Soft woods?

[jt007m]

Anyone know of uses for soft woods in mushroom growing? Cork, pines, balsam, cedar? All the wood loving mushroom teks ask for hard words like maple and alder.

Anyways, I was just curious if there are soft wood loving shroomies out there...

[golly]

Many of the soft woods contain aromatic oils and resins which are not well liked by mycelium...

[dial8]

Yeah pine and cedar will definitely be hard on most fungi although there are a few that will grow on them but they are likely not the ones you want to cultivate. As far as cork and balsam I am not sure.

[aumbrellaforainydays]

so what one is looking for is hard deciduous trees similar to those found in riparian northwest coastal forests?

can azures thrive on all of these?
big-leaf maple,
California bay laurel,
Red alder,
black cottonwood,
fremont cottonwood,
western sycamore,

those seem more common, esp. maple and alder, but what about
ash, walnut, oak, aspen, beech, birch, elm, hickory, eucalyptus, mahogany, poplar, willow, bamboo, and palmwood.

i know i left a lot out, since there are thousands of species of hardwoods, but i'd be cool to see someone grow cambos on bamboo and palmwood.

[Myc]

I'm trying to copy and paste a list you'll be interested in. Hope this works otherwise I'll link it to you in a PM.



These materials were borrowed from another website without permission. If I've done something bad I'll understand if a Mod deletes it and no harm done I hope.

[OooO]

the harder the wood the slower the mycelium will grow through: but the harder the wood the longer the mushroom can take energy out of it you can maybe say: 25% of the weight of the wet wood you'll use for substrate you will get in fresh mushrooms and the harder the wood the heavier it is

[jt007m]

On those lists... the only soft wood I saw was Yew... which is pine-ish....

I understand the idea of bad resins... I know that's why not much will grow in pines or under pines.

Ummm... well, I asked this question cuz I was thinking about maybe soaking cork or balsam in poop tea or something to infuse it with food... Then it would have the porousness that would give myc a great foothold but still the nutrients it needs.

[Doc Chi]

Hi: I've used Aspen pet bedding from Wally World. Aspen has been used in evaporative coolers for a very long time because it wicks water well and can stay off rotting. The idea came from a posting on that other site a number of years ago. What I wanted was some thing to help keep the moister in my mycobags balanced and open up some air spaces when mixed with Rye. I used a 50/50 mix of soaked shredded Aspen and soaked Rye grain in a large Mycobags that were sterilized. Using an Azures cultured broth/LC inoculation to the bags and the mycelium runs right though the bags in no time (two weeks) and to my surprise on the Aspen to. The finished bags were mixed with soaked Alder wood chips that were put in a bed made for them under some small (8') Japanese Red Maples.
I've always wondered if one could compost the Aspen bedding with equine dung tea and use it instead of wheat straw compost for general use.

[Hippie3]

lol
each morning i've logged in
this thread title has made me chuckle

[Doc Chi]

Originally Posted by Hippie3

lol
each morning i've logged in
this thread title has made me chuckle

Hi: Glad we got your day started on a humorist note.

[malefacter]

Originally Posted by Hippie3

lol
each morning i've logged in
this thread title has made me chuckle

it took me a min to catch that lol

[jt007m]

I guess no good psychedelics or edibles on soft woods... I was hoping I could use balsam or cork for spawning...

[oldiebutnewbie]

Originally Posted by Doc Chi

I used a 50/50 mix of soaked shredded Aspen and soaked Rye grain in a large Mycobags that were sterilized. Using an Azures cultured broth/LC inoculation to the bags and the mycelium runs right though the bags in no time (two weeks) and to my surprise on the Aspen too.

I am having a terrible time getting my elm to 'catch fire' as you might say. Maybe some Wally World aspen will help make the transition. Got mycelium eating grain, got he grain onto cardboard a-ok but just ain't making the leap to the heap as one would hope. Maybe the aspen will help bridge the gap.
Or maybe elm just ain't the right stuff. It worked ok when it was mixed with grain and PC'd but 'raw' it seems impervious to mycelial penetration. Maybe this aspen will make it happen.
OBN

[Hippie3]

speaking of aspen-
cf. http://forums.mycotopia.net/contamin...ams-aspen.html (save from contams on aspen)

[viewer6922]

cardboard....try cardboard..cardboard rules.

[warriorsoul]

Softwoods are ok to use.dont use evergreens
its the oils that keep the tree green all winter
that the mushies dont like.

For mushrooms that prefer denser wood
add some brf or bran to the mix.
For ones that prefer rotted wood, a less dense wood
may actually be better.


As long as the tree loses its leaves in the winter (Deciduous)
it should be ok to use for mushrooms.
Some softwoods are much harder then most hardwoods.
The term softwood and hardwood actually has to do with the reproductive cycle.
Hardwoods have a covering on the seeds, softwoods dont.
also some conifers are not evergreen.
Its seems the generalization of the terms has lead to some confusion.
I hope this helps.