Shady places in the garden are ideal locations for growing mushrooms on tree trunks. Here's how you can grow delicious edible mushrooms in a natural way.
Anyone who owns a garden and has to remove a tree from time to time often doesn't know what to do with the wood. With the cultivation of edible mushrooms on tree trunks, the tree is used ideally and is easy to care for. Here you can find out how you can grow fresh mushrooms right on your doorstep for several years without much effort.
Growing mushrooms on tree trunks
The cultivation of edible mushrooms on wood is the most original and natural form of mushroom cultivation and was developed thousands of years ago in Southeast Asia - especially in Japan and China. Shiitake mushrooms (Lentinula edodes) were presented to the kings and emperors of the country as exclusive luxury foods. In traditional Chinese medicine, the use of mushrooms still plays an important role today, and medicinal mushrooms were cultivated on tree trunks early on. We have compiled a list for you here of how you can cultivate mushrooms with wood in your own garden.
The right wood for growing mushrooms
Most mushrooms prefer to grow on hardwoods such as beech, oak and birch, as well as on all fruit trees. They feed mainly on cellulose and lignin, the substances that make wood so hard and robust. Over time, they decompose even the thickest trunks and recycle the dead wood into organic matter. However, conifers have viscous, sticky resins that most edible mushrooms prefer to avoid. The exception is the smoky-leaved sulfurhead (Hypholoma capnoides), which particularly likes to colonize spruces and, more rarely, pines and silver firs.
The wood for the mushroom trunks should be freshly felled and then stored for at least two but no longer than four months. The trunk diameter of the wood should be about 20 to 30 centimeters and the length about 50 to 100 centimeters, otherwise the trunk will dry out too quickly. A stem with a diameter of 10 to 15 centimeters is sufficient for shiitake. the barkshould be as undamaged as possible, as it later retains moisture better in the wood. The trunk is now watered for two to three days, it should be completely covered with water.
Which types of mushrooms are suitable?
Fungi form an extremely diverse kingdom of living beings. They feed on food, mature compost or even fallen giant trees. For growing your own mushrooms in the garden, you naturally choose those edible mushrooms that tend to decompose wood. Here we have listed the most important types for you.
Oyster Mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus): One of the best-known arboreal edible mushrooms, forming depressed caps that curl up at the edges when young. It is available in the colors dove blue, grey, white and light brown. Its taste is very fine and mild and is therefore very suitable for soups, sauces and meat dishes.
Enoki (Flammulina velutipes): Extremely popular edible mushroom in Japan with shiny honey-colored caps that darken towards the middle. Cultivated without light and in containers, forms elongated, colorless fruiting bodies and is usually only available in stores like this. Wonderfully sweet and mild in taste.
Rosary Oyster (Pleurotus djamor): Also called Flamingo Oyster because of its delicate pink colour. The mushroom is related to the oyster mushrooms and has a fan-like fruiting body covered with lamellae with a velvety surface and a fine mushroom taste.
Lemon Mushrooms/Lemon Mushrooms (Pleurotus citrinopileatus): Light yellow edible mushroom that is closely related to the oyster mushrooms, which can also be seen in the shape of the fruit bodies. The taste is reminiscent of lemon, which makes it very interesting as an accompaniment to fish or salads.
Smoky-leaved sulfurhead (Hypholoma capnoides): As the only edible mushroom, it mainly inhabits coniferous trees such as spruce and pine. The yellow-brownish fruit bodies have a nutty-spicy taste. However, there is a risk of confusion with other, poisonous sulfurhead species, because these colonize the same woods as the edible mushroom.
Shiitake (Lentinula edodes): A fawn-colored edible mushroom with light-colored flakes on the round cap and a light-brown-whitish stem, which is very popular in Asian cuisine due to its umami taste . Must be cultivated as an air culture without soil.
Vaccine Broth for Tree Trunks: Recommended Sources
Finished mushroom mycelium is often called grain orGrain spawn offered. The fungus grows through rye, wheat or other cereals until the mycelium has spread across the board. The grain spawn is particularly easy to dose and colonizes the wood quite quickly. Inoculation dowels are untreated wooden dowels on which the respective type of fungus was cultivated. Here, too, the fungal network has visibly grown through the whole wood when you bought it. Both variants are suitable for cultivation on tree trunks.
