Outdoor Mushroom Cultivation

Becorath

Becorath

Well-Known Member
I am curious if there are reliable ways to cultivate Psilocybe mushrooms outdoors?

I Live in Florida and live on several acres. Have horses, but no mushrooms. I know Cow manure is most common, but I have read that they can grow on horse manure. I can buy spores. That is no problem. I just don't want to go through all the trouble of indoor cultivation.

I am doing this mainly for the hell of it, and thought I'd have some mushrooms to play with too.

I have thought about making a pile with manure, leaves, dead limbs, etc and watering it really well and let it start rotting. then put spores over it. Any thoughts?
 
canndo

canndo

Well-Known Member
It depends. If you think you are just going to throw your spores out the back window - probably not - if you go through the work (which you say you don't want to do) of creating some spawn, prepping a place outdoors and then caring for it, yes, it can be done.
 
stonestare

stonestare

Active Member
I am trying to grow morels outside, this is the first year so I doubt I will get any but they are one of the hardest to grow. IF I can grow them I will try to grow cubes outdoors. The reason why I proboly will not get any morels is becuase I didnt start the bed until march 10 th this year so next year we will see
 
canndo

canndo

Well-Known Member
DaSprout said:
I've seen some old school methods Using boxes and such. I guess more google time for you.
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You are talking cyans Sprout, and they likely will not grow in Florida. If you happen to be in the northwest (I spent most of my psychadelic youth there) you can use cardboard as spawn, innoculate alder wood chips in a heap, keep it from drying out or direct sunlite and next year - you WILL have cyans.
 
Becorath

Becorath

Well-Known Member
I am in Northwest FL. I will take care of them and do what is necessary, I just don't want to do it indoors with jars and such. Since they grow here wild, I thought that they could be grown without too much BS. They do grow in neighboring fields. I just get tired of trespassing to get them, and would like to grow them on my property. And maybe have them grow on a pile of rotting leaves, wood, and manure. Any thoughts?
 
canndo

canndo

Well-Known Member
Becorath said:
I am in Northwest FL. I will take care of them and do what is necessary, I just don't want to do it indoors with jars and such. Since they grow here wild, I thought that they could be grown without too much BS. They do grow in neighboring fields. I just get tired of trespassing to get them, and would like to grow them on my property. And maybe have them grow on a pile of rotting leaves, wood, and manure. Any thoughts?
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Yes. If you have picked them from neighboring fields and eaten them and know what they are - then you will have little problem, the best way is to find yourself a patch in that neihboring field, dig up the patch of ground surrounding the growth and transplant the entire thing to your land. Grab yourself some well leached or well composted horse or cow manure and place that, and your transplant patch of dirt/mycelium/cow patty into a hole in the ground. Make sure that the mixture doesn't ever dry out or get too wet (mud is death). Keep it from direct sunlight and wait, you are pretty assured of sucess this way. Each season, dig around the original hole and put in more compost and you will be set for life as the mycelium gradualy expands into your yearly additions.
 
Becorath

Becorath

Well-Known Member
canndo said:
Yes. If you have picked them from neighboring fields and eaten them and know what they are - then you will have little problem, the best way is to find yourself a patch in that neihboring field, dig up the patch of ground surrounding the growth and transplant the entire thing to your land. Grab yourself some well leached or well composted horse or cow manure and place that, and your transplant patch of dirt/mycelium/cow patty into a hole in the ground. Make sure that the mixture doesn't ever dry out or get too wet (mud is death). Keep it from direct sunlight and wait, you are pretty assured of sucess this way. Each season, dig around the original hole and put in more compost and you will be set for life as the mycelium gradualy expands into your yearly additions.
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Thank you for this. I will def try this to get started. I was also curious if I could buy strains and plant the spores in the composted pile? I wanted to try some other varieties that could grow here. I know Cubes grow readily, so wanted to start with that. So, I'm asking is it possible to grow from spores in this way? or am I just wasting spores?
 
canndo

canndo

Well-Known Member
Becorath said:
Thank you for this. I will def try this to get started. I was also curious if I could buy strains and plant the spores in the composted pile? I wanted to try some other varieties that could grow here. I know Cubes grow readily, so wanted to start with that. So, I'm asking is it possible to grow from spores in this way? or am I just wasting spores?
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Look at nature: There are billions of spores floating around, and many of those spores are in direct competition with cubensis for real estate and nutrients, many of them grow far faster than cubensis. Cubensis gives off millions of spores - and yet, they don't much gow everywhere they can. If you werer to put spores on a reasonable nutrient bed and wait, you would be starting a race between those spores and everything else - all of them starting from the same point. So, you are not giving your specific prefered fungus any advantages over every other contamination in the field. Of course there is a chance, as there is on every cow pie in florida but unless you give your mushroom a serious advantge over everything else, all you are doing is playing roulette hoping for double zero. Pot growers are funny folk, they tend to apply what they know to other growing endeavors. Spores are really not much like seeds at all when it comes to this sort of thing. Give your project every advanate you can - hell, most mushroom growers have to all but eliminate all competition before they can get a crop - imagine if you asked them to give every other organism, including cubensis the exact same start.
 
