Establishing Natural Controls of Competitive Fungi in the Production of Shiitake Mushrooms

Project Overview

FS06-200
Project Type: Farmer/Rancher
Funds awarded in 2006: $8,832.00
Projected End Date: 12/31/2008
Region: Southern
State: Tennessee
Principal Investigator:
James DAy
Email

Commodities

  • Miscellaneous: mushrooms

Practices

  • Education and Training: on-farm/ranch research

    Summary:

    Growing shiitake mushrooms has been a challenge. I have learned to be alert, pay attention to the conditions of the logs from the first stage of inoculation to fruiting the log, storing the log in the resting stage. I have learned that keeping records of fruiting times and amounts will help you make growing choices, keeping track of labor hours and expenses will help you to determine a fair market value. Keeping an activity log book will help you remember small changes that you might make along the way that you can reflect on in good and bad times, what environmental conditions were like when production was at its best, and help you determine the amount of logs you might want to force fruit to meet production requirements. The results were helpful and supplied enough information to help me design a plan of action, a plan that can help make shiitake farming a success.

    Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or SARE.