Growing mushrooms on stumps
In nature, fungi parasitize on tree trunks. Their mycelium filaments can spread over long distances. The area of an adult mycelium is from 10 m2 up to 15 m2 depending on the type of mushroom. Oyster mushrooms are mushrooms that are unpretentious to growing conditions. Their spores infect deciduous trees. The mycelium can spread to the straw of cereals, such as wheat, as well as to sawdust of birch or oak.
At their summer cottage, mushrooms are grown on stumps. They use firewood prepared a month ago. The logs are still wet and the bark can be easily removed from them, but most of the stump is already dry. Such wood is ideal for the development of mushroom mycelium.
Fungal spores can infect healthy trees in the garden. If the mycelium spreads to fruit trees, their yield will be significantly reduced, and three to four years after infection, the tree will die. Therefore, stumps with mushroom spores are placed away from the garden in a shaded place, for example, under the wall of a house.
Stump preparation
To grow mushrooms, you need to prepare the wood. Stumps with a diameter of 25 cm and a length of 50 cm are infected with spores. The stumps are sawn into three parts. Several holes are made in the first cut.
Use a nib drill. It is very difficult to drill holes with a conventional cartridge nozzle, since the wood is still wet. The depth of the holes must be at least 5 cm.
On the other side of the saw cut with a circular or gasoline saw, make several longitudinal and transverse cuts of the same depth. You get a kind of mesh. Nails are hammered along the diameter of the logs, the heads of which are removed with nippers. Then they do a few simple steps:
- the first part of the log is filled with mycelium;
- then it is placed in the prepared hole with the holes down;
- a layer of mycelium is applied to the first part of the log;
- cover with the second part of the stump;
- another layer of mycelium is applied;
- cover with the last part of the stump.
The joints of the log are wrapped with tape to protect the mycelium from ants... In order for the spores to germinate and give a fruiting body, the stumps infected with mycelium are placed in a shaded place on the site. After two months, you can harvest oyster mushrooms, provided that the logs are constantly moistened. They are watered every week.
Set up drip irrigation for stumps. Then the stumps do not have to be followed until the harvest. Use a feather drill to make a groove in the third part of the log for the diameter of the neck of the plastic bottle. Cut off the bottom of the bottle, place it in the recess and fill with water.