Mycelium Running

An Introduction to Fungi
I have just completed a mushroom inoculation course and am now trying my hand at growing mushrooms. On this course, ran by the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV), we learnt about the three main groups of fungi. 

• Saprophytic Fungi - those that live on 'dead' material like soil, wood, leaves and carpet.
• Parasitic Fungi - those that live off living material and  like trees and animals, this group of fungi slowly kill off their host.
• Mycorrhizal Fungi - Those that grow in association with trees or plants.

The way a mushroom grows is very interesting. The first thing to note is that mushrooms are the fruiting body of a fungi, mush like an apple is the fruit of an apple tree which holds the seeds of the plant which will later be dispersed and form new trees. Fungi grow from tread like branching structures called Hypha that are not normally visible as they grow underground or under the surface of the material the fungus is growing on.

 

Mycelium Growth

This mass of Hypha is called the Mycelium or sometimes is referred to as Shiro. Underneath large forest the mycelium can spread vast distances gathering nutrients from nutrient rich areas and delivering them to nutrient deprived areas. Fungi have no green pigment and are therefore incapable of photosynthesising instead they derive organic material from other organisms such as soil, tress, etc.

Growing Edible Mushrooms

There are many different mycelium which will produce fruiting bodies (mushrooms) some are edible and some not so nice and others are poisonous to us humans. We decided to go for the Pleurotus Ostreatus variety common name Oyster mushrooms. Most fungi are easy to grow while others require very specific environments to thrive. Growing mushrooms  for eating normally requires acquiring some mushroom spawn. Mushroom spawns are the first growth of a fungi, they are the mycelium growth which envelops a material and begins to feed on the nutrients present in that material, spread and eventually producing fruiting bodies. Mushroom spawn are sold in the form of grain or dowels which have been colonised by the fungi required.

Dowel Spawn (L) and Grain Spawn (R)

  The two main methods used to grow mushrooms are;

Mushroom Logs - This is the process whereby logs are cut and collected from living or recently dead trees and inoculated with the spawn of the mushroom you want to grow. Holes are made at along the log (evenly spaced) and the spawns are added, the holes are then sealed using wax. Wax is used to help reduce other forms of fungi entering the holes. The logs used would mainly be determined by the amount of spawn you have, the type of mushrooms you want to grow. The larger the log the longer it will take for the mycelium to colonise. Fungi will normally only start fruiting when most of the nutrients in the material it is growing in is used up. Some fungi grow better on softwoods, other do best on hardwoods. The variety of mushrooms you want to grow will determine the type of wood you will use. For a standard piece of wood (3ft long and 4inch in diameter) the time between inoculation and fruiting can be anyway between 6 and 18 months. It is important to note that fresh logs i.e. logs taken from live trees, should not be inoculated until at least three weeks after cutting but no longer than three months after cutting. The time between cutting the log and inoculation allows the naturally released anti-fungal (wound compounds) terpenes and (poly) phenols to degrade so that they do not inhibit the colonisation of the log by the  mushroom mycelium. After three months other fungi will have already began colonizing the log and would therefore compete with the mushrooms you would like to grow.

Mushroom Logs

Fungi Substrates - Substrates are mediums used to grown mycelium. Each fungi grows differently in different substrates. Straw, wood chips, soil, leaves, compost and mulch are all types of substrates that can be used to grow mushrooms. Oyster mushrooms grow particularly well in a wood chip, straw/soil mix. This way of growing mushrooms yields a quicker return than the log inoculation process but has a shorter fruiting period.

Here at the May Project Garden site we decided to go for the second method of mushroom growing. The space we selected for growing the mushrooms was a space between a brick structure and the polytunnel. This space is not too exposed to direct sunlight and remains quite damp during the day. We first cleared the site, removing all bramble, thistle and other stubborn weeds, then laid down a layer of weed suppressing fabric. The reason we first laid the weed suppressing fabric was to stop weeds form growing in our substrate and to limit other fungi from finding there way into the substrate via the ground. 

   Cleared site

We then put down a layer of straw and then added some bark chip and mixed well. Once we were satisfied  with the proportions of straw and bark chip we saturated the mix with hot water in an attempt to kill off all existing fungi. 

Straw and Bark chip Substrate

Once cooled the grain spawns were even incorporated into the mix and covered with a very light permeable fabric. This covering will hopefully give the mycelium we wish to grow a chance to colonise the substrate by making it difficult for other spores floating around to get in, it also acts as moisture retaining barrier.

The completed Mushroom Bed

The main bit of maintenance for this system is to make sure it remains moist at all times, especially during the warmer days. The experts say it would normally take on average 4-6 month before a 2 metre square area is completely colonised and ready for fruiting. So now we wait.  

