How to Harvest Chaga Correctly (Featuring Birch Polypore)

Follow Garrett Kopp, founder of Birch Boys, Inc. along his journey foraging for wild Chaga (Inonotus obliquus) and the Birch Polypore (Fomitopsis betulina) on private land within the Adirondack Mountains. In this video, Garrett demonstrates some important tips on sustainability.
Find our sustainable wildcrafted Chaga products at www.birchboys.com
Chaga chunks: birchboys.com/...
Chaga tincture: birchboys.com/...
Listen to Garrett's podcast on ATBS: birchboys.com/...

[@user-qj5je1uw3h]

What an articulate and knowledgeable dude! Loved this video!

[@thekevflock]

I like how you planted new chaga on a different tree. Also, I enjoy the vibe.

[@NorthwoodsSolutions]

Yeah great, he effectively killed another Birch Tree as the chaga infects it.

[@PeasantCorpse]

Birch trees are kind of supposed to die young and feed the soil.

[@scottoliver7288]

" dear mister chaga man " i loved that genuine laugh :P

[@lizz2040]

I have had Chaga tea many times but never found one until today on a walk! It's good size and I marked it on my phone map to harvest later when I have a knife 😀. Safe land to do so too 💚

[@lynnesimmons3112]

My husband and I live in the Adirondacks also, thanks for showing this.

[@griffinhewlett7308]

Awesome video, been looking at information for a presentation and found this guy three separate times

[@andrewmunchkin7212]

Just subscribed, cause you showed how to harvest chaga perfectly. Very good video. 🏆🤠👍

[@KB-kl5ip]

Love to you from Ohio! Thank you for being awesome!!!!!

[@GarrettKopp]

Thanks!

[@HappyThrills]

Hey! Love to see someone promoting sustainable harvesting with Chaga. What's your opinion on harvesting in the different seasons? How do you think it affects potency ?

[@GarrettKopp]

No i don't think it affects potency, there are just more biological contaminants in the summer. Which, if managed, is fine

[@valhaul5809]

@@GarrettKopp useful content Birch Boys! I was wondering if a New York resident can harvest, if any, of these great mushrooms in the Adirondacks ? Appreciate the content

[@chrispierce2942]

@@valhaul5809 its all over ny. Ive found and harvested it in labrador hollow south of syracuse and found numerous caches of it thru happy valley just north of syracuse as well as on the tug hill plateau.

[@the_LucidYouth]

As soon as i saw the native flute, i was like, “yea, this guy’s legit”

[@Chris-dy5fy]

Chaga is very aggressive. I had bought a culture and it's very fast growing on petri dishes and sawdust. Though I've noticed it requires grain (sugars) in the sawdust, it will not grow out fully on pure sawdust unless u give it a very long time. But it's faster than most mushrooms at colonizing. I understand that it's more medicinal from birch, because of the birch triterpene. But it took about a month to colonize a block, and is building thick mycelium on top, I notice the mycelium just builds onto of itself. It's white though, but from what I understand about fungi found at chernobyl, melanin is used by certain fungi to protect against radiation and extreme environments. So I think it's environment is too mellow to produce melanin, upon exposure to sun and cold it should reach the extremes needed to produce melanin.

[@GarrettKopp]

Chris, timely comment. I literally just started trying to get some spores harvested from a wild Chaga poroid on Petri dishes and slants of agar but also doing it with mycelium in pockets of the sclerotia. We should chat more about this. What is your best means of contact

[@richardparis8738]

What are incredible place

[@richardparis8738]

You guys have the best chaga tea bags awesome quality

[@richardparis8738]

Amazing

[@keenowl1410]

Cool stuff

[@nobodykayaks1041]

a plug saw bit and a matchcing boring bit would probably yield some amazing results. you can buy a threaded auger but and do it by hand i have a set for bushcraft. very easy and light

[@HowWeedGrow]

damn, that was a clean chop, then I thought you were gonna take a bong hit. lol

[@GeeLee3o]

Cool video, thanks for sharing

[@kuma1939]

Nice!

[@klecoxs2]

Great vid thanks 👍

[@mcd5478]

Whoa. This video is so fabulous!

[@richardparis8738]

Love Outdoors

[@richardparis8738]

Excellent video

[@momsmushroomsjodyfoster5786]

That’s great news the Birch Polypore also contains cancer fighting properties ❤️💪😘#MushroomFantasies

[@JoeMac1983]

You're a weird dude, but I was weird just like you when I was out in the forests during my youth. You brought me back :)

[@northerngirlhobbies]

Enjoy your content. New subscriber.

[@KymSue1111]

Thank you!

[@momsmushroomsjodyfoster5786]

Once the tree dies how long will the Chaga be good for use? Thanks 🙏

[@richardparis8738]

Can you do a video on Rishi

[@pauly51]

@6:25 Sprinkle tobacco for the chaga spirit.

[@NatureAndOther]

Great video

[@x9habs]

thanks for sharing this info! what are the result on the "colonizing new tree from active mycelium" experiment?

[@GarrettKopp]

Haven't gone back yet! Will soon!!!

