How to Rebuild Soil with Wine Cap Mushrooms

[@RevShifty]

I haven't seen anyone use cardboard to help grow out their mushroom spawn in *years,* so that was already great to see. But as part of such a creative solution to a common scenario? To remediate an entire lawn? That's impressive as hell. Thank you for all the info. You made a professional quality video packed with information that has millions of potential uses. That's great, and I hope it all went even better than you hoped.

[@trumpetingangel]

I know someone who gets his cardboard from a "cardboard only" dumpster behind a furniture store. Big, big pieces, much easier to spread than lots of little ones. Appliances, too, come in huge cardboard boxes. Be sure to take off the tape and plastic labels unless you're fine with them in your garden. Great video! I am spreading your wonderful spawn today!

[@spavle]

A new and inventive approach, I really like it 🤓

[@thecatsbackyard4833]

Very fascinating. What a magnificent mushroom.

[@mewanttools7275]

Professionally made video with excellent information. Very practical…very DIY oriented presentation!

[@Crina-LudmilaCristeaAuthor]

I look forward to the update!🤗

[@DK-qx3lv]

Thank you, great video! I did this to my lawn 2 years ago and the transformation was astounding! Highly recommend!

[@FieldandForestProducts]

You're ahead of the game! Well done!

[@HEYWANDERER]

How long did it take to break down?

[@henribg1]

good luck! woud love to see an update after some time

[@BubuH-cq6km]

5:56 I like your "help" looks like my dog always in the way 🤣😂 also what works good in smaller areas is cardboard from sparkling mineral water/soda pop boxes soaked in water and laid in layers 😉

[@FieldandForestProducts]

They're a massive help 😂 But that's an excellent point, any cardboard will do the trick!

[@docjody8624]

There's no dog at 5:56...

[@BubuH-cq6km]

@@docjody8624 open your eyes

[@FieldandForestProducts]

@@docjody8624 Back left of screen :)

[@seanfraser9162]

Any restaurant would be a great place to find surplus cardboard. its "food grade" and probably already flattened and stacked!

[@FieldandForestProducts]

Great tip! Grocery stores also tend to be a good pick-up location!

[@rebeccaofpollywogflatts8976]

Thanks for this tip!

[@johnr5615]

Great informative & instruction filled video. Pls provide Fall planting details for 6B zone regarding when the temps cut off dates or mins days prior to frost and/or snow. The fall temps can arrive very quickly and hate to plan and spend the time and not have mother nature on your side

[@lwhowell4387]

Excellent explanation. You are a very talented teacher.

[@FieldandForestProducts]

Thank you!

[@HippocratesGarden]

People keep mentioning chipdrop, in over 5 years (or more) I've never ever gotten any through that service. My best success, running across a crew doing tree work in the immediate area, that had a chipper running as well. First I can see the quality and size of the chips, is it what I want, then I talk to them. Make sure you have a dump site that is easily accessible for the truck, won't block traffic, and no risk of getting stuck. I've even kept maps in my vehicle for this purpose.

[@FieldandForestProducts]

Great points and that is definitely ideal! With chipdrop I think it's really dependent if they have an arborist in their network in the area. But your method is just cutting out the middle-man and is a great way to go!

[@HEYWANDERER]

It just depends where you live. I was able to get a drop quickly and then I moved into the middle of nowhere and now nothing.

[@FrozEnbyWolf150]

It really does depend both on where you live and the time of year. Over the past two years, I've ordered two Chip Drops each spring, and they typically arrived within a week. This is in a suburban area in zone 7b.

[@NoSQLKnowHow]

Love this stuff!!! I need to do this. Question, why is her voice only in the right audio channel with none in the left audio channel?

[@twlewis11]

Thank you for the video! Any idea if wine cap will propagate on cardboard covered in pine flakes?

[@docjody8624]

Life-saving video! Please confirm correct sequence: 1st Layer: cardboard. 2nd: Sprinkles of Wine Cap "sawdust". 3rd: 8-inches wood chips. All correct?

[@FieldandForestProducts]

Correct! Just make sure the cardboard is wet so that it doesn't rob moisture from the spawn.

[@JanuaryKimberley]

Great video and great question/comment! Is there any further maintenance involved, once those 3 steps are complete?

[@theemmanuelswife]

Thanks for the great video. Would a 70% sunshade row cover hoop allow enough sunshine for a quality crop in a greenhouse?

