Hey everyone. I just wanted to give you all a quick update on our Lion’s Mane Mushroom Project. If you recall back in April of this year, we went to one of our favorite gardening stores and purchased a log that was inoculated with Lion’s Mane mushroom spores. Prior to this neither myself or Deidra had any experience with growing mushrooms and I guess now that inexperience has been on display. However, just like anything else in life, this has been a learning experience.
When we first purchased the log, we were told that we needed to keep it wet and fairly shaded, so I thought about a good place to put it. I put the log in an old recycling bin between the house and a retaining wall. This part of the home receives shade all day long EXCEPT for about two hours in the morning. We were told that by the end of Spring we should have a Lion’s Mane harvest, so we kept it watered and waited patiently. Then it some how became mid-June and we had gotten a big fat goose egg…zero…zelch…nada!
I had to go back to the store to pick up something else and talked to the staff about the log. As it turns out those two hours of a southern morning sun are just enough to dry the log out. I told the guy that we had thought about putting the log in the garage but, we are renting and we have never grown fungus on purpose! We didn’t want to be growing Lion’s Mane on the landlord’s walls! Then he mentioned the fact that every time we open the garage door, we probably have millions of spores blowing into the garage *face-palm*. Duh, I should have known better, but hey, we didn’t and were just trying to be on the safe side. It just so happens that the garage is the perfect place with the perfect conditions as long as we kept the log moist. However, we still didn’t want to put the log in the garage so, I came up with a plan B.
Well, we need to keep the log shaded and moist, so, I decided to get some black plastic lawn bags to cover the log. I poked a few holes in it, so there could be a tad bit of air flow but not enough to lose all its moisture (at least it made sense to us). Hopefully, now the conditions will be a little more conducive and in the Fall we’ll have a harvest, so stay tuned!