   

   

Back on Track

Finally managed to get a new laptop and now have new pictures of the garden. So here you go, pictures of the garden in late July. It's been a hot and dry couple of days but everything is still doing quite well.

Mizuna (Xiu Cai)

Young Leaf Salad 

Winter Cabbage

Onions

Sweet Corn

French Dwarf Beans 

Pumpkin

Tomatoes (outdoors)

Beetroot

Sunflowers (front garden)

Front Garden

Sunflowers (back garden)

Sweet and Spicy Peppers

Aubergines (egg plant/garden egg)

Melons and Squash

Tomatoes

Wild Flower Meadow

Edible Forest Garden

May Pond

Adult frog chilling in the pond (beautiful orangey-brown colour)

Young frog exploring the garden

Apple Tree - almost ready for juicing

Rewards, Hmmmmm......yum

Pictureless Update

Hello all. Sorry for the long silence but I had my laptop stolen from the garden a few weeks ago and as a result lost all my documents and pictures. That'll teach me to back up my info. Never the less the show much go on. I have no pictures to post this time around but I will be getting a new laptop soon and should be back on track in a few days time.

As you can imagine, with all the rain we have been having this month, the site is looking very lust however the slugs and snails have been on a rampage as well. They have been helping themselves to our salad crops, and the broccoli and swede patch has been under constant attack. Here at May Project we are committed to not using chemical pest control and our budget is not that great, so the control we employ for these pest is to go out at regular intervals and collect as many of them we can find (including eggs) and relocate them as far away from the garden as possible. We found a very large Kerry Spotted Slug the other day, almost 4 inches long and apparently they are local to southern Ireland, northern Spain and northern Portugal. God knows how it got here. The only other problem we've been having in the garden is the issue of weeds. They have been growing at an alarming rate, so that keeps us busy on most days. We have been getting a few volunteers coming down on a regular basis and that does help make the work load seem less.

We have been harvesting a few stuff from the site these pass weeks. Salads and herbs have been the norm, carrots, onions, black currents, apples, rhubarb, tomatoes, beans and potatoes are also ready and we have had a few meals from the produces. The garlic, sweet corn and peppers are on there way and soon to follow them will be the squashes, pumpkins and aubergines.

The wild space is full of activity since the rains. I took a picture of a baby frog, and some various insect life buzzing around the pond and wild flower meadow. It is a real pleasure to see the diversity such a simple addition to the garden can create. Last week I saw a caterpillar on one of the leaves and just as I was admiring her movements a wasp flew in an began to devour the poor thing. It was a bit gruesome but interesting to actually see it happening right in front of me. We had a new addition to the pond this week, a water strider, the first one any of us had seen since the pond was built in February. We also saw some funny shrimp looking creatures nibbling away at a drowned slug. We will be conducting a survey of life in the pond at some point next week.

A lot of work as been done to the front garden, which was previously left to fend for itself. We removed some of the concrete slabs and prepared the soil and planted some flowers (calendulas and sunflowers to start). We are also experimenting with cuttings from our tomato plants in the front garden, it's been two weeks since we put them in the ground and they are still alive. Not sure how well they will do, fruit wise, but time will tell. We have also placed a small display table in this space to show off and share our surplus produce with our neighbors and passerby's. 

All the fruit trees and bushes in the forest garden site are doing very well. The plums have put on at least a foot of new growth since they were planted, the apple, pear and cherry have also had substantial growth. Now that we have seen their growth patterns we are now looking at the best method of training these trees and bushes. We are also looking into types of ground cover and climbers which would best compliment our canopy and shrub levels. At the moment we have onions, squash, tomato, fennel, beetroot, leek, cucumber, carrot, and broad bean occupying the bear spaces of the food forest. 

The polytunnel resembles a small jungle. The tomatoes are almost to the top (7ft), the peppers are bushy and filled with flowers, the same for the aubergines, and the melon and squashes have been continuously climbing and searching for new supports to cling onto. There is not much going on in the mini green houses as the outside temperature has been quite mild and humid. We have  still got our tamarind plants and some salad seed propagating, young coriander, and baby broccoli in the green house. 

So there you go, a very picture-less update. One last thing, we at May Project Gardens invite you to share in our apple harvest. We will be holding apple days on 19th - 21st August where juicing will be carried out on site, using traditional juicing equipment. Just before that thought, we will be organising a London to Brighton bike ride on the 12th to help raise funds to construct a communal space on site. This will be used to conduct workshops, meetings, etc in not so pleasant weather. So please show your support by getting in touch by either phone or e-mail, details can be found on our facebook or project dirt pages (links at top of blog).