Morel Cultivation (holy grail) and Other mushroom Cultivation

This magnificent mushroom sight put a smile on my face this morning when I walked to the back corner of the yard.



This is the first fruiting of the logs that I inoculated for Shiitake mushrooms last December (2016).

In the past I always just let nature take its' course and if it rained enough, they would start fruiting. I would cover with burlap to keep in the moisture and add water from a garden watering can. Those first logs sprouted Shiitake's for 5-6 years.

This year when I saw the first mushroom start on a new log, I took the remaining 4 logs and immersed them completely in water for 24 hours.

Within three days the mushrooms were budding and this pic is of 3 of the 4 logs about 5 days later. The log that wasn't immersed in water to "shock the mycellium into fruiting" has sprouted only 3 mushrooms so far.

You can pretty much guess what I'm going to do going forward.

Hmnn . . . the trade-off, however, will be that I'll lose one of my indicator events.

In the past if I was busy and not getting out into the woods much, as soon as I'd see Shiitake on any of my back-yard logs, I knew that I better get out into the woods for wild mushrooms.

I kinda' liked giving "Mother Nature" the opportunity to remind me that way.

As an update, I'm re- posting this reply to a PA Forum/thread below:

pj estrada -
Morels are cultivated very successfully and profitably in China, outdoors, where they utilize the natural cycles - ie have a winter with freezing temps. Are there any mountainous areas in the Philippines with freezing winter temps for a month?

Otherwise you'll need to look at a more 24/365 higher tech bio-tech approach; indoor cultivation with refrigerators and freezers.

This is now being refined , again in China, and Chinese patents are starting to emerge on aspects of their process as they bring their outdoor understanding (born of 26 years of effort) into an indoor 24 hrs/day 365 days/year controlled environment where the cycle times come down from an outdoor Sept/Oct through April/may in China (about 5 months) to about 1.5 to 2 months or so. Quite a difference between one crop/year and 6-8 crops/year and in the capital requirements.

Do you speak Chinese?

I've paid to have a few Chinese patents translated, but if the translator is not a scientist/biologist with some understanding of mushrooms, some of the necessary finer nuances are lost and they are the differences between no or mediocre success and assured success, which the Chinese scientists consider 96 to 98% success.

And, personally, I've yet to experience what I would even call mediocre success. Ha! . . . but still trying - riding the learning curve with the investment of time here and there.

Mother Nature is teasing me!

This morning I found a first Shiitake That "Popped & Stopped" in the back corner of the yard on cultivated logs.

Only one . . . about the size of the end of my thumb.

Now, if there were a dozen or more . . . I'd be out in the woods looking for early Morels right now.

Yesterday I secured a spore print from the last Black Morels I found.

I'm hoping there might be some "Home Team" advantage in using it as the Blacks came from the creek behind my house and just 1/3 mile away.

Perhaps this year I'll actually accomplish my intended effort using the stratified trench technique with a high nutrient-no nutrient layering that others have been successful with.

Proper timing of follow through has frequently been my downfall with other attempts.

Hello!

I am trying to make black morel grain spawn. I started the spawn on cardboard, and transferred a piece onto oat in a jar. I sterilized the oat, but not the cardboard. Can you tell me if the white thing visible on the photo is morel mycelium or just cobweb? It grew in 2 days from the cardboard pieces placed on the top of the grain.

My other jar looks different. May I ask you to take a look at it as well? In this one there is much more orange color, some of the web is also orange. But this one has green and some pink colored contamination as well (the pink one is not easy to spot on the photo). Do you think I should put this into the trash, or the mycelium can still live happily besides these?