Growing mushrooms

[Curly green finger's]

Hi, here's our attempt at mushroom growing any one else tried growing them?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I used to grow loads in the cellar under the old stables/coachouse when we lived at Waterloo house before Dad died. When the compost was spent I would cart it out and use it on the garden and borders, my mother couldn't believe it when, the following year she had mushrooms growing in between the flowers in the new Planter I'd built for her on the back garden wall.

 

[pargyle]

Hi, here's our attempt at mushroom growing any one else tried growing them? View attachment 26219

How did you grow them ? Kit ?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

How did you grow them ? Kit ?

SWMBO (who doesn't like mushrooms - I love them) decided to buy a few kits a few years ago, it's all well and good but I don't find a brace of mushrooms ready each day really amounts to a decent breakfast

 

[pargyle]

SWMBO (who doesn't like mushrooms - I love them) decided to buy a few kits a few years ago, it's all well and good but I don't find a brace of mushrooms ready each day really amounts to a decent breakfast

Yes ... I love mushrooms as well but some of the shop bought ones are pretty tsateless. I've tried the kits in the past - you get one crop from them and then they really fail to deliver. I 'd love to grow them but I've not yet found a successful method of growing them myself.

I used to holiday with the family, as a teenager, in Clwyd, at Llanfair Talhaiarn - two things I remembered most - fishing in the river Elwy for Sewin and picking field mushrooms fresh for breakfast in the cow pasture alongside the cottage we stayed in. I can still taste them ...only the mushrooms - caught a few brown trout but the Sewin were elusive ...

 

[Curly green finger's]

I used a kit chaps, the first photo was the bigger two I took for breakfast, this is our second flush and there is more growing.
Not alot to feed the family but they are very heavy and tasty!
I think the constant 12-16 c and spraying with a water bottle once a day has helped plus a little light.

 

[pargyle]

I used a kit chaps, View attachment 26224the first photo was the bigger two I took for breakfast, this is our second flush and there is more growing.
Not alot to feed the family but they are very heavy and tasty!

Trouble is ... by the time you've bought the kit it's cheaper to buy them in the supermarket if all you want is plain button mushrooms ... it becomes a better proposition if you like the more exotic varieties such as Shitake or even Lions mane which are more expensive to buy.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Trouble is ... by the time you've bought the kit it's cheaper to buy them in the supermarket if all you want is plain button mushrooms ... it becomes a better proposition if you like the more exotic varieties such as Shitake or even Lions mane which are more expensive to buy.

The kit was £2.99 reduced price, I've never tried exotic mushrooms
They don't taste like supermarket mushrooms.

 

[pargyle]

The kit was £2.99 reduced price, I've never tried exotic mushrooms
They don't taste like supermarket mushrooms.

That was a good deal then ... probably just about got your money back and a bit .... if you like mushrooms you should try some of the different varieties around in the shops now - very tasty.

 

[Murox]

Giant puff ball sliced, dipped in beaten egg and fried - wonderful, but haven't seen any wild ones for many years now. Shitake, as Pargyle says, are a good proposition if you're prepared to wait a few months after you've "planted" up a hardwood log.

 

[Antipodes]

Hi, here's our attempt at mushroom growing any one else tried growing them? View attachment 26219

Tried ...but gave up after a while as I ran out of spores and the compost was spent...

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Yes ... I love mushrooms as well but some of the shop bought ones are pretty tsateless. I've tried the kits in the past - you get one crop from them and then they really fail to deliver. I 'd love to grow them but I've not yet found a successful method of growing them myself.

I used to holiday with the family, as a teenager, in Clwyd, at Llanfair Talhaiarn - two things I remembered most - fishing in the river Elwy for Sewin and picking field mushrooms fresh for breakfast in the cow pasture alongside the cottage we stayed in. I can still taste them ...only the mushrooms - caught a few brown trout but the Sewin were elusive ...

I remember the year I bought Brynmair (1996 IIRC) it was a wonderful year for mushroom I'd gone over the mountain to hunt for some - I had a favourite spot near a place called Cenner tower (where some of my ancestors used to farm) I'd found a few but not many, but as I headed for home using another route I happened to glimpse over to an area of fields and forestry - it was actually the farm that my great (x4) grandfather William (Ap) Arthur and his ancestors farmed, a place called Helgwm. I saw what I thought were mushrooms but the whole field was covered so it looked like a fox had had a field day with a sheep's carcass. I picked so many 'shrooms that I almost filled the boot of my Peugeot 405 and the field looked no different from when I arrived.
There were so many that we picked for days, my mother (a fanatical mushroom picker) came with me the second day and when my grandmother (another mushroom fanatic) saw the haul she couldn't believe it and demanded to be taken over, she was eighty three at the time and had to be lifted over the fence but when her feet hit the grount she was zipping around the fields basket clutched in hand like a ten year old!! the inundation must have cover about ten acres, with still a good spread over twenty acres, never seen anything quite so phenomenal since.
The following year the farmer decided to 'improve' the land (it was scrubby rush infested mountain grazing) roundupped the lot and ploughed and reeseeded it - not seen a mushroom there since.
And yes, the late Sewin fishing season was always a good time for mushrooms. often a fishing trip on the river Cothi has been diverted to mushroom picking when I've found a field bristling with them

 

[Erichalfbee]

Tried a couple of times. The mushrooms came all at once.
As a child of Polish parents I spent time foraging mushrooms of all sorts as a child. Our fields here are full of field mushrooms and Blewits with the odd find of Ceps. Can’t get Stan to eat them and I remember the look of horror on his face when I tucked into a plate of Amethyst Deceivers.

