Again, THRILLED.
I went out this morning to see how much the shiitakes had grown overnight and was amazed to see one of the logs of oyster mushrooms had also fruited.
I may have done a mushroom dance. Look at those delicate gills, the soft, felty caps, the blush of brownish gray.
These are called Italian Oyster Mushrooms, Pleurotus pulmonarius.
I ate one of the shiitakes, by the way, by far the best mushroom I have ever tasted. The texture is so indescribably good, and the flavor so meaty and aromatic. I can’t wait to grill up a few of them, if I can keep from eating them all raw, by myself, standing in the woods.
–Daisy
we have been growing shiitaki mushrooms for about 9 years now omg they r so good we just started new logs about a month ago the old ones r prety mush done and also this year we did pearl oyster mushrooms, how long did it take for your logs to fruit i forgot lol its been so long since we started them but they sure did give us about 9 good years of fruiting!
we did 1000 plugs this time for shiitaki and about 100 of oyster i so cant wait
katrina
Katrina–I believe I inoculated the logs near the beginning of February of this year. It can take a full year or more, I understand, depending on type of spawn, conditions, etc. I love that you harvested for 9 years! Amazing! What’s your secret?
I just love that you’re doing this. It’s something that I’ve been wanting to do for a while now. But, because I live in such a high humidity area, fungus grows in a lot of places and I don’t want to have cross-contamination. I started reading about innoculating oyster mushrooms upon a roll of plain white toilet paper. This would be a controlled environment, but not a longterm plan. Do you have yours situated in your garden?
Thanks for sharing,
Debbie
OMG. They are so beautiful!!!!! Perhaps this makes up for the loss of the grapes?
no secret really just keep them clean and moist, we soak them right after the last frost in water we use a large pond pool thingy the hard ones that u just dig the whole and put into the ground whatever works, and keep the bugs and critters off, some ppl cover the logs with plastic to keep critters and put air holes in it tho , when the wax has worn off the plug spot re apply it lightly , dont let them stay soaking wet tho cause they will rot to fast and when they start fruiting keep them moist i use the garden hose and sprayer and in winter we just left them on pallots and let the snow cover them YUMMM
katrina
Sallie–It should, but it doesn’t.
Katrina–Thank you for the advice. I’ve never heard that before about rewaxing the holes. Is that only for those holes that haven’t fruited yet or after you’ve harvested from that spot?
after the fruiting season has passed and they r done for the year and winter is setting in thats when u do it so that none of the spores leak out and all stays in the log trust me it sounds wierd but it works, winter has a way of reaking havic on logs so if we upkeep these special mushrooms ones it helps to make them last 9 years! lol
Katrina