Spawn
Plugs

Grow forest mushrooms on your trunks or trees

Forest Mushrooms

Cultivating mushrooms is not only pure fun for itself but it is, above all, to help nature in its work to protect the environment for which the intense work of mushrooms is fundamental.
Mushrooms: the forest, lung of life, it is their habitat, wood their natural nourishment, the decomposition of the organic their fundamental and vital task in safeguarding life.

Cultivation on wooden logs

A mushroom cultivation is only natural if:

the substratum or cultivation medium is that, specifically, it is wood
the mycelium is pure and grown on wood (mycelium nails)

All this leads to only one fundamental answer: to grow mushrooms on fresh and healthy wood logs with high quality certified Mycelium nails.
Cultivation is easy: just make some holes and hammer the Mycelium Nails with a hammer and wait.

Fresh and Natural Mushrooms

Putting your wood logs inoculated in a growing habitat similar to the undergrowth and following simple cultivation instructions, in autumn and spring will mushroom your mushrooms according to nature.
Only in this way will we be able to harvest fresh and natural mushrooms!

Plant the Spawn Plug in the trunk or log of wood

With the Funghi Mara Spawn Plugs you can grow many types of mushrooms

Reishi (Ganoderma Lucidum)
Maitake (Grifola Frondosa)
Hericeum (Hericeum Corallinus)
Shii-take (Lentinus Edodes)

Pleurotus (Pleurotus Ostreatus)
Fungo d’oro ® (Pleurotus Cornucopiae)
Pioppino (Pholiota aegerita)

How to sow and cultivate forest mushrooms
on logs or wooden blocks

Choose a stub or a tree on which to plant the Spawn Plugs (hereinafter you will find some tips on which wood to prefer based on the fungus you want to grow).

Drill holes in the wood with a diameter of 8 mm and a depth of 45 mm with a drill. The inoculum holes must be spaced 8-10 cm apart both on the circumference of the socket and between one line of circumference and the other.

With a hammer, plant the Spawn Plugs in the holes created.

Put the logs to incubate in a plastic bag that must have the top with the mouth folded but not sealed so as to have only a light gaseous exchange but, absolutely, not a recirculation of air.

At the end of incubation, ie when the mycelium has invaded the wood, remove the log from the bag and place it in the garden or in a corner of the house or cellar: with correct climatic conditions, mushroom production will continue for about 3 years.

Tips

Some authors suggest leaving a small empty chamber (which would seem to favor a first development of the mycelium) on the bottom of the hole; therefore, in this case, the hole depth will be 50-55 mm.
Greater distances can also be maintained, but incubation times increase (times of multiplication and development of the mycelium in the host plant).
The incubation time of the Mycelium Nails, ie the growth of the mycelium on the wood of the cylinders, varies according to the fungus: from 10-15 days for the mushrooms of the genus Pleurotus to a longer time for genres such as Ganoderma, Lentinus and others.

See how
it's easy!

Thanks to Simone Borghetti for making this video

Forest mushrooms at your home!

After carefully selecting the most suitable wood according to the mycelium of the different mushrooms to be cultivated, Funghi Mara provides for the production of small cylinders with a diameter of 8 mm and a length of 4.5 cm.
The small wooden cylinders, placed in the different and appropriate packs, are sterilized, inoculated and placed in incubation rooms at a controlled temperature where the mycelium develops: the inoculation takes place under the "laminar flow hood", ie in a small area absolutely sterile (aseptic), in order not to contaminate the Spawn Plug with possible pathogens of the environment.

Sachet of Spawn Plugs

The Sachet of Spawn Plugs is, in truth, made up of two envelopes inside one another.
The exterior is, externally, of glossy paper with a color of the mushroom and nails and plasticised inside for a greater sealing and sanitation.
Within this first outer envelope we find a second polyethylene bag containing 20 Mycelium Nails which are used to inoculate a classic 15 cm diameter and 30 cm high trunk.

Bag of Spawn Plugs

The Bag of Spawn Plugs contains about 2.034 cylinders.
it is recommended for the construction of plants, both of logs and tall live plants, yes even of modest size for family use but also to integrate into the farm direct sales of fruit, vegetables, eggs or poultry.

