Low tech mushroom cultivation
As Mark mentioned last week, our favorite part of the Organic Growers
School was the two talks we attended led by Tradd Cotter of Mushroom
Mountain. Even
though Tradd runs a big operation, supplying
spawn both retail and wholesale and testing out fascinating fungal
partnerships in the lab, he really understands what the little guy is
looking for --- simple, low tech techniques we can use to grow
mushrooms in our backyard.
For example, while most
people will tell you to carefully drill holes,
pound in your plug spawn, and paint over the holes with beeswax, Tradd
says that you'll get nearly as good results in much less time by
cutting two inch deep gashes in logs with your chainsaw, pushing in
(cheaper) grain or sawdust spawn with your hands, and then waxing over
the holes. Everyone else tells you to inoculate your logs
in late
winter, but Tradd
says if you've got freshly cut wood, go ahead and
throw spawn in it --- you won't get quite as good survival rates, but
why waste the wood?
This week's lunchtime series pulls together the most relevant
information from Tradd's talks, but I highly recommend that you visit
his website to download more in-depth mushroom cultivation
handouts, to watch
his tight and entertaining
mushroom videos, to buy
spawn specialized for the southeast, or to sign up for his mushroom
cultivation workshops
(a bargain even at the $150 price.) I
know I sound like a paid advertiser here, but the truth is that Mark
and I both fell in love with Tradd's passion, knowledge, and
independence, and have decided he's our new fungal guru.
| This post is part of our Low Tech Mushroom Cultivation lunchtime
series.
Read all of the entries: |
Or explore more posts by date or by subject.
About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.