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Mushroom plugs and kits
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Message 1.Ìý
Posted by calculad (U3607616) on Saturday, 24th September 2011
I just noticed a few mushroom plugs/kits for sale in Kings Seeds catalogue.
I tried a kit a few years ago and it was useless.
Never tried plugs though.
Has anyone had any luck (bad or good) with these.
I'm tempted to try the plugs.
K -
Message 2
Posted by Papa Nopsis (U14479902) on Monday, 26th September 2011
If you do just a little more calculading you will realize that now is the ideal time to go mushrooing in the woods, a temperature of about 70*f/20*c, warm soil, and leaf litter thoroughly dampened beneath the tree canopy.
There are plenty of mushrooms about but we had one golden spell at the beginning of september, which was slightly earlier than the usual mushrooming time.
Don't waste another cent on kits or plugs; They are a foolish fad although those with little experience of the natural world would enjoy them.
Go out to the countryside armed with Phillips book on Mushrooms, or Tom Volks
mushrooming website (a US university site; mushroom spores are the same world over) and do some identifying.
Growing mushrooms is simulated indoors with great precision, and is no easy task. Commercial growers have many long years of experience and tradition dating back to the 1950s and before.
One man I had the misfortune to encounter, believed that he could grow mushrooms outside and earn a living from it. OCD. -
Message 3
Posted by Papa Nopsis (U14479902) on Monday, 26th September 2011
That should get you started.
Always sample a small quantity of mushroom, after identifying it,
and wait over night to be sure of its edibility.
Any other tips ask Gar/ Papa nopsis -
Message 4
Posted by calculad (U3607616) on Monday, 26th September 2011
Thanks for the replies. Although I have quite a lot of experience of foraging, I don't have the confidence in my ability to identify wild fungi. I have eaten young puff balls and the hedgehog mushroom, but they are so distinctive. I think its one of those skills you need to learn by accompanying an expert.
The bottom line is, these things can kill you so they are not worth the risk to me.
I have tried with several good identification books.
Hence the post.
K -
Message 5
Posted by Papa Nopsis (U14479902) on Monday, 26th September 2011
If you know hdgehog and puff ball, you are well in to the subject.
Tom volk's is unwell and his website is not what it was.
Phillips "Mushrooms" is the authoritative book on the subject, with lithographic digital photography all through.
About £15 and worth every penny. It isin my kitchen every year at this time.
do you like "Cep" (penny bun)? Heinz 57???!!
you can hardly go wrong with them, and always plenty about in the early autumn. -
Message 6
Posted by farmerSteve (U2644680) on Tuesday, 27th September 2011
I have gathered wild mushrooms for years
But I would NEVER EVER advise anyone to go out foraging unless they have had expert tuition
some mushrooms are incredibly dangerous
some you will not get ill symptoms for 48 hours by which time you are dead unless you have a liver transplant
other just make you very sick but you will be ill for a week
and a simple yellow stainer may just make you ill for a day while your partner will happily eat a second without any discomfort
saying that if you get the right ones the taste is so good you will never eat another cultivated one again
do not rely upon books or the internet as a guide as smell comes into it as well -
Message 7
Posted by Papa Nopsis (U14479902) on Tuesday, 27th September 2011
Rather like a farmer saying that deer are vermin. If you don't want anybody poking around your woods, then you know what you have got to say
Even then it is curious how farmers do not like wild crops. Farmers who extract their own honey are few and far between as well.
RELY on printed text or e-text in the first instance; make sure you understand the
jargon/terminology. "Lactose/Lactates is one i always look for since most lactating mushrooms are either not tasty or not good, mildly poisonous.
If Steve's post were translated in to French or Spanish they would laugh like drains! I'll give him three which is a high score.
I take foraging seriously and identification procedures seriously too, and so do many other people at this time of year.
Yeasts and spores are of the utmost concern to the good kitchen and cook. -
Message 8
Posted by Papa Nopsis (U14479902) on Monday, 3rd October 2011
This year's Indian summer and dryness means there are few mushrooms about in any quantity.
Saying that the wood which I use for specimens has MORE species in it than i have ever seen in one small wood land area, but none of them worth picking for the table.
Generally the recent dryness in England is reducing the value of foraging, mushroom "hunting". -
Message 9
This posting has been hidden during moderation because it broke the in some way.
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Message 10
Posted by Papa Nopsis (U14479902) on Tuesday, 4th October 2011
??? TeeGee has a website and may not have the time for mushrooms.
Garda does not exist and has never existed as far as I know.
I am Papa Nopsis, which is a "clever" pun on Papaver and Meconopsis, or perhaps you think playing name games is the main pleasure of the board?
I have been collecting poppies for three years or so they are fun to collect since they grow so easily.
