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California Gardening

Anyone grow mushrooms on Black Walnut?

eggalinameggalina

14 years ago

My black walnut tree died and I had to cut it down. Now I have a large stump in my backyard and was wondering if I can grow mushrooms on it. I had read somewhere that mushrooms dont do well on black walnut. Are there some varieties that do work on it? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thank YOu!

Comments (8)

gardenguru1950
14 years ago
Almost all mushrooms will grow on a walnut stump, provided the stump is at least a year dead.

Joe
deneciepie
14 years ago
On a related note....We took out a huge Chinese Elm tree and now have scads of what appear to be GIANT white button mushrooms. They are easily 3inches in the button stage. Pinkish gills turning brown with age. Anyone know where I can get them identified for possible consumption?

TIA

DeneciePie
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First of all thanks for sharing the mushrooms with us (at least to taste visually :-) and I hope you had good luck on your spore collection. My question is about spore handling. I watched the link you posted and yes he is creepy sounding. He kept stressing sterilization. Now nature is far from a sterile environment and mushrooms grow just fine in nature. Does anyone know the importance of sterilization when spore collecting / processing ? I wondered if it was the 'type' of mushrooms he was dealing with. I can understabd it for the edible ones. For me I would want to do edible mushrooms and possibly a few non-edible. We have recently learned about using mushrooms to help decompose wood chips which we will have a bunch of soon. What I learned was that if you add mushroom spores to the chips it helps them decompose better. After seeing the cost of mushroom syringes I cringed. I would pay that for edibles but would probably buy a kit instead. I was considering walking around and collecting spores of normal mushrooms via the print method you described and using them on the wood chips or simply taking those shrooms and dropping them down on top and letting nature do the rest. If I need to take prints I really did not want to go through so much trouble for the non-edible ones. Would someone with experience in shrooming touch on my question and ideas or offer better/less expensive ways of getting shrooms to assist the decomposition of the chips ? thanks !
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eggalinameggalina
Original Author
14 years ago
there's some kind of mushroom festival going on in l.a. right now. maybe you can find info about it if you do a google search. i'm sure there will be mushroom experts there who can help you identify it. good luck!
hosenemesis
14 years ago
Please, Deneciepie, forget about eating your mushrooms. We like you on this forum!

I think there's a "rule" about this: don't even consider eating a wild mushroom that resembles a Death Angel unless you are an incredibly experienced mushroomer. Death Angels look like white button mushrooms with pinkish gills that turn black or brown with age.

My personal belief is that mushrooms are too cheap to experiment with your liver or kidneys, let alone your life.

By the way, I hear Death Angels are delicious.

Renee
calistoga_al ca 15 usda 9
14 years ago
Well Renee it is comforting to know one of your last meals was delicious. My son in law is an expert who often collects exotic wild mushrooms which he trades to restaurants for gourmet meals. My personal belief mirrors yours. Al
deneciepie
14 years ago
Well, I'm still here! I really am not about to do a "taste test" on them. I was hoping one of you would know a mushroom ID resource somewhere near me (Tracy). Barring that, something out in the yard seems to really like them. Now that they are abundant there are lots of bug holes in them. Yuck.

Oh well, everybody eats when they can.

DeneciePie
eggalinameggalina
Original Author
14 years ago
here's an article in today's l.a. times about mushrooms:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/home_blog/2010/01/after-the-rain-mushrooms-now-is-the-season-to-explore-the-most-mysterious-and-all-too-transient-organisms-that-occur-in-dry.html
jay lom
2 years ago
When identifying wild mushrooms, I use the app: "picture this." it a paid service, which I pay less than two dollars per month for, and after taking a picture of the Cap, or leaf, it identified what I am looking at, and tells me everything I would ever need to know.

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