A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

Looking to start growing mushrooms

Anyone here ever had success growing mushrooms on wood, compost or coffee or ? in this hot dry climate? If you know someone please give me their name.

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Permalink Reply by Bob Campbell on April 2, 2013 at 8:40am

https://www.facebook.com/FungiForThePeople

Permalink Reply by Matt Miskinnis on April 2, 2013 at 10:18am

from what I've seen on youtube, it takes a long time to grow mushrooms, but what the hell, go for it - if you can in this climate that is.

Permalink Reply by Chris George on April 2, 2013 at 10:30am

Hi David....I also have mushroom growing on my urban farm project list. I understand oyster mushrooms are successful here, not sure if they are being grown indoors or out though. There are kits for sale at Whole Foods.

Mark Rhine of Rhibafarms is growing mushrooms, I think they are Blue Oyster, I assume that is being done indoors or in their greenhouse, not sure what media he is using, but they grow their sunflower and pea shoots on coir.

Try posting your question on the Valley Permaculture Alliance forum, or do a search there and you'll find any and all discussions from over the years on growing mushrooms if it has been mentioned as a topic.

I was at the last Master Gardener class (the herb presentation) with the AZ Herb Association, missed seeing you. Also missed seeing you at the Garden Pool install last Saturday, we installed a pond, planted 12 or more fruit trees and built a greenhouse. Bob K. from your Master Gardener class was there too.

Permalink Reply by David Schwinghamer on April 2, 2013 at 11:54am

70 miles round trip for me

Permalink Reply by Chris George on April 2, 2013 at 11:59am

It was only about 55-60 miles for me ;-), but I wanted to see the pond liner install...funny thing was I ended up missing most of that building the silly greenhouse on the other side of the yard (by silly, I mean 'Harbor Freight' and their weird instructions and parts...). We had to go to Home Depot for more bolts just to finish the thing...

Permalink Reply by Sheri Schmeckpeper on April 2, 2013 at 12:32pm

I've grown mushrooms in my lawn, in a terrarium, and in the garden. Never on purpose, though. So, yes, they will grow here, but getting the right kind to grow might be a good challenge.

Chris, I got to hear a lot of stories about the workday. I wish I could have been there!

Permalink Reply by Chris George on April 2, 2013 at 12:39pm

Sheri, we missed you at the Garden Pool workday...I left at 6pm and they were still working....a very long day (we started at 9:30am...! There are loads of pictures posted from the workday....check them out if you haven't already. And, sorry I didn't make your Cluck and Ducks class the other night....hope to see you soon.

Permalink Reply by Sheri Schmeckpeper on April 2, 2013 at 12:43pm

We looked at the pictures. Teamwork makes a big difference when working on projects. It looks like a lot of good work got accomplished!

Permalink Reply by Bob Campbell on April 2, 2013 at 9:01pm

I picked up a bag of Happy Frog potting soil and some Bountea Fungal Activator. The Happy Frog soil has a lot of different beneficial fungus in it and the activator helps to create the right ecology. I've been brewing 50 gallon batches of bacterial based worm casting & compost tea. Now I'd like to start brewing a fungal based tea. The compost tea has been terrific for transplanting my seedlings.

I have a couple yards of wood chips that I want to inoculate once I get a good strong mycelium going in the Happy Frog soil.

Permalink Reply by Bob Campbell on April 3, 2013 at 12:27am

David you opened this discussion at a time when I too have become very interested in fungi. We probably have different reasons, but that's OK. This is an easy method for experimenting with eatable mushrooms. I'm sure there are other media to grow on, maybe some other media would be better, but for getting started this looks easy and inexpensive.

Permalink Reply by David Schwinghamer on April 3, 2013 at 1:07pm

Bob,

Are you into eating or getting a silly head high?

Permalink Reply by Bob Campbell on April 3, 2013 at 3:31pm

@David - No I'm building the mycelium in my soil with fungal based compost tea. I recently posted an article on my blog that you may find interesting. It's not about mushrooms but if you garden in the soil too I'm sure you will find it interesting.

In general fungal soils serve woody plants (tomatoes included), shrubs and trees. But all plants benefit from some fungal hyphae.

I'm also growing various strains of bacteria, yeast, and protozoa, and feeding them well so that my soil community will thrive.

I make about 50 gallons of compost tea every week. Some of the ingredients I use in my super tea are Fruit Pulp, Kelp, Fish Hydolysate, Oatmeal, Yucca, Soybeam Meal, Humic Acid, and Rock Dust.

It can get pretty expensive to make this tea, so most of the time I make a simple molasses, worm casting and compost tea. The fungal based super brew is just a special treat for my underground friends - I'd apply that about every 3d or 4th week.

One of the things I am doing is starting fungus in a 2 yard pile of wood chips. Once I get it going in there I should be able to simply mulch with the wood chips and let nature take it's course.