Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["John D'hondt" <dhondt@eircom.net>]

 

Thanks for replying Harvey.

We do have flushes of mushrooms in the woods but nothing really edible. We had loads of "blushers", Amanita rubescens earlier. But the land used to be full of the wild Agaricus arvensis and we have not seen any in at least 6-7 years. We also did not have a real summer in all those years.

Years ago I bought mycelium of 4 edible mushrooms and none of them ever did anything. The oyster spawn (or something else, for the timber was green and covered with moss and ferns after a year) ate the wood and it all disappeared into the ground without producing one single mushroom. If I were to redo that I would put a stack of timber into a tunnel to keep the constant rain of it.

 

Mushrooms, mostly Agaricus campestris, are commercially grown in Ireland but always in heated tunnels covered with black plastic. Not cheap and a big place not far from us went bust two years ago. I used to get tons of their "depleted" bags with still plenty of small stuff coming up but a week outside really made it look depleted.

I don't know of any place that produces shiitake or oysters commercially. I think oak is one of the best substrates for those and that is scarce in Ireland

 

What would really be good is if there existed a species that could grow on willow/salix of which we have an unending supply

and that did not mind low temperatures through the year. You can have night frost in every month here. Another peculiarity of Irish temperatures is that there is often more temperature variation within a single hour than with the average monthly temperatures (these differ only 9 degrees C between the warmest and the coldest).

 

John

On 01/30/2013 06:03 PM, John D'hondt wrote:

I have tried mushrooms and failed. We used to have a plentiful supply of wild mushrooms. Not seen any for years out in the open. An odd parasol in the tunnels from time to time.Seems that they don't like constant wet and low temperatures.

Any ideas please?

john

 
John, I haven't had to grow mushrooms in those conditions so can't advise.

The shiitake I grow have a definite season--they grow in the growing season (mid-spring thru early fall) only. But the wild oyster mushrooms around here do "flush" during a mild spell in the middle of the winter--I just ate a small batch a week or two ago.

Do you know anyone who is cultivating mushrooms there (Ireland, right?)? If so, what species are they growing?

~Harvey

--
Harvey in northern Virginia
www.themodernhomestead.us

My book The Small-Scale Poultry Flock was published by Chelsea Green in October, 2011. Check it out at
http://www.chelseagreen.com/bookstore/item/the_smallscale_poultry_flock:paperback

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