[@FieldandForestProducts]

It would, but something to keep in mind is that Wine Cap also like airflow so they typically don't do great in hoop house.

[@johnr5615]

What about using Straw vs wood chip? there are several sources recco the use straw over wood chips bc wood chips decomposing will compete w the spawn for nutrients in the soil. And adding Straw thats soaking in h20 provides the ideal environment for spawn growth.... Thx for the help

[@FieldandForestProducts]

Straw is a great substrate- we recommend for best production an initial layer of straw then topped with woodchips. The straw is a quick digesting food source and the wood chips help increase the longevity of the bed as it takes longer for the Wine Cap mycelium to digest the chips. For this project only wood chips were used as that was the available free medium.

[@rachelcarey486]

any updates on this project? I'd love to see how it's going

[@FieldandForestProducts]

Yes! We're doing an update this summer :)

[@melissamybubbles6139]

Thanks. I was wondering what mushroom was popping up in a hole in my grass. It might be winecap.

[@janemack8852]

Got boonie chickens that dig and scratch up a lot of everything. So thanks for telling us that chickens will go after the spawn. Phooey. But good to know.

[@andrewjmorse6843]

I had to stop free ranging my chickens to save the shrooms

[@gardengatesopen]

I have a question about wildlife digging in my woodchip mushroom beds, I hope someone can give me a liitle insight... First, I'm in Central Texas, in The Hill Country where we have Live Oak covered hills. So, plenty of shade! (Thank Goodness for SHADE IN TEXAS!!!) 7 months ago, back in March 2023, I put down several layers of woodchips and wine cap stropharia. I don't have access to clean straw, woodchips is the only thing I've got. I have made several mushroom growing beds in my yard, the beds are all a minimum of 6 feet by 4 feet. Most are are in full dappled shade, but one does get a few hours of hot sun. I read the wine caps will put up with SOME sun, so I'm curious to find out if they will grow in that one bed. As a side note- I'm also hoping to help out the Oak tree roots by locating the mulch beds over the driplines of the trees. I'm hoping the chips will hold in moisture under the trees during these extremely hot Summers we've been having! Temperatures staying up around 113°f week after week!! (I hope that's not the new normal ! But it's the 2nd Summer in a row for temps to do that...) The area I live in is not a normal city suburb, but more like a country setting that's sort of modeled after a suburb. Meaning, we still have lots of wildlife moving all around us. Especially the nighttime creatures! Anyway, Some night creature has spent the entire Summer digging in every one of my woodchip beds!! I realize they are after any grubs & bugs that are residing in there, which of coarse, I do appreciate the aspect of their efforts for THAT! However... Every day I see the "damage" they've created the night before in the topography of these woodchip beds. There aren't any plants in the beds as I am patiently waiting for the chips to decompose into soil. So plants are a non issue. I don't even care that the chips "are messed up". It's the mycelium I care about, and am wondering about ! Some of the beds are 10 to 12 inches thick with woodchips. (Yes, I've got LOTS of chips!!) (4 ChipDrop truck loads after the big Treepocalypse Ice Storm we had in February! Soooo many oak trees down and damaged! It was sad... But I totally took advantage of it by using ChipDrop!) Ok, back to the mycelium! I did sprinkle wine cap mycelium (Broken up from a new mushroom block that had never sprouted yet.) on top of the chips about every 2 inch layer, through each bed. Also, in the deeper beds, after the first 4 inches above the ground, I covered the chips & mycelium with big, wet, burlap coffee bags, just for stabilization of the beds. And probably the mycelium will like eating the burlap too. I thought adding the mycelium so deep in the 12 inch deep beds was probably a waste of the mycelium just because it was so deep. But did it anyway just to be on the safe side. So, the nocturnal animals... The bed of chips is frequently disturbed, usually down to a depth of about 6 inches. Only once did they decide to play a really active game of rugby in one of the deeper beds, and completely decimated the structure of the entire bed! The bed was no longer a "bed". The result of their game that night threw approximately the top 8 inches of chips into the yard. All the wine cap layering was destroyed quite deep! As I was putting it back together, I looked for signs of mycelium, but I couldn't see any. However, this was in the middle of the hottest months, and truth be told, it was quite difficult to keep all the beds 100% moist all of the time. We are in a 3 year drought, and water is a premium resource these days!! I tried my best, but I do know the beds did get a bit dry a few times during those months. So if there is a mushroom fail this Fall, it might also be that reason. My questions about the animals: ● Do you think all the digging activity during the Summer months is going to prevent the mycelium from getting a good foothold? If the digging was only happening every once in a while, I really wouldn't be too concerned. But the digging was happening almost every night. At first I thought it was an armadillo. But now, I've seen a family of skunks marching into my yard at night, just as if they were pulling up to their favorite restaurant!! Ugh!!! Skunks!!!! Like I said, we are still in "the country", and to make it even easier for the skunks, we don't have a fenced yard! I have tried other methods to discourage the animals, but those things only work sometimes. ● Do animals eat the actual mycelium on purpose? As in - not just happen to consume it along with the other things they find to eat in there. ● Might it be true that the mycelium was dormant during the extra hot & dry Summer months, (as expected) and now, even though the chips were so frequently stirred up, and now that the weather has cooled off, and the skunk family seems to have moved on? (? Not exactly sure about that yet...) (Maybe there are no more grubs!) 🤞 Might the mycelium kick into its cool weather grow cycle, and be able to survive this last Summer's harsh treatment? Or Do you think it sounds like a lost cause? Anyway, that's my situation. 😮‍💨 Those are my questions. I don't own a gun, so I won't be shooting anything. And if there were a way to catch them WITHOUT getting sprayed, I would happily relocate them waaaay far away in the actual country where they can do their thing ELSEWHERE! If anyone has experience with a situation similar to mine, I'm all ears!!! 💡 👂 🚫 🦨 ‼️ 🛑🦨💨

