Mushroom clinic at the neighbors. WARNING! Picture heavy.

This past Saturday, June 17th, Bam & Pebbles hosted

a mushroom clinic at their home. We learned about how

mushrooms grow on, and in, trees and which trees are best.

We learned how to  use power equipment to drill holes in 

those trees, cut down and cut into manageable pieces, and

which type of drill works best. We learned about mushroom 

spores in sawdust and mushroom spores on dowels.

We also learned that the painting  hot was over the opening

containing the mushroom spores keeps contaminants out

and moisture in. Even the ends of the logs got waxed in the end. 

 The white you can see on the logs is the wax.

A few mushrooms that have yet to be picked.

 Oyster mushrooms growing on a stump.

 Pebbles with a bag of sawdust with mushroom spores.

 Bam explaining the different equipment/tools used.

 Showing mushroom totems.

 The hand out we were given.

 This is a large portion of their mushroom yard.

But, like most gardeners/farmers, it is everywhere.

 Another couple of shots of the totems.

Later they will explain how these grow mushrooms.

 LOTS of hands on for EVERYONE.

(Except me. My shoulder is hurting so much

that I stayed in the background and took pictures.)

 Drilling holes to places either the dowels covered with

mushroom spore, or the sawdust filled with spores.

 A dowel with the mushroom spore.

 Place the dowel in the hole and then whack it in with a 

rubber mallet. When done they go back over the log and

paint a wax coating over it to protect it and seal in the moisture.

 Here we are in the hardwood chip bed.

Bam is sprinkling the mushroom spores in the sawdust

on top of the chips. He will then shovel more chips over that.

 A lion's mane mushroom.

 The making of the totems.

Bam takes a log and cuts slices from it. 

They do not need to be exact or uniform.

He took a black contractor bag and put some 

of the mushroom spore filled sawdust in the bottom.

He then laid a log slice on top of that. He then spread 

more sawdust mixture, then another slice and so forth.

Just like icing a cake. These will stay sealed up in the 

bag for a period of time while the mushrooms start 

to grow and lock the log slices together. The 

mushrooms will then come out the sides of the totem.

 The special drill he used for making the plug holes

and the catalog it came from. Here is the website.

http://www.fieldforest.net/

 The plunger. This goes into the sawdust filled with 

spores. It then goes in the hole drilled into the tree

and the plunger is pressed to force the mixture into 

the hole. The hole will then be painted with the hot wax.

 Shiitake mushrooms!

http://www.fieldforest.net/Shiitake/departments/14/

Volunteer oyster mushrooms.

All in all it was a very informative day.

It is well worth the price of the class and 

they brought me down a totem and a log,

both ready to go. We should see mushrooms

in the fall. Provided I remember to water them.

Should not be a problem. They are no terribly

far from the upper garden.  😊