Particularly on the Internet - but now also in hardware stores and garden centers - ready-made mushroom spawn are also offered especially for cultivation on tree trunks. Here we present some German sources of supply.
Pilzpaket has been sending various types of mushrooms from Nuremberg as grain spawn for several years. Additionally, the mycelia can be purchased locally in town.
Mushrooms & Equipment Shop based in Münsterland has been offering a wide variety of species for hobby growers and commercial growers since 2013. Inoculation Dowels and Grain Spawn are available here.
Pilzmannen from Saxony produce grain spawn and inoculation dowels in organic quality. Propagation packages are now also available in the Dehner Garden Center.
PilzWald - Die Pilzmanufaktur based in Cologne offers numerous types of mushrooms for cultivation on tree trunks in their online shop.
Inoculation of the wood
For the inoculation of the tree trunk you need the following materials, depending on the type of inoculation:
- A chainsaw
- A wood drill
- A drill or cordless screwdriver
- A hammer
- Foil or tape
- The respective mushroom spawn
For the so-called dowel inoculation with mushroom dowels growing through, holes with a diameter of about eight millimeters are drilled into the trunk with the drill all around. However, they should not be deeper than the length of the inoculation plugs. The dowels are then carefully driven into the hole with a hammer.
The drill hole method requires a wood drill with a drill diameter of about 20 millimeters and grain spawn. The advantage is that this type of mushroom spawn spreads faster and more safely in the trunk than the mushroom dowel spawn. After drilling the holes, fill in the mushroom spawn with a pestle and compact it slightly - the future mushroom stem is ready.
The cut inoculation method requires longer trunks around oneMeter. Here the trunk is sawed two to three times from below or above with the chainsaw along its entire length. The entire area is then wrapped with adhesive tape. The tape can also be stapled for a better hold. To fill in the spawn, cut a small window in the tape, carefully fill in the spawn and compact it a little.
Finally, the inoculated stem is wrapped in cling film and then generously punctured with a nail or something similar. This step is important so that the stem retains enough moisture for the fungus while also being supplied with oxygen. Alternatively, the logs can also be stored under a plastic tarpaulin, but the humidity must be checked more often.
Store logs
Freshly inoculated wood is not hardy until the fungus has had a chance to completely grow through the trunk. At 10 to 25 °C, it takes two to six months, depending on the type of fungus, for the fungus to colonize its new living space. During this time, the trunk is best stored in the dark and checked for moisture from time to time. If mold grows on the surface of the wood, the trunk is too wet or there is not enough ventilation. Putting the trunk in a more airy place will eliminate the unwanted fungus.
Set up tree trunks in the garden
If the wood has grown through completely, you can already see the mycelium of the fungus emerging around the injection point. Now is the ideal time to remove the foil or tape and set up the logs in the garden. All of the species mentioned, with the exception of the shiitake, need contact with the earth in order to form fruiting bodies. To do this, the trunks are buried a third to half into the ground in a shady spot. This type of cultivation is also called soil cultivation.
Shiitake cultures, on the other hand, do not require any substrate to grow: their stems are leaned upright against a fence or wall - this is also called air culture. Shiitake must be activated in order for them to fruit properly. First, the entire trunk is placed in cold water for 24 hours. Then you push it three to four times on the ground, which promotes the formation of fruiting bodies. Patience is now required, because the trunks usually do not need any further care, but they do need a lot of time. On hot and dry days, however, the mushrooms are happy to have some water around and on the trunk. Now it's time to show patience and onthe first fruiting bodies are waiting. Because depending on the type of mushroom, it now takes a full 6 to 24 months before you can harvest for the first time. By the way, tree trunks that have grown through completely are winter hardy and provide fresh mushrooms again and again over several years.
Harvest mushrooms correctly
If the first fruiting bodies are finally appearing on the tree trunks, it will soon be time to harvest. At the latest when the edges of the mushroom caps tear and bulge upwards or the spores that have already fallen off collect on the wood, the fruiting bodies should go into the kitchen. To do this, either cut off the mushrooms with a sharp knife on the stalk or turn them off with a slight movement. Now nothing stands in the way of culinary enjoyment from your own garden. Fried, as a risotto or fresh, the forest dwellers enrich our menu in many ways.
If you want to know how to grow mushrooms on coffee grounds, check out our feature article here.