starting mushrooms, right time of year to do it or should i wait?

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

i was thinking of starting some different kinds of mushrooms but i was curious what time of year is best to do this?

this year i have seen tons of mushrooms growing around my yard but i am unsure if any are really edible and i really don't want to find out by getting sick from them. so i have decided that i wanted to get some of the 'seeds' i have seen being sold on one of the sites i visited this past spring while looking for my veggie seeds! after reading up on some of it and noticing a patch in my chicken coop that got a little wet from them knocking over their water bowl and it had a think stemmed mushroom sprouting up. i realized this should be decent growing material if i tossed out the currently wet stuff and took the dryer but decayed bedding and created a nice raised bed area to start my mushrooms. but, is this an ok time of year to get started with throwing down the spores to give them a start for the next spring/summer season?

 

[Greenthumb18]

I've been interested in starting to grow some mushroom too. Why don't you start with a mushroom kit, that's what I was thinking of using to grow my own mushrooms. I bet it would be safer than just growing them in the garden you never know if a poisonous mushroom was growing, in case you picked it by accident.

Hope this helps!

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

the varieties i'm thinking about growing are the white button, Italian Poplar, and Golden mushrooms. i was hoping to find the Portabella or crimini mushroom but even as a kit it is hard to come by. i did find the spore in a syringe that i can make my own 'seeds' if i bought the rye berries to inoculate but they want at least $20 and about $5 to ship and then the berries are about $3-4 for a pound! if i did that i would get many more mushrooms than a kit could produce.

i'm thinking if i wanted to do mushrooms it might be too late in the year to do them outside and just wait till spring to do it. if i want them sooner and can do it in the house i might have to go with a kit or that syringe of spore mixed into the rye berries and just mix it into a bag full of composted chickie manure with shavings and straw. find it a comfy spot in the basement for the winter and hope for some good pickins when it produces!

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

i think i found something that may help me answer my own question about when to start them! looks like i can 'inoculate' a patch in the next month so it will start for the next season!

http://www.fungi.com/kits/outdoor.html