Creative Log Stacking Helps Grow Mushrooms

Creative Log Stacking Helps Grow Mushrooms 34-4-8 If you love mushrooms and like to experiment, growing shitakes, oyster and other mushroom varieties might make a perfect hobby ù and maybe even a profitable sideline business. We contacted Rebecca Hargrave, extension educator at Cornell University, after seeing photos recently of some unusual looking log stacks used to grow mushrooms. "We really encourage everyone to experiment with growing arrangements. This is still a relatively new arena of science," says Hargrave. Demand outweighs supply, making mushrooms the perfect crop to add diversity to farm operations. Since the "planting season" is late winter/early spring, it's usually a less busy time for most producers. Holes are drilled in freshly cut trees and then filled with preinoculated dowels or sawdust mushroom spawn. The logs are stacked in moist, shady areas and should be watered during dry periods and protected from the winter sun. After one to two years, the mushrooms can be harvested. The logs will keep producing for 2 to 6 years depending on the type of wood. "Typically oyster mushrooms are grown on poplar, and shitake are grown on oak," Hargrave says. "But shitake have also been grown on ironwood and beech. It's easy to experiment." For space reasons, some growers stack logs in a crib style. Others keep them low during winter so they get a good snow cover. When the mushrooms start to grow, it's helpful to lean the logs upright for easier harvest. While profits may be less in local and farmer's markets, oyster and shitake mushrooms can bring as much as $11 to $16/lb. at farmer's markets in large cities. When Cornell offers mushroom workshops, sessions fill quickly, Hargrave says. Growing mushrooms is popular with market gardeners as well as people who just want to grow them for themselves. "Growing mushrooms works well alongside vegetable production," Hargrave says. For mushroom growing and marketing tips, she suggests going to mushrooms.cals.cornell.edu, a site for the Northeast Forest Mushroom Growing Network. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Rebecca Hargrave, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chenango County, 99 N. Broad St., Norwich, N.Y. 13815 (ph 607 334-5641, ext. 16; jrh45@cornell.edu). á

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