Kitchen Garden Forum

i could eat these till they come out of me ears,but when i read the kits of how to grow them it all sounds a bit too complicated for little old me,anyone got any advice?

They are complicated I have tried a few, but you have to get the temperature and moisture just right and I've never got the yields stated. I don't think they taste any better than shop bough ones and certainly inferior to field mushrooms!

Tried them here Grock but nothing happend. The conditions have to be perfect or they won't germinate. Why not try shitake on the logs you've got on the lottie, at the bottom of the plot? You'll probably have more luck than with the ordinary mushrooms.

oh crap,looks like i'll have to grow spinach,ay peter

On GQT last Sunday, they were celebrating because they had the first (and only) mushroom through on their logs. They reckoned that one mushroom cost in excess of £40. If they can't grow them, it's not surprising the rest of us have failed too!

I've had several mushroom boxes in the past and all have produced a reasonable crop. However, I've not wanted to eat many of them because of the flies that seemed to find them, wherever I put them. Most if not all of the mushrooms had holes drilled in them and those little maggotty things that give you so much extra protein. I was advised to spray them but then I might just as well have bought them if I wanted chemicals included. The only truly succcessful mushroom I had was when I was away on holiday for a week and came home to a single mushroom the size of a dinner plate, with not a hole to be seen. I've never bothered since.

You need freshly cut logs to grow shitake mushrooms, or the shitake have to compete with natural fungi, which they ar not very good at doing. However you can buy kits of straw or even toilet rolls to grow shitake on and these are slightly easier, but I did not like the taste or texture of these. Try the link below (website is not very useful but you could phone up and order a kit).


http://www.annforfungi.co.uk/

Good luck if you try them.

Ta Viv

Oooh we got a mini mushroom kit for Christmas and now I'm full of trepidation about trying it.
I read the instructions and yes they do seem complicated.

Our other worry about growing them is can we eat any crop before Frank does (one of our cats) he looooves them.

I'll dig the box out and have another look, see if I can muster some enthusiasm...

LETS KNOW HOW IT GOES

I've just grown some spawn on a mix of home compost and composted buddleia and so far lots of fine white veins have formed.. but only after I moved the box from under the workbench to a warmer spot at head height in our garage - about 8-16C..

The next stage should be interesting.

Grock, you been on the talon polish again?
Why is my name coming up in connection with mushrooms & spinach?

After one unsuccessful attempt at growing mushrooms from a kit some years ago I've come to the conclusion that unless you can reproduce the identical atmospheric growing conditions to the commercial growers, the amateur is doomed to disappointment. I've been really tempted by the adverts for the more exotic mushrooms advertised in some of the seed catalogues, but my common sense tells me that I would probably be doomed to failure,as it's not easy to get the right logs, and that it would be a darned sight cheaper to buy these from a supermarket.

wilcos have a kit in a polystyrene box for £4.99. I have started it off in the warmth and lots of white threads grew in the straw, stuff, now i have added the compost and moved it to a cooler place, no sign of mushrooms yet, but no flies either. I thought at that price though it was worth a try.It says you get two lots, after the first picking, back into the warmth and repeat the process?

Mandy

A while back I was at our local County Show and as we were walking out they were selling off Mushroom kits in buckets at half price I bought two. I went home read what to do and we had so many Mushrooms in the end we were sick of them. I stood the bucket in our old Bakehouse which is a little damp and because there were small flies around all of a sudden I lit a candle in there and in two days there were no flies and the mushrooms were perfect.
I have of course not tried the ones you grow in birch logs they seem to drill holes and put the plugs in and Hey Presto but obviously not!!
JB.