Just as a reference point- we have done shiitake successfully twice and oyster unsuccessfully once. We used logs from oak trees that we cut down in our backyard and just left lying outside. Shiitake seem to grow well on oak trees, and I think oyster mushrooms don’t as easily. Some other type of non-edible mushroom sprouted on the oaks that we inoculated with the oyster spores. But apparently the oysters grew on some of our oak logs my wife had given to a friend, so I don’t know what happened. We did this last summer with spores my wife bought through Walmart. The first time was more than a decade ago with shiitake spores from Japan. They come up at random times based on temperature and moisture. The first time we did it the shiitake came up over several seasons, both in the fall and the spring and appeared for a few years. We will see how last year’s batch do. One piece of advice- keep a watch on them. The shiitake can grow very big very quickly and we had something nibbling on them.
Is this really worth the trouble? I can get three pounds of nice Shitakes at restaurant depot for about $11. Do the grow your own mushrooms taste better?
The shiitake are slightly more moist and spongy than what you can buy-the problem as I noted is that if they grow quickly and get too big, the taste is maybe less concentrated. I am not sure if it is worth the trouble, but it is something to do for a bit of fun. We cut down some trees and had the logs so decided to do it. Our kids helped out. You can see how big they get in the picture below.
I had some black trumpet mushrooms grow in our yard and that was a treat. I look forward to them appearing this year.
This is the mushroom I found growing in my compost. They’re very small. Based upon some Googling, it looks like a pleated inkcap mushroom.