 

[pargyle]

Tried a couple of times. The mushrooms came all at once.
As a child of Polish parents I spent time foraging mushrooms of all sorts as a child. Our fields here are full of field mushrooms and Blewits with the odd find of Ceps. Can’t get Stan to eat them and I remember the look of horror on his face when I tucked into a plate of Amethyst Deceivers.

Mushrooms are one of those Marmite things ... love 'em or hate 'em. 'Er indoors will eat them in another dish but won't touch them on their own. Daughter has a mortal fear of anything mushroom but her husband loves them ... his high point of visiting us is a proper breakfast with plenty of mushrooms ... sadly our grandchildren seem to have inherited their mother's mushroom phobia but I hope to convert them as they get older ....

 

[pargyle]

Giant puff ball sliced, dipped in beaten egg and fried - wonderful, but haven't seen any wild ones for many years now. Shitake, as Pargyle says, are a good proposition if you're prepared to wait a few months after you've "planted" up a hardwood log.

Some of the more exotic species do need a bit of specialist attention and a degree of patience for growing them... along with more devolved cheesemaking (rather than quick fridge ones) it's one of the things I intend to do when I finally retire and have a bit more time that's my own.

Although ... I found this on the web when I was looking during lockdown (and there were no cafes open) and the prospect of growing my own Oyster mushrooms without the faff of sterilising the medium rather appeals ... the only question that remains is can I get away with using the top shelf of the airing cupboard or should I sneak the bag under the bed and hope she doesn't notice ...

https://www.growveg.com/guides/growing-gourmet-mushrooms-at-home-from-waste-coffee-grounds/

 

[enrico]

Giant puff ball sliced, dipped in beaten egg and fried - wonderful, but haven't seen any wild ones for many years now. Shitake, as Pargyle says, are a good proposition if you're prepared to wait a few months after you've "planted" up a hardwood log.

I love them. The best mushroom available in the wild.. I had them growing near the beehives and then forgot about them when I put sheets of rubber gate matting down to stop the hives sinking into the ground. Last year they came up under the matting like giant balloons. I couldn't get at them because of the hives ontop. I was devastated! I know they grow round here though cos some guy brings me one for a jar of honey!

 

[Earthboy]

Now that you are growing mushroom, why not kick it up a notch and do this?

"In both indoor experiments and outdoor field tests, bees that fed on mycelium extracts fared significantly better than those that drank only sugar water. In caged bees infected with DWV, the researchers observed an 800-fold decrease in virus titres (a measure of the level of virus in the bee's system) among bees dosed with amadou extract. The effect was less powerful in the field, which are less strictly controlled than lab trials—colonies fed reishi extract saw a 79-fold reduction in DWV, those fed amadou extract a 44-fold reduction—but the results were still highly significant. (In other field tests, bees fed reishi extract saw a remarkable 45,000-fold reduction in Lake Sinai virus—another disease ravaging honeybee populations.)"

"It's also not clear how these extracts reduce the virus titres in infected bees. They could be boosting the bugs' immune systems. Or inhibiting the virus directly. Or affecting the way it replicates inside the bees. Or it could be something else. Whatever the mechanism, it'd be useful to understand it more fully before deploying the extracts on a wider scale. After all, there are also unforeseen consequences to consider. "

https://www.wired.com/story/a-mushroom-extract-might-save-bees-from-a-killer-virus/

 

[Earthboy]

Or this:

"A healthcare professional is behind the first new psilocybin push via the administrative route. Dr. Sunil Aggarwal, a Seattle physician who specializes in end-of-life care, is hoping to win permission from state and federal regulators to cultivate psilocybin mushrooms and use them to treat patients."

This could be a gold mine.

https://www.marijuanamoment.net/two...state-launches-amid-broader-drug-decrim-push/

 

[Erichalfbee]

Some of the more exotic species do need a bit of specialist attention and a degree of patience for growing them... along with more devolved cheesemaking (rather than quick fridge ones) it's one of the things I intend to do when I finally retire and have a bit more time that's my own.

I used to make a lot of my own cheese, wrapped in my own wax too; a thing of beauty.
Things have slipped a bit and I must get cracking again. We have a dairy farm on our doorstep for heaven's sake.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Giant puff ball sliced, dipped in beaten egg and fried - wonderful, but haven't seen any wild ones for many years now. Shitake, as Pargyle says, are a good proposition if you're prepared to wait a few months after you've "planted" up a hardwood log.

Giant puffball ......now you're talking. Last one I ate, the grandchildren had started kicking it around stan's mum's garden before I realised what it was. It tasted just as lovely with a few dents.