Category Archives: Cultivation

Cultivation, Miscellaneous, Montana Mushrooms News, Wild Foraging

Transplanting Wild Mushrooms

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October is also a great time to “transplant” mushrooms to a new spot.

 

This might be to expand your present patch or gather mushrooms

from an undesirable place and move them to a desirable place.

 

When you find wild mushrooms that are old or just in the wrong place, pick them up and move them to a new place. Choose a spot that you have access too and throw them there to survive on their own. My favorite way is to hold them just like they grow and step them into the ground! This places the stem right in the ground and the cap protects and provides added spores to help the mycelium get started. This is what I call the poor boy method, and it does not always work, but it is cheap and it has worked for me many times!

Cultivation, Miscellaneous, Montana Mushrooms News

Shiitake Growing Kit

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I recently started offering Mushroom Grow Kits on my website, so I thought I would grow one out to show how easy it is to produce fresh mushrooms indoors!

 

 

I picked the Shiitake Mushroom Patch first.

I ordered the kit on Thursday and it arrived at my

door on Monday by UPS.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then the kit had to go in the refrigerator for 4 days. After that was 4 hours of soaking in water to initiate the flush!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The humidity tent  went on and it was misted 4 times a day. I started to see life right away!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is a perfect Shiitake in my world! I harvested about 1 pound and now it will rest for a couple weeks and  I will start the cycle again. I will repeat this 4 or 5 times or until the kit only produces tiny mushrooms. Then comes the bonus…the kit will be used to inoculate some logs!

Cultivation, Miscellaneous, Montana Mushrooms News, Wild Foraging

Mushroom Puzzle

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I was taking advantage of a green cottonwood in town that had fallen. Several blocks about a foot long and 2 to 3 foot around were free for the taking. I stacked them on top of each other and was planning to split and store them to cure.

I noticed mycelium growing on the face where they were stacked together, and did not recognize the mycelium smell or look, but decided to let them grow enough to identify them.

Mushrooms are more valuable than fireplace fodder!

My guess at that time was Pholiota or honey (shoestring rot) or possibly (hopefully) oysters. The mycelium didn’t smell like oyster, but I had seen oysters growing on this tree before. The tree had rotted so honeys were possible, and pholiota grows everywhere.

 

They were Pholiota after all. I had suspected this all along, but had to verify. Their bumps, brown spores and smell of garlic gave them away!