Typically, we see fall as a time for harvest, a time to reap the benefits of earlier work. But in the mushroom world, we can take advantage of fall to plant several mushrooms. Here are our favorites for fall planting:
For Fastest Results: Buried Mushroom Block Beds
If you're looking to have a mushroom harvest yet this year, your best option is buried mushroom blocks. These myceliated mushroom blocks are buried as a unit into wood chips or sawdust and then produce mushrooms directly from the block. Think of it like an indoor grow kit, but instead of you needing to provide humidity or temperature control, mother nature does it for you. Mushrooms will produce in response to fall-time temperature and humidity swings.
For Long Lasting Harvest: Mushroom Log Inoculation
Fall is a great time to think about mushroom log inoculation. As soon as you detect color change in the canopy you can source your logs and inoculate them. Why we like it? Spring gets busy for most folks who grow crops with an immense lift in the spring planting season (even if it's just planting your window boxes!). Taking care of inoculation in the fall of the year crosses one thing off your spring work load list. For more information on the other pros of fall planting, as well as the the restrictions, read our blog "Can I Inoculate Mushroom Logs in Fall?".
For the Good of the Garden: Plant a Wine Cap Bed
If you missed planting Wine Cap earlier this year for a fall harvest, you can absolutely plant a bed now for spring harvest! Use Wine Cap sawdust spawn and plant it into a bed of hardwood chips. The wine cap mycelium will start colonizing the wood chips this season and be ripe for fruiting with the first spring rain and warm up! Plus, wine cap is an incredible decomposer, which will turn your wood chips into a nice loamy, plantable material.
