Mushroom logs are a great way to incorporate fungi into your home scale or hobby enterprises. They can be placed around a garden bed or stacked in shady areas of the garden. Logs are a reliable and hardy way to grow wood eating species such as shiitakes and oysters, and are great for home-scale gardeners.

In this video we show you how to inoculate logs with medicinal reishi mushrooms in your garden. It's a great way to decompose logs and add organic material to your ecosystem as well as grow medicinal mushrooms that have been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for 4,000+ years. We are joined by Carter Humphrey from Central Texas Mycological Society and the Myco Research Station at Circle Acres.

STEPS 

1. Besides the mushroom culture, the most important part is having the right wood. Find a hardwood log that is fresh - no more than a month old. This ensures it isn't already home to other fungi, and yours will have a clear shot at colonizing the log.
2. Purchase inoculated dowels for your logs - species that do well in Texas are shiitake, oyster, turkey tail, and reishi. Growing your own is quite doable, but takes setting up a clean environment at home. We recommend North Spore and Mushroom Mountain. 
3. Once you have logs that are right for your project, cut them into lengths that are easy to handle: 2 to 4 feet with a diameter of 6 to 10 inches is ideal.
4. Drill holes about 1 to 1 ½ inches deep into the log in at regular intervals - about 4 to 6 inches apart in a diamond pattern, all around the log. Doing more will make it easier for the mushroom mycelium to spread through the wood and go faster.
5. Tap the plugs into each hole with a hammer until they are flush with the edge of the log.  It's a bit like grafting a tree. Brush melted paraffin or beeswax over the hole to seal it up, which will keep it moist and protected for the first few weeks. 
6. Some people also wax one end of the log to keep moisture in, leaving the other side unwaxed in order to allow for wicking. 
7. Situate the logs under dappled shade, or on the shady side of a building where you can visit to check on them once a month. Near a water source is ideal - the logs should be kept moist. If they become light and dry, you'll

Feb 12 - 19 Transplant or Leafy Greens and Cereals
We hope you have all your plants tucked in as we approach the New Moon and this Arctic blast. As we are approaching the First Quarter and are in Waxing Crescent, it’s a good time to plant leafy greens and cereal grains but we recommend you start some seeds indoors if you have a plant light set-up. If you already have seeds planted, they can handle a freeze, but hold off on transplants until the freezing temps have passed. 

We were inspired by Brie Arthur's talk on gardening with Grains this last Monday and included oats in our list. According to the Texas A&M extension service, oats should be planted in the spring between February 10 and March 15. While oats are typically grown in the north, they are grown in Texas for feed and forage. More recently, the San Antonio, Texas company MagiFoods began growing oats in Texas for human consumption! 

Oats have the deepest taproot of all the cereal grains so “sow your wild oats” in an area you want to prepare for growing later in the spring/summer. Their deep tap roots will scavenge for nutrients and companion planting with peas, will make a complete cover crop. If you missed Brie Arthur's talk, you can catch it on our YouTube Channel. 

This video will show you how to grow oyster mushrooms on straw bale in containers. This video series is in partnership with the Central Texas Mycological Society.

MATERIALS NEEDED:

1. Substrate: Straw Bale
2. Container: 5- Gallon Bucket, Laundry Basket, any Container that you can drill holes into.
3. Tools: Drill, Garden Fork, Spade, Pry Bar, Alcohol, Soap & Water
4. Spawn: We recommend blue oysters spawn because it does best in a non-sterile environment.
   • Oysters (Pleurotus ostreatus): Oyster mushrooms grow well outdoors and readily outgrow competitors and potential contaminants. This mushroom grows in several bright colors such as pink, blue, and yellow. Blue tends to be the best for growing outdoors. The taste of oyster mushrooms is very mild, and some describe it as subtly woody or like seafood. Oysters grow in partial shade and prefer straw to denser woody substrates.

​GET MUSHROOM SPAWN FOR FREE
Many times mushroom farms have used sawdust blocks that have grown mushrooms once, and then end up getting tossed in the waste stream. Check with your local mushroom farm to see if you can help them reduce waste and use the spawn in your organic garden. If you are in Austin, we are collaborating with a new local mushroom farms to help keep used mushroom blocks out of the waste and help get them into gardens around Austin and building healthy soil!
The mushroom blocks are for free but you can also support our mission of helping the crew that is making sure they stay out of the waste by making a donation or becoming a member.

This past Saturday, the AOG volunteer crew met with longtime AOG member David Kramer at the Blackland neighborhood community project. He gave us a tour of the community project that started in the '80s to stop UT's expansion into East Austin. The project has incorporated veggie garden spaces in traffic circles and in water saving, raised wicking beds. We couldn't help but feel the energy coming from 1850's cistern well that has a newly functioning pump. The orb-like cover felt like we were seeing into the future and thankfully it has nothing to do with a middle eastern monarchy. 

According to moon calendars, this time of the month in not great for planting. So instead we helped out with general maintenance, weeding, watering, thinning, and bringing the decomposed granite pathways back to their original Bermuda grass free state. Good job with the pitchfork Johnny!

You can learn more about volunteering with Blackland community project here.

In traditional straw bale gardening, bales are “conditioned” by adding nitrogen-rich compost or manure to the bale to provide nutrients and initiate decomposition while growing veggies. You can use mushroom grain spawn in a similar way, and the fungi will facilitate the faster breakdown of the straw while growing mushrooms.
TIP: Be sure to use straw, not hay because the seeds will sprout and become weeds. 

LOCATION
You'll want to place your straw bale in a shady spot that is protected from wind, and is within reach of a garden hose.

MATERIALS NEEDED

1. Substrate: Straw Bale. Available in Austin at Callahan’s General Store for $12.
2. Tools: Garden Fork, Spade, Pry Bar
3. Spawn: Any Oyster Mushroom spawn will work and Blue Oysters have shown to do the best outdoors in Texas. This is the most important material you need for growing mushrooms is the spawn which is the equivalent of seeds. You can purchase bags of spawn from your local mushroom farm or buy it online for around $30. We Recommend: North Spore, Mushroom Mountain, and Field & Forest.

• Oysters (Pleurotus ostreatus): Oyster Mushrooms grow well outdoors and readily outgrow competitors and potential contaminants. This mushroom grows in several bright colors such as pink, blue, and yellow. Blue tends to be the best for growing outdoors. The taste of oyster mushrooms is very mild, and some describe it as subtly woody or like seafood. Oysters grow in partial shade and prefer straw to denser woody substrates. 

GET MUSHROOM SPAWN FOR FREE
Many times mushroom farms have used sawdust blocks that have grown mushrooms once, and then end up getting tossed in the waste stream. Check with your local mushroom farm to see if you can help them reduce waste and use the spawn in your organic garden. If you are in Austin, Central Texas Mycological Society is collaborating with a new local mushroom farms to help keep used mushroom blocks out of the waste and help get them into gardens around Austin and building more soil! 

The mushroom blocks are for free but you can also support our mission by becoming a member.

When you see several sets of leaves, you’ll need to transplant seedlings to a 4” pot. As plants grow larger, check charts for the correct window for planting transplants outdoors.
If it’s too early, especially for tomatoes, you have two options:

1. Plant out in the garden and protect with row cover, pop up incubators, etc when temps dip.
2. You can plant in a larger container. Grow in a greenhouse or bring inside for freezing temperatures.  This allows roots and plants to continue growing and you’ll have stronger plants that will harvest faster when temps warm to ideal growing conditions outside.