Been wanting mushroom spawn since our garden club had a presentation on growing mushrooms... if there's anything you want on my list for some of this please let me know, Sam..thanks GINA

Looking for mushroom spores or spawn. Any kind that is edible (Button, Portabella, Shitake, Oyster, Chicken of the woods, morrel, etc). Do not have any seeds to trade so you will have to wait for some seeds, or accept a SASE. NOTE: mushroom spores MUST be from a reputable source (one still in the manufacturer's envelope would be nice), just so that we do not end up killing ourselves with poisonous mushrooms :). Thanks! ~Shawn

Shiitakes are also supposed to like coffee grounds. I'm planning to give it a try soon; I got the idea from seeing shiitake kits to which you're supposed to add your daily grounds. (I'd like to try on a larger and more cost-effective scale with spawn and the grounds I can get from the local coffee shop.) A company in my area called BTTR Ventures does a good business growing both oyster & shiitake mushrooms in coffee grounds (at least, I *think* they're still growing mushrooms as well as the grow-your-own kits that are their latest big thing). I've yet to try doing this myself (just came to poke around the forums and see where people recommend ordering spawn), so I don't know how easy it is. From the web, it certainly seems that oysters are the most popular to grow this way, which might indicate that they're the easiest. I could generalize from there and speculate that since shiitakes usually like a wood substrate, other mushrooms that like a wood substrate might also like a coffee ground substrate, but I don't know--might be a good starting idea for research, though.

I did in Tampa Bay a few years ago. They were a bit of a pain. I did get a few, but man are they picky. I actually cannot remember what kind they were. I guess that is because I decided to never bother again. that said, if you can get the correct climate, the kits they sell (grow in supplied box, etc) are good. I have done that a few times over the winter and kept the kit in the garage. Got lucky on the temperature and got tons of mushrooms. I grew white button and giant portabella. They were the best tasting mushrooms I have ever had.