The topic subject is mushroom kits Nitabubble Which is the dangerous talk you refer to?
Nitabubble? Now that is a complicated one Can't work it out! sorry! -
Message 11
Posted by calculad (U3607616) on Wednesday, 5th October 2011
Just dragging this back on topic and hoping for some experiences with these kits/plugs.
Thanks.
K -
Message 12
Posted by Thesassenach (U14884672) on Wednesday, 5th October 2011
I've tried the kits (compost and spawn) several times with no success. By "plugs" you mean inoculated dowels? You have to have a VERY freshly felled log (immediately) to use for them. Apparently sweet chestnut is good, but you have to have absolute sterility on all your tools and other equipment to ensure that no infection from other fungi outcompete the species that you want to grow.
I bought a log inoculated with shitakes once, for a fiver. I never got great crops, but it fruited well several times a year (you can soak them for 48 hours to encourage fruiting about every 4 months), until I moved countries. I definitely got my money's worth from that. -
Message 13
Posted by Rainjustlearning (U12861332) on Thursday, 6th October 2011
Garda does not exist and has never existed as far as I know.Ìý
What an absolute load of twaddle, I think you have been sniffing your Poppies to long, all you have to do is check through post's that you replied to as garda and they all changed to Papa Nopsis.
Rain -
Message 14
Posted by Thesassenach (U14884672) on Thursday, 6th October 2011
Shush! Concentrate on the mushrooms.
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Message 15
Posted by Rainjustlearning (U12861332) on Thursday, 6th October 2011
I got a Mushroom kit about 6 years ago from Wilkinsons and kept it on the draining board in the kitchen, as it was a double drainer that was fine, put it on the less sunny side one and I got pounds and pounds of them so much so I was giving the neighbours bags every week, then 2009 decided to have another go but this time was a complete disaster, don't get me wrong I did get some but not the pounds like last time, so I guess it's a case of you pays the mony and you takes the chance, I certainley wouldnt go foraging as I havent a clue which is what and I would like to live a lot longer LOL.
Rain -
Message 16
Posted by Nitabubble (U14886404) on Thursday, 6th October 2011
Garda does not exist and has never existed as far as I know.Ìý
What an absolute load of twaddle, I think you have been sniffing your Poppies to long, all you have to do is check through post's that you replied to as garda and they all changed to Papa Nopsis.
Rain
Ìý Thanks for the support, Rain. He's nitpicking. It was Gardda.
My point was merely that it is dangerous to advise people to pick mushrooms willynilly.
Nitabubble -
Message 17
Posted by Papa Nopsis (U14479902) on Friday, 7th October 2011
We are amongst army generals and astronauts here.
I am merely interested in botany and good use of the garden thereby.
It is beginning to seem as though ´óÏó´«Ã½ gardening Message board will close permanently, along with other message boards, with renewed cuts from on high, which was my conjecture earlier in the week.
They have been great fun, but have soured badly towards the end!
--------------------------
On the subject of Mushroom kits, the great mushroom kit in the sky must be the professional mushroom farm, and I was wondering whether I could get up the polythene and expensive heating in a small garden area, so that production can go on throughout the year.
That may be the way of thinking of the mushroom kit sales people, that it CAN be done on a small scale, and they are that enthusiastic they want you to have a go. I've seen the development of highly professional mushroom farms covering some acres over the last 50 years or more, and it is no easy technology.
Apparently it is symbiotic with Chicken breeding and its litter refuse, with vermiculite added.
The name sassenach is seisneis in welsh, but I was not aware that it is
sassenach in Gaelic Irish as well as Scottish Gaellic.
Dda= good in welsh. I was eponymously Gar the good. Gar-dda, and that is what I am; good! -
Message 18
Posted by Rainjustlearning (U12861332) on Saturday, 8th October 2011
A lot of us will reserve judgment on that last comment gardda/papanopsis.
Rain -
Message 19
Posted by Papa Nopsis (U14479902) on Saturday, 8th October 2011
That is an excellent contribution.
As I said there is at least one army general andat least two astronauts using these boards for their exceptional wit and wisdom.
Mushroom kits. -
Message 20
Posted by Rainjustlearning (U12861332) on Saturday, 8th October 2011
Bit like the BBc with repeats I think.
Rain -
Message 21
Posted by Papa Nopsis (U14479902) on Sunday, 9th October 2011
There must be people somewhere in this country or in the big wide world, who produce a couple of tons over the whole year, and make a small profit on it, but they are certainly too busy, or too concerned about farm security to provide any information on a website.
I have in the past ,looked it all up, and much of the comment refers to the high start up costs of such an enterprise, but i would think that there are people like RJL, who have had some luck, and go on to bigger things... little by little.
