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I have a lot of wine cap spawn from last year (kept a bag separate, and just fed it coffee grounds) that I never really used, and am wondering if I should mix the home grown spawn directly with the soil, or put it on the bottom layer then put the starting mix on top of it, or throw some in the hole after it gets put where I want to grow it outdoors.

black thumb
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  • What is the starting mix? Wine caps love wood chips and mulch. Ideally you'd put your spawn deep enough that it remained moist at all times, but not so deep that it stayed inundated or could go anaerobic. – That Idiot Mar 26 '19 at 15:16
  • it's some 4 month store bought potting soil – black thumb Mar 26 '19 at 21:50
  • @idiot how deep is that normally considered? 10 feet if there's no air hose in the bottom? – black thumb Mar 26 '19 at 22:07
  • the actual limit would depend on soil type and the amount of water likely to be in the soil, if I were doing this I wouldn't go more than a foot or so. When prepping a standard winecap bed, you wouldn't bury the spawn under soil at all - you might mix the lower layer with wood-chips or compost and some soil, but the bed itself would be 6-8" of chips/mulch exposed to the soil. The mycelium will benefit from the humidity and elevated CO2 (from microbiological respiration) found under that amount of wood chips, but it will need O2. At 10' I don't see there being enough. – That Idiot Mar 27 '19 at 11:21
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    also, regarding the potting soil - those typically have a lot of peat moss. That won't be an ideal substrate for winecaps. You'll want to mix in some wood chips. – That Idiot Mar 27 '19 at 11:23
  • i have plenty of wine-woodchips with coffee grounds mixed together that I overwintered in an unheated garage in USDA zone 4A – black thumb Mar 27 '19 at 17:36
  • Ideally you'd mix that with additional woodchips. – That Idiot Mar 27 '19 at 17:37
  • i ran them all winter under the snow and a truckload of wood chips, and now they've reduced quite a bit this spring. – black thumb Mar 27 '19 at 17:41
  • by "reduced quite a bit" does that mean that the amount of mycelium mass has reduced? Or the wood chips have reduced? – That Idiot Mar 28 '19 at 11:18
  • @idiot that means they cooked down a lot over the winter (I'd say about half way). – black thumb Mar 29 '19 at 04:08

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