I built an 8x4 raised bed too close to the wood line and it doesn’t grow anything successfully because of shade. I had a big tree come down in a storm, and, like any good mushroom guy… if there’s an arborist around, I’m getting wood chips.

My friend was telling me about wine cap mushrooms. Apparently they are delicious, dead easy to grow, and don’t transport well so you can’t find them in stores. So knowing I had a soft maple coming down, I went ahead and ordered spawn from north spore.

The first step was to take the weedy garden bed down to bare dirt. Since I actually weeded this spring it didn’t take too long. Once that is done, I covered it with 1” of fresh wood chips. I haven’t had fresh chips in a while and had forgotten how hot they get. The pile was steaming!

According to north spore wine caps do best on a variety of substrate sizes, so after the wood chips were done I layered in some straw and mixed it:

Then crumbled the spawn and sprinkled it on top:

North Spore says a bag does 16 square feet so I’m going at 50% the recommended rate here. The conditions are pretty much ideal, it’s warm, the chips are super fresh (2 days old), I have clean straw mixed in and the bed is drip irrigated, so I like my chances.

I then covered the bed with another 2-3” layer of fresh chips, watered heavily, and added the drip line.

Finally I topped the bed off with some shade cover. It’s in full sun in the afternoon, although the spawn is buried deep and for the most part the bed is shaded, this seems like a prudent step.

Now as always fingers crossed. These things are called “garden giants” and apparently the caps can get as big as dinner plates! Look forward to sharing harvest pics next year.

If you have a dead garden bed this might be a move worth doing!