaricus mushroom spawn.
That's simply done by just using your hand
to make small holes every six inches
and sprinkling the sawdust spawn into those holes.
You can see on the left, that then after inoculation
we've covered that back up with
either the cardboard or the straw mulch.
And then by the time you're done planting
you're really happy
and excited to make sure that those tomato plants
are gonna be successful along with the Almond Agaricus.
So two to three weeks later,
what you're gonna wanna do is maintain watering
the moisture on the top of that straw layer
or the cardboard layer.
The rule of thumb is to try to keep
the compost at the same moisture level
as when you planted, roughly 60%.
So damp but not soaking wet.
After two to three weeks
so ahead and pull back that mulch layer
or that cardboard
and check for colonization.
Successful colonization is gonna look similar to this
where you see that light white branching.
That's actually the mycelium of the Almond Agaricus
starting to spread through that compost layer.
Once you notice that compost is about 60% colonized,
you are ready for casing.
This is one of the other steps
that makes Almond Agaricus challenging
but well worth the planting.
By casing I mean,
adding a non nutritive, high moisture content layer,
that stimulates mushroom formation.
In this case we use peat moss, water,
and hydrated lime to adjust the pH.
You're aiming for a pH about seven.
What we found is a rule of thumb
is three pounds of peat moss,
three quarts of water,
and a tablespoon and a half of hydrated lime,
seemed to work out quite well
and close to the pH of seven.
After mixing that up,
sprinkle it on in a thin layer
about an inch thick,
just lightly over all of that colonized compost,
and shortly thereafter you're gonna see pin initiation
or tiny little Almond Agaricus mushrooms.
Almond Agaricus especially in a greenhouse setting,
it's quite warm, it grows incredibly fast.
Shortly thereafter you have quite the harvest.
These are adult mushrooms.
You can see that veil,
underneath the cap covering the gills.
This is a good time to harvest this mushroom
because it is excluding any other insects
or whatever from getting into that mushroom.
These can also get quite large.
We did harvest a mushroom that was about ten inches tall
and just over a pound for a single one.
Again it has the same texture as white button,
but this wonderful aroma of almond
and the flavor is incredible.
It reminds you a lot of almond extract.
So there's all sorts of possibilities
in terms of cooking with this one.
Here's a photo a little bit later in the season.
The tomatoes are already starting to turn red,
which is a wonderful sign.
I'm sure it looks quite nice to see some green
especially in February.
This Winter's been quite long.
But you can see that the almond mushrooms
are starting to fruit.
You'll see several waves of fruiting
throughout the season once this full colonization
and adding the peat moss casing material.
You'll see several fruitings like this.
Of course you've had a successful season,
so you're plenty happy with a full basket
of those Almond Agaricus mushrooms
and if you're cleaning up those mushrooms
by cutting off the stumps,
why don't you throw those back into the compost pile
and use that material for next year's crop.
Okay, so our second compost grown mushroom
would be the Blewit mushroom.
Again this is one found in the wild in Wisconsin.
It's a Fall fruiter and it has
this beautiful lilac purple color.
It's a dense mushroom with a mild flavor
similar to that of chicken of the woods,
or somewhat earthy I would say .
It is a Fall fruiter only,
and it grows really well on organic matter
or organic debris that you've kind of collected,
a mixture of leaves, grass clippings,
plant material from the garden,
as well as incorporating a little bit
of finished compost into that bed.
So what we recommend is similar to the Wine Cap.
You select a dappled shade area.
Blewit grows really well in the forest,
so if you have that habitat type,
or under a tree,
layer, lasagna layer style,
a layer of either grass clippings or organic matter,
sprinkle some spawn, add another layer,
sprinkle some more spawn,
and make a somewhat maybe a six inch deep bed.
At that point then, monitor the moisture,
mulch it a little bit to maintain the water content,
and wait until that Fall, and the following Fall,
and you should expect fruiting.
This is another one similar to Wine Cap,
in that it's also good for poly-culturing.
We had high success last season
in poly-culturing this one with squash plants.
And here's a photo,
as at the same time that we're harvesting
the squash and the pumpkin plants,
we're harvesting Blewit.
All right, so the last strategy for cultivating mushrooms,
again this is more of a commercial thing,
for most of you this is gonna be too challenging,
not in that it's challenging to grow this way,
but that it's an indoor only cultivation practice.
If you are capable of doing this
you can produce mushrooms
Spring through Winter, all four seasons.
And there are a wide variety of mushrooms
that can be grown this way,
including Shiitake on the top left,
Lion's Mane on the top right,
Oysters in the middle,
Reishi on the bottom left,
and Maitake on the bottom right.
Indoor cultivation is fantastic.
However mushrooms require high humidity
and also release quite a bit of spores,
so bear that in mind if you're considering
indoor cultivation as a practice.
The benefit though is pretty solid coverage
throughout the growing season,
and a wide variety of mushrooms.
Bottom left photo is King Oyster.
King Oyster is an oyster mushroom,
bit it's grown quite differently.
This is probably the best way to do it
on these sterilized sawdust blocks
with supplemental nutrients.
Shimeji mushroom is on the bottom right,
that's also another option cultivated mainly this way.
So this massive diagram
with timing and the schedule of planting and harvesting.
It's pretty intimidating
but it demonstrates this wide variety of mushrooms
and hopefully now that we've talked through step by step
you have a batter grasp on the timing of it all,
the options that you have,
and what sort of questions you wanna have in your mind
if you're looking into getting into mushroom cultivation.
Additional resources,
we have a fantastic interactive website,
with all sorts of introductory material.
We have all sorts of research and information there
if you'd like to take a look at that.
Otherwise we are fantastic at
answering questions over the phone.
Thank you so much for your time.
(applause)