I have not quite worked out how.
It is entirely possible that they are one-size fits-all mushroom farmers, knowing the general principles of soil requirements and humidity, but the research required to produce shop bought chanterelles, for example, is way beyond the skills, even of a good farm college graduate. Wye or Cirencester might.
The early 1950s mushroom farmers were enthusiastic hobbyists, usaing chalk seam caves in Surrey to maintain humidity, with a good consumer market nearby. -
Message 22
Posted by Papa Nopsis (U14479902) on Sunday, 9th October 2011
(pdf) Academic website
The last thing a "hobby farms" enterprise wants, is for anybody else to go in to his business, quite apart from the negligible food value of the mushroom for anybody growing his own who wants to be self sufficient.
"Craft" enterprises are based on the entirely false notion that, for example, bee keeping is a thing of the past, something about which to be nostalgic.
It ain't. It is an extremely hard trade, and in the UK professional bee breeders association only about 300 members with over 40 hives and 4 or 5 tons of honey per annum.
To compare Mushroom growing with cheese making, as one mushroom growing promo website does is as ridiculous as to be laughable.(like a hyena)
The above pdf is an entirely practical analysis of the business for hopeful commercial growers, and it not easy!
Going from amateur cheese maker to market place cheese sales is not so difficult. Going from amateur Honey producer to market place sales of honey is moderately easy. Sell a few pounds and forget it. Going from hobby cider maker to market place sales is moderately difficult due to its cult status way and above that of honey or cheese, to the point of chronic mania of the drinkers! (dypsomania)
Going from hobby mushroom grower to market place sales is no easy task.
I know one man who does, and he makes a living from it, and he is certainly not going to tell me about it!
I am happy with my trace vitamins from Mushrooms in the mushrooming season, damp and warm late Aug/Sept/end Oct., and most enjoyable foraging with friends in the fields and woods, on thoroughly wet Autumn days!!!
Get yourself a life! -
Message 23
Posted by zoomer44 (U14019069) on Sunday, 9th October 2011
Hi, calculad
Give it a go, try plugs you've clearly an interest otherwise you wouldn't have asked the question.
I've never grown or foraged for mushrooms but eat loads and cook with them in lots of dishes - indian, chinese, mexican...an English breakfast wouldn't be complete without them. I even put them on kebabs.
Let us know how you get on
Who knows you might inspire others to grow them at home. -
Message 24
Posted by Papa Nopsis (U14479902) on Wednesday, 12th October 2011
Here is a UN document on Mushroom growing worldwide which is the best analysis I have seen so far.
It is a pdf file and it is very long so I hope that mod will see it through.
If Calculad takes half an hour or so to read it through, he will find it invaluable.
The abusive remarks above may be well intentioned in that there is a great deal of false myth about fungi and some people, interested in hallucinogenics are very interested.
The hallucinogenic aspect, (pharmacological) is also dealt with on that folder.
My own interest in the subject of Mycology is in Macrofungi (ie mushrooms) but also in the yeasts required for bread making, cider/wine production, and cheese making.
As an afterthought Fungi are the largest group of organisms in the world after insects,
Truthful ie factual remarks are to be found on this link!
I will test that link to ensure it works, since it is so long. -
Message 25
Posted by Papa Nopsis (U14479902) on Wednesday, 12th October 2011
Here is a UN document on Mushroom growing worldwide which is the best analysis I have seen so far.
It is a pdf file and it is very long so I hope that mod will see it through.
If Calculad takes half an hour or so to read it through, he will find it invaluable.
The abusive remarks above may be well intentioned in that there is a great deal of false myth about fungi and some people, interested in hallucinogenics are very interested.
The hallucinogenic aspect, (pharmacological) is also dealt with on that folder.
My own interest in the subject of Mycology is in Macrofungi (ie mushrooms) but also in the yeasts required for bread making, cider/wine production, and cheese making.
As an afterthought Fungi are the largest group of organisms in the world after insects,
Truthful ie factual remarks are to be found on this link!
I will test that link to ensure it works, since it is so long. No problem on preview.
If horse manure is kept in side, at warm (68*f) temperature, with the field mushroom spawn/innoculation, (agaricus) it should produce some mushrooms; the problem is getting it sufficiently non smelly and sufficiently moist (60%) to be a prolific producer of the mushroom. -
Message 26
Posted by Papa Nopsis (U14479902) on Friday, 14th October 2011
If you look up the term "Mushroom Houses" there are videos and instructions on how to build a mushroom house, some filmed in the far east.
A house to contain the humidity and warmth, is absolutely essential in the northern hemisphere.
A mushroom house might be more like a greenhouse and produce a slightly more valuable crop than tomatoes......... if you can do the bio-technology!
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