Fungi Perfecti, Let’s grow some mushrooms

I have been sitting on the fence for a couple of years now and I finally made the decision to order some mushroom spawn. Fungi Perfecti is the company of Paul Stamets, also the author of multiple books on mushrooms. He is generally considered the authority on growing mushrooms.

Some of his books.

• Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World
• Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms
• Mushroom Cultivator: A Practical Guide to Growing Mushrooms at Home
• MycoMedicinals: An Informational Treatise on Mushrooms
• Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World: An Identification Guide

If you only have a few hours to spare, I strongly encourage you to read, Mycelium Running. It is an absolutely fascinating book. You will have a whole new appreciation for the power of Mycelium.

At any rate, getting back to this year. I bought three packs of hardwood dowel spawn. One each of Phoenix Oyster, Shiitake, and Chicken of the Woods. The Fungi Perfecti catalog has mushroom spawn in several different forms.

• Sawdust impregnated bags, these are totally self contained bags that only need watering.
• Hardwood dowels, dowels with spiral grooves that are being colonized with mycelium
• Sawdust spawn. This is meant to be driven into logs with a special tool, although you can use it in other ways.

My original thought was to use some logs from my brother-in-laws house. He lost a huge number of trees last year in a storm and his house is nice and shady and borders a large wooded area. However, I will probably have to set up something closer. The pamphlet that comes with the spawn, states that I will need to pay a little attention to my logs. I will need to keep them watered and somewhat protected.  In the end, I will probably split up some of the spawn between his house and my own.

I have been talking about logs and you may be a little confused. With the hardwood dowel spawn, you simply drill holes into the side of logs and pound the dowels into the holes. The mycelium grows out of the dowels and colonizes the log. Seems simple enough.

I’ll let everyone know how my little mushroom adventure turns out. Fruiting usually takes 6 – 9 months. Since, I will need to wait until after our last frost, it is unlikely that I will get mushrooms this year. If you want more immediate results, you can order the kits I previously mentioned and have mushrooms in your own kitchen. I think my favorite, is the Espresso Oyster which can be grown in coffeee grounds, and can have mushrooms in as little as 3 weeks.

In closing, I want to point out that Fungi Perfecti’s service was exceptional. They immediately sent an order confirmation and a shipping confirmation later that day. I received my mushroom spawn only 2 days from the shipping confirmation. Want to try it out on your own? Visit Fungi Perfecti for more information