[@elizabeththibault8141]

@@GarrettKopp Any updates on that?🙂

[@SageReigns]

I too am curious if your chaga plug worked! I'd like to know the outcome of your experiment 😁

[@chavocinco]

So???? Did it take???❤

[@AwoooOga3503]

I think i found some of it while i was looking for something else. That Chaga looks freaky asf tho

[@tommyeaves9686]

Show us!

[@clivedunning4317]

Do you have any links to medical reports concerning chaga ? TIA.

[@chrispierce2942]

Just google it, there's a handful of them

[@peternelson9865]

Is there a specific time of year that the Chaga should be harvested?

[@GarrettKopp]

I’d say October - March

[@tommyeaves9686]

How high does it go?

[@nobodykayaks1041]

i recently found a big chunk im not sure what to do with, out in a moss forest

[@Yosef9438]

2:52 and 2:59 it's just the left and right, not left hand side and right hand side.

[@diannarostad4125]

When you grind that up, is it still orange? I bought some chaga online from Vimergy and it is almost black.

[@glendalynnejanacek7558]

Can the chaga grow on another type of trees. ? I ask because I have seen that typ of growth on trees that look similar to birch tree at first glance. The growth sticks out of the tree and it's black on the outside and orange on the inside . But I dont think the tree is a beech tree but it looks similar to a birch tree. Thankyou

[@angeladunbar9997]

It’s a beech

[@angeladunbar9997]

Thick, silvery bark

[@glendalynnejanacek7558]

@@angeladunbar9997 yes it is exactly🙂thankyou

[@mirikira8632]

It can, but doesn't have the same properties. I recommend only taking it from birch trees.

[@timothylongmore7325]

not chaga. probably. I can't think of the mushroom youdescribe but may be cracked-cap polypore. And yes it will grow on other trees. Usually found small, and or dead on hornbeam and beech. Check out The grey bearded green beret s channel. Huge one on hop hornbeam. I've hunted , harvested , and used chaga for years and I've never seen one that big on horn beam. But I've also never seen a hornbeam that big and old. He lives in southern adirondacks.

[@Allyourbase1990]

It looks like something I would be too afraid to even touch lol

[@robertmcdowell9649]

Ada boy, don't get bloody cut towards your buddy

[@aprilm.wemigwans-mezimegwa541]

You oddly drawn to birch as well. SAME HERE, I cannot quite. Put my finger as to why

[@GarrettKopp]

I recently learned my Great Grandfather died from a coronary thrombosis - he was found in the forest frozen solid to a birch tree which he clung to for support. I’ve never been able to put my finger on it either, but learning this seemed to help me make sense of it

[@aprilm.wemigwans-mezimegwa541]

@@GarrettKopp really ? I'm sorry

[@GarrettKopp]

@@aprilm.wemigwans-mezimegwa541 that’s okay. It was 1952... well before I was around

[@GarrettKopp]

@@aprilm.wemigwans-mezimegwa541 I’m grateful

[@diannamayer9213]

Are you not killing the host tree by introducing chaga to it like you did?

[@timothylongmore7325]

possibly. chagas rare-ish , birch trees are not. Birchs with open wounds are prone to more immediately deadly problems as well. He should've found a wounded tree to experement on and not hacked into a healthy tree , imao. My guess is it didn't infect the tree. It's usually a fairly large raged wound the spore lands on.

[@RockPileTanks]

Deep in the Adirondacks 😂 shit i can see my house thats chateaugay lake

[@tommyeaves9686]

Can't hear you

[@jamesscottgoudie4424]

Winter chaga is the only chaga that is effective

[@GarrettKopp]

Common myth.

[@Truthwillsetyoufree1-m4t]

But ya it's the chaga on the dead birches you don't want to harvest at all because that's how chaga sporulates.

[@dabig77]

What kinda mushrooms you on? Dont think it was Chaga 🤣

[@Qortalk]

I hope that wire is not copper.

[@pickles9440]

Yeah but what if a bear just peed on that moss? Careful dude, your freaking me out

[@GarrettKopp]

Then i'd be out of luck I guess, eh

[@JG-do6eb]

I dont believe birch polypore is an anti coagulate...not positive ..nice foraging

[@user-cvnnbbvmjhdfeyfiy]

dude had i flute recoder should have stop watching there. drank moss hugged and thanked a tree wTf

[@Truthwillsetyoufree1-m4t]

It's absolutely untrue that you need to leave x-amount of chaga behind. The truth is, you shouldn't bother harvesting small pieces like you did. I onky harvest hunks that are over 8 lbs a piece. That means I leave the vast majority of chaga I find alone to grow into giants. The only chaga that produces spores are the ones on already dead birches. The trees are already dying as well when they have chaga, and eventually, the chaga kills the host. Every time. Just harvest big hunks. They are worth more anyway, I got a piece recently that I can sell for several hundred per lb due to the quality. So why bother harvesting smaller chaga?

[@lynnesimmons3112]

Because most people aren’t in it just for money. Most are doing it for personal use.

[@skinebman1]

We're not all greedy that's why.