Inoculum times

In general, the best months for the inoculation of the stubs range from April to June, as the inoculated woods placed in fresh and humid environment benefit from the summer heat.

With a spring inoculation of logs for cultivation Pleurotus is expected to start production between the end of September and November already in the same year of inoculation and, in all ways and independently of the fungus, you always earn a year than the other months.

The months spring are also the most recommended for the inoculation of live plants.

Even in the middle of winter, a warm place to heat our incubator logs is always found, from the boiler room to the garage.

In other words, with due attention, this type of inoculation is feasible in all the months of the year.

Inoculation of wood logs

The logs or wooden blocks may have different sizes, but they are not only dictated by an ergonomic convenience but also by an economic convenience and the latter varies according to the different economic request of the chosen wood essence and its parts.

Let me explain: in the poplar its thick and straight stem is mainly used in carpentry or to be "peeled" and used in the production of crates for fruit and vegetables.
The "brushwood" instead does not find industrial uses except to be destined, at a modest price, to the paper mill or to the production of chopped.
It is obvious therefore that for the preparation of the logs to be inoculated we will use the thickest part of the branch not because the trunk it does not go well but simply because it would have a higher cost.
There is no fixed rule to define the dimensions of the logs or logs because what matters is simply the essence woody with which to feed the fungus and its quality.

The optimal time for cutting wood is the beginning of winter as the wood is in winter rest and full of reserve substances; the optimal time for sowing instead is spring at the vegetative restart.
However, these measures are important especially for the preparation of large plants for income purposes: at an amateur level, it is good any time of the year.

Inoculation of live plants

Inoculating live plants, especially with fungi such as Pleurotus, shii-take and pioppino that lend themselves well to the purpose, does not involve, if healthy, neither death nor damage to the host plant.

In fact this coexistence is common in nature and many are the seekers who, from a life and in the correct seasonal moment, go to their "secret place" sure to find both the plant and the mushrooms.
It goes without saying that the plant, like any other living being, at the moment of the inoculation, tries to oppose and defend itself from the invasion of the parasite.
It is precisely for this spontaneous and understandable defense that the inoculation of a living and healthy plant can not always give the safety and the probability of success that, on the contrary, more from the inoculation of a stump.
Inoculating live plants means having in your garden a mushroom production that is as durable as the life of the host plant.

Inoculation of live plants with Micel's nails I do it in ways similar to those for the log or wood block: it goes without saying that the plant can not be incubated in a bag but, considering that the size of the nails and holes have been studied to make adhere the walls of first to those of the second, you can get a good contact between plant and inoculum that, however, with its adherence also has a protective function but at the same time breathable.
The plant then, being alive, not has problems with dehydration.

Implant made by Shii-Take Italia inoculated with Spawn Plugs Funghi Mara

Mushrooms suitable for inoculation and
wood essences recommended for cultivation

	Reishi Ganoderma Lucidum	Maitake Grifola Frondosa	Hericeum Hericeum Corallinus	Shii-take Lentinus Edodes	Pleurotus Ostreatus e Cornucopiae	Pioppino Pholiota aegerita
Ontano				X	X
Frassino				X	X
Faggio				X	X
Castagno			X	X
Olmo	X	X
Eucalipto				X
Noce				X
Acacia		X
Acero	X		X		X
Quercia	X	X	X	X	X
Prugno	X				X	X
Pioppo	X			X	X
Liquidambar

	Reishi Ganoderma Lucidum	Maitake Grifola Frondosa	Hericeum Hericeum Corallinus
Ontano
Frassino
Faggio
Castagno			X
Olmo	X	X
Eucalipto
Noce
Acacia		X
Acero	X		X
Quercia	X	X	X
Prugno	X
Pioppo	X
Liquidambar

	Shii-take Lentinus Edodes	Pleurotus Ostreatus e Cornucopiae	Pioppino Pholiota aegerita
Ontano	X	X
Frassino	X	X
Faggio	X	X
Castagno	X
Olmo
Eucalipto	X
Noce	X
Acacia
Acero		X
Quercia	X	X
Prugno		X	X
Pioppo	X	X
Liquidambar

Wood essences recommended by reading experiences of various authors

Funghi Mara is regularly certified for the "Production of fungal mycelium - Regional Authorization number 3983 / official register of producers number 08/3983".