Becorath

Becorath

Well-Known Member
canndo said:
Look at nature: There are billions of spores floating around, and many of those spores are in direct competition with cubensis for real estate and nutrients, many of them grow far faster than cubensis. Cubensis gives off millions of spores - and yet, they don't much gow everywhere they can. If you werer to put spores on a reasonable nutrient bed and wait, you would be starting a race between those spores and everything else - all of them starting from the same point. So, you are not giving your specific prefered fungus any advantages over every other contamination in the field. Of course there is a chance, as there is on every cow pie in florida but unless you give your mushroom a serious advantge over everything else, all you are doing is playing roulette hoping for double zero. Pot growers are funny folk, they tend to apply what they know to other growing endeavors. Spores are really not much like seeds at all when it comes to this sort of thing. Give your project every advanate you can - hell, most mushroom growers have to all but eliminate all competition before they can get a crop - imagine if you asked them to give every other organism, including cubensis the exact same start.
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Exactly the information I was looking for. I have never cultivated mushrooms, and didn't know how "fertile" the spores were. This answers my question exactly. Thank you.

I will try to remove the mycelium and transplant that. Thank you again.
 
canndo

canndo

Well-Known Member
Becorath said:
Exactly the information I was looking for. I have never cultivated mushrooms, and didn't know how "fertile" the spores were. This answers my question exactly. Thank you.

I will try to remove the mycelium and transplant that. Thank you again.
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In return for the small mountain of knowlege I have offered to you this day, we all expect extensive pictures of your sucess.
 
Becorath

Becorath

Well-Known Member
canndo said:
In return for the small mountain of knowlege I have offered to you this day, we all expect extensive pictures of your sucess.
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Absolutely! I have a place picked out. It is under some low hanging branches. By the time the sun is low enough to shine on the spot, it is behind other trees. So this seems like a great spot for mushrooms to grow IMO. I will mix the Manure, leaves and small branches to rot for a couple more weeks, then find and dig up an area known to have the shrooms. I hope this works. I am also preparing 2 other spots like this. I plan to spread cube spores in one and use your method for the other 2. the spot that I will place the spores will be my experiment to see if I can find a method of growing the fungus in this way. Figured all I would waste is a few bucks on a syringe of spores....
 
canndo

canndo

Well-Known Member
Becorath said:
Absolutely! I have a place picked out. It is under some low hanging branches. By the time the sun is low enough to shine on the spot, it is behind other trees. So this seems like a great spot for mushrooms to grow IMO. I will mix the Manure, leaves and small branches to rot for a couple more weeks, then find and dig up an area known to have the shrooms. I hope this works. I am also preparing 2 other spots like this. I plan to spread cube spores in one and use your method for the other 2. the spot that I will place the spores will be my experiment to see if I can find a method of growing the fungus in this way. Figured all I would waste is a few bucks on a syringe of spores....
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Now you could also buy some of those premanufactured bags of grain, innoculate them, when they colonize, open the bag, break up the spawn and put that in your manure/loeaves and branches mix and then put that back in the ground and spread a thin layer of regular dirt over the top.
 
sonar

sonar

Well-Known Member
Last summer I had about half a dozen or so spent pf cakes and I wanted to see what would happen so I broke them up a bit and buried them in the backyard. Figured nothing would probably happen, but at least they were gone and not in my trash. Forgot all about them for a few week until I was out there the one day and saw that familar caramel color poking out of the ground. A lot of them aborted once they reached the surface, but the ones that didn't were quite large. Realize they were more than likely just using up the remaining nutrients in the cake and not the soil, but it was still pretty awesome to see them popping up like that outside. I'd love to try an outdoor azurescens bed someday.
 
Becorath

Becorath

Well-Known Member
canndo said:
Now you could also buy some of those premanufactured bags of grain, innoculate them, when they colonize, open the bag, break up the spawn and put that in your manure/loeaves and branches mix and then put that back in the ground and spread a thin layer of regular dirt over the top.
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You mean something like this?? http://everythingmushrooms.com/grow-your-own-mushrooms/sterilized-substrates-and-media/sterilized-rye-mushroom-grow-and-spawn-bag-w-injection-site-3lb/
I may just do that. And what do you think of the mix I plan to grow these in? It seems like it would rot nicely and provide a decent environment for the mushrooms.

sonar said:
Last summer I had about half a dozen or so spent pf cakes and I wanted to see what would happen so I broke them up a bit and buried them in the backyard last summer. Figured nothing would probably happen, but at least they were gone and not in my trash. Forgot all about them for a few week until I was out there the one day and saw that familar caramel color poking out of the ground. A lot of them aborted once they reached the surface, but the ones that didn't were quite large. Realize they were more than likely just using up the remaining nutrients in the cake and not the soil, but it was still pretty awesome to see them popping up like that outside. I'd love to try an outdoor azurescens bed someday.
Click to expand...
That's awesome.

I am just thinking that a nice outdoor mushroom garden sounds fun. Don't have to worry with sterility, jars, etc. and no walking through fields looking for the things. just a nice little patch outside that I feed and water and allow the fungus to do it's thing...
 
D

DaSprout

Well-Known Member
This is all sounding very interesting. But I gotta move. Or at least leave my area b4 I can try something like this.
 
Becorath

Becorath

Well-Known Member
I have done quite a bit of reading on this lately and have taken some ideas from multiple sources. I have decided on this process for growing Cubes outside.

This is what I am going to do.
Dig a hole. (about 2ft x 4ft x 1ft deep)
Spread manure and hay mixture in the bottom of the hole evenly.
I am going to Colonize a bag of Grain with the spores.Then spread it out on the hay/manure.
then cover this lightly with more hay/manure and leaves. then a light layer of soil on top.


What do you think? What nutrients would these require? I was thinking of maybe spreading fresh grain in the bottom of the hole before everything to feed it. Would this be a good idea? or no?
or should I maybe pour a weak compost tea on it before the season? or just add some fresh manure compost to the top every so often? Any help is appreciated.
 
D

DaSprout

Well-Known Member
Sounds good in theory. You know canndo will be around to answer your questions. Make sure its a little moist at the end maybe?
 
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