[@docjody8624]

I thought Wine Caps thrived in shaded areas. How did yours grow in a side yard wide open to sunshine? I'm about to plant my first Wine Caps & trying to figure out where on my four acres to plant! Sun... Shade...

[@FieldandForestProducts]

Either will work! The mushrooms themselves are better quality when grown in the shade. In the sun they need to be harvested early otherwise they'll become sun-bleached and dry out. For this project however we are more concerned about the wood chip to soil conversion than mushroom quality.

[@ellaruth9]

Thanks for this video! I need to build soil cheaply as well and this is such a great solution. How late is too late in the season to do this? Will a first frost kill the innoculation?

[@FieldandForestProducts]

Wine Cap can withstand a few frosts, but I would wait until spring at this point as the mycelium will move faster and therefore turn wood chips quicker. :)

[@ellaruth9]

@@FieldandForestProducts Really appreciate the response! Thank you!

[@thefermenter6626]

I have an existing back to Eden garden with about 6" of wood chips already in place. What would be the best way to inoculate those chips? I tried this a couple of years ago, but none took. Thanks.

[@FieldandForestProducts]

Hi there! Thanks for your question. As long as you have only wood chips for the Wine Cap bed, you should be able to add spawn on top of that, and cover with another 2" of wood chips or straw to capture moisture. You won't actually see fruiting until all substrate is colonized, so it could take some time. Incubation for an only wood chips bed could be anywhere from 6-12 months. If you have other substrates under the existing wood chips, like compost or manure, you would need to establish a new bed for Wine Caps because those substrates are too nutrient rich for the mycelium to grow.

[@tdirish1960]

Can you just break up a few wine capp mushrooms and spread them on a wood chip / compost pile?

[@FieldandForestProducts]

You can certainly try, but expect limited growth.

[@cindyparker3845]

Will wine cap grow in 2+ year old eucalyptus wood chips? I am new to growing mushrooms and I don’t want to waste my wine cap sawdust spawn

[@FieldandForestProducts]

As long as the chips aren't starting to compost they will work. If the chips still resemble chips and not loam you're in the clear!

[@johnbrownlee5213]

I'm in georgia. What is the best time of year to start a wine cap bed?

[@FieldandForestProducts]

Fall is a great time to plant in Georgia. I would recommend fall over spring just because it gets so hot so fast down by you in the Spring of the year.

[@FrozEnbyWolf150]

I'm getting a bit anxious, as I used one of your wine cap plug spawn kits in March of this year to inoculate piles of woodchips from the two Chip Drops I got this year. I've seen a lot of mycelia throughout the woodchips whenever I've dug through them to plant my garden crops, but it's the end of October now and none of the wine caps have fruited. I've seen plenty of other mushrooms growing in my mulch, including cyathus, sulfur tufts (toxic), inkcaps, and elegant stinkhorn (edible) but no wine caps. Here in zone 7b it was a cold and wet spring, a dry and hot summer, and a cold and wet autumn. I keep wondering if I did something wrong, or if the wine caps got outcompeted by the native fungi.

