Ian's Fungi Stumps

Ever since I mentioned spreading some mushroom spores under a tree in our front garden, Ian has become mushroom crazed.

I was looking for the easy route to growing our own edible mushrooms: spread out some hard wood chips, toss some mushroom spore around, water, and wait...  Ian, on the other hand, has taken a different approach.

First he grew mushrooms in a bag.

He was quite distraught about their lack of production when placed in the basement, until I suggested he move the bag into the garage and viola.

Inspired by his success with the mushroom bag, Ian's latest project is growing mushrooms on stumps.  Now, we have tried this before and it failed miserably, but Ian is convinced that we "neglected" the stumps and it was our lack of effort that resulted in zero production.  Anyways, I am always up for a new food production scheme - especially when it simply involves me being a supportive partner.

Ian was initially planning to use the already cut poplar stumps that currently populate our back paddock; until he realized that only oak or maple wood would work.  So, I provided moral support while he cut down an oak tree at the cottage from which to harvest logs.  This was one of his first times using a chainsaw and definitely his first time cutting down a large, live tree.  His excitement got the better of him and he select a tree that was MUCH bigger than we needed.  The logs he cut were super heavy! After selecting more reasonably sized logs from near the top of the tree, we were in business and he was actually able to carry them out of the forest to the trailer.

Since then, I have been busy being supportive while he spends hours drilling holes in said logs, stuffing in sawdust inoculated with mushroom spores, and sealing everything up with melted beeswax.  This has turned out to be a very time intensive undertaking.

Hole

Stuff

Seal

Done

Ian thinks that it will take at least a year for these logs to produce mushrooms.  He has yet to detail how he expects us to give them adequate attention so as not to produce the same neglect-induced outcome as last time.  I am eagerly awaiting his plan.

Meanwhile, when the weather cools down, I plan to weed a spot in the front garden, dump a bag of free wood shavings from Kyle and Shawn, toss my spores around and forget about the whole thing.  Any bets on who will have a mushroom harvest first?