To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Danger to fruit trees from oyster mushrooms
Date: Thu, 13 May 2010 18:40:30 -0500
Andriy,
As someone who looks for oyster mushrooms to eat, I can say that if I
have ever seen them on a living tree, it would have been a very sick tree.
There is a stump just a couple of feet from several pear trees, makes oyster
mushrooms every fall, the trees are fine. Armillaria is a different matter
altogether. One year armillaria came up everywhere, absolutely everywhere
we went including 150 miles from home. I talked to a mushroom hunter about
them, and he said they were thick at the same time in VA where he lived. It
makes me feel a bit better about them to hear that some are saprophytes.
Incidentally, I think oyster mushrooms are pretty boring, and only eat
them if better species are not to be found. So you might want to keep
looking for other varieties to grow. I don't care much for shiitakes
either. Field mushrooms are very nice, same as what's sold in stores, and
there is that big beefsteak mushroom that I've seen advertised, never seen
them grow even in the wild. Donna