Mushrooms ?

I have heard you can grow mushrooms using kits. Does anybody know anything about this?

 

Yes and yes. Simple to use but make sure you use them fresh as they seem to have a short shelf life. I think most garden centres sell them these days, unless you are talking about buying in spores from specialist growers, then it gets a bit more complicated.

 

I tried it once, didn't work for me. But I don;t know how long the kit had been lying around (Xmas present I think, and I probably waited a couple of months before getting around to using it!!)

Perhaps I should have another go ... mailorder might be "freshest"

 

They sell standard mushroom kits in B&Q for about £5.00 or so

 

brilliant, thanks ! B&Q/Garden centre sounds fine ta , think I'll give the specialist spores a miss ...

 

I don't mean to put anyone off, but how do you ensure that the mushrooms that grow on the kits are actually the ones that are meant to, as opposed to the spores of some of Britain's nastier native mushrooms that might have blown in on the wind and fed off the same material?

 

The kits have sealed bags in which the mushroom spores are kept( mixed in with compost)-at least the boxed ones are, and they aren`t placed outside.

Like Kristen I tried it once-the one you get in a cardboard box and nothing happened-quite dissapointing as I like mushrooms.

A friend of mine uses the plugs you get, drills litlle holes in an old log ( deciduous I think is necessary) and hammers the spore plugs in, hides it under her hedge-she said under your bed works too and it works for her every time she says-the worst of it is, she doesn`t even like them.

 

I saw this amazing fungus in wood I was working in yesterday. I think it's a Jew's Ear fungus, Auricularia auricula-judae, so named because Judas was said to have hanged himself in an elder tree, where this type of fungus likes to grow.
Chris

 

It looks more like a chinese ear LOL its a wee bit yellow isnt it !