[@FieldandForestProducts]

If it was two chip drops worth of chips you would need A LOT of spawn for the wine cap to colonize it through. From our experience with ChipDrop you would need close to 300 pegs to inoculate the bed. Wine Cap pegs typically take about 9 months to colonize a bed using one peg per square foot of bed that's about 4 inches in depth.

[@FrozEnbyWolf150]

@@FieldandForestProducts I suppose I will be patient then, as nine months would be March to December. I had spaced out the pegs, thinking I should give the mycelia room to spread through the woodchip layer. I did notice signs of colonization almost immediately after planting the pegs, but as I said, it's hard to tell which species of fungi it belongs to.

[@FrozEnbyWolf150]

@@FieldandForestProducts I finally got some wine caps fruiting from two of the planting sites, as of May 2023. They were enormous, and they popped up right after recent heavy rains. I think the difference was these were planted under a fig tree and the pegs were closer to the soil layer. Of course, I still have the wine cap bed I planted using one of your sawdust spawn kits, so with any luck I'll have a bumper crop by the end of the year.

[@midxmoses2495]

@@FrozEnbyWolf150how was the final yield?

[@FrozEnbyWolf150]

@@midxmoses2495 I was getting more than I could use for about a month, then they stopped when the weather got hotter. The few that showed up were full of worms. So I will probably have to wait until a bit later for the wine caps to start producing again.

[@gregbishop4145]

Are there varieties that would work in the heat and humidity of central Florida? I’d love to do this

[@FieldandForestProducts]

The mycelium will certainly run through and digest the chips (and fast in your geographic region!) but it's more tricky to actually get the mushrooms to fruit. Wine Cap like a noticeable temperature drop to spur them into action.

[@gregbishop4145]

@@FieldandForestProducts so maybe in the winter months here where it can go from 70s down to 50s at night? Sorry if these are dumb questions I’m very new to learning to grow mushrooms. 🙂

[@FieldandForestProducts]

@@gregbishop4145 They're good questions! And honestly we can't say for certain just because it never gets as warm here as it does by you. We would love to find out though! If you're willing we do have a citizen science program where we send you spawn in exchange for what results you get! www.fieldforest.net/category/citizen-science-for-mushrooms-growers

[@gregbishop4145]

@@FieldandForestProducts I’ll look into that she’s definitely let you know. Thanks!

[@baileescott401]

@@FieldandForestProducts I might fill out a Citizen Science Application for indoor mycological studies. I was unaware I could contribute my time to research as a citizen. I've wanted to research growing mycelium/mushrooms indoors for a long time. I'd love to contribute my time to the cause. Do you think that would be something worth doing?

[@thomasreto2997]

Chip drop great….but as you say….no time line…for example, here in south west Pennsyvania, we placed an order in spring and got them in winter….when most tree pruning takes place around here….but they are excellent…we have…copious amounts of pine woodchips.

[@FieldandForestProducts]

Haha shoot! Well, good for landscaping!

[@robweaver9367]

Would cedar chips work?

[@FieldandForestProducts]

White cedar will work! We're still working on testing red cedar, but we have grown Wine Cap off of White.

[@alejandramichelli5583]

Will sprinkling the spawn over already mulched area work? should we till it in? Or sprinkle and then add more chips? I’ve been on a journey for improving our front yard garden beds for the last couple of years. Mostly because we grow crops amongst our ornamentals. We top dress the beds with chippy compost instead of dyed mulch.

[@FieldandForestProducts]

Sprinkling it over an already mulched area will certainly work. I would recommend watering the existing mulch lightly prior to placing spawn down. Also as a heads up I would shy away from covering spawn with too dense of a material (like well-composted chips) as that can have a tendency to almost suffocate the mycelium. But it you can get your hands on wood chips that are definitely still "woody" you're good to go!

[@jonathanravenhilllloyd2070]

Is winecap a North American native mycelia? And would you know the European equivalent?

[@FieldandForestProducts]

Wine Cap (Stropharia rugosoannulata) is found wild in both North America and Europe. They may be different variants, but same genus and species.

[@lravenhill]

1 inch of topsoil in nature takes 100 years