Kitchen Garden Forum

I am thinking of growing mushroom spawn plugs, have been promised some lengths of fresh oak. Suggestions please on what type.

Afternoon Shallot Man,
Shitake, Oyster and Lion"s Mane are the most available from several suppliers including Dobies and Tuckers.
My one and only try ended in failure because,I think,I didn"t keep the logs in a dampish place. I intend having another go,so don"t let my first experience put you off.

I've known two other people besides myself who have tried growing these and we've all ended up with complete failures. The catalogue photos make them look so attractive but I suspect you need fairly exact growing conditions to be successful. In the wild, most fungi seem to germinate best in the warmish but damp growing conditions you get in early autumn so maybe it would be better to wait until the outdoor temperature warms up a little to have the best chance of success. i tried my plugs in some old dead elm logs. They may not have been the best choice as they may have died of Dutch Elm disease so that may have been the reason for their failure. We have large Beech woods near us which are often surrounded by fungi in autumn so maybe fungi like beech logs if you can find any and want to experiment with two different types of logs. I'm guessing that shitake mushrooms may be slightly easier to grow that the others but perhaps somebody on here will have better luck with them than I did.

Seeds of Italy sell them at a more reasonable price and will give you advice on how to succeed with them.