Mushrooms
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Mushrooms |
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Mushrooms and other fungi are commonly harvested from temperate forests as basic dietary components or as gourmet delights. Native gourmet mushrooms such as the morels and king stropharia can be propagated in a woodland envirionment. Spawn kits are available for growing morels in compost, though fruiting may take more than a year and is not very reliable. Stropharia are grown on a bed of wood chips on the forest floor and may begin producting within 3 to 4 months of bed establishment. (1)
The
public is increasingly interested in a variety of exotic mushrooms mostly native
to Japan. These include shiitake, oyster, maitake, reishe and lion's mane. These
can all be produced in a similar manner. Fresh cut hardwood logs from living
trees are cut into managable bolts 1 m long (3 to 4 ft) and innoculation sites
are drilled through the bark into the wood to get the spawn of a particular
mushroom into direct contact with the carbohydrate-rich sapwood. Using roundwood
that is removed in a forest thinning in the production of gourmet mushrooms
addresses the issue of cost effectiveness of the process.
The learning community presently is conducting trials with chicken of the woods, oyster, and maitake mushrooms. We expect soon to begin trials with stropharia.
John Boyle, mushroom consultant, is an excellent source of information on mushroom culture that is appropriate for the Northeast. (Contact: 518-239-8039)
Kentucky's State Extension Forester, Dr. Deborah Hill is another fine source of information on woodland mushroom cultivation.
For further information: http://www.unl.edu/nac/afnotes/ff-2/ff-2.pdf
(1) Hill, D.B. and L.E. Buck, 2000. Forest farming practices. Chapter 8.