Mushroom Spawn
High quality mushroom spawn is your key to growing healthy, vigorous mycelium that produces bountiful crops of high quality gourmet and medicinal mushrooms. All of our spawn is made to order in small batches using locally sourced, quality ingredients to ensure you have success with your mushroom cultivation projects.
Our grain spawn is produced using certified organic, locally grown oat seed that is soaked, drained and pressure sterilized before being inoculated with a liquid culture of the mushroom strain or species of your choice.
Our sawdust spawn is made using premium mixed hardwood sawdust that is hydrated and sterilized before being inoculating with first generation grain spawn.
Grain and sawdust based spawn types are each better suited to certain applications, growing conditions and substrate mixtures. Take the time to familiarize yourself with the particular needs and environmental requirements of the mushroom species you are choosing to partner with, and decide which spawn type would perform best.
Plug spawn, also known as dowel spawn, comes in quart sized mason jars with approx. 280 individual birch dowels measuring 1” long and 5/16” in diamter. This quantity of plug spawn is sufficient to inoculate 5 logs with a diamter of 6” that are 3’ long, 3 logs measuring 6 inches x by 4 feet long or 2 logs measuring 8 inches by 4 feet long. See below for more information on plug spawn and log inoculation.
All of our grain and sawdust spawn products are produced in 5 lb. bags and can only be used once fully mature (10-14 days after the inoculation date). Please reach out if you have any questions about which type of spawn you should use for the project that you have in mind. We’re here to help you succeed!
* * Our wine cap sawdust spawn, as well as all of our plug spawn is for pre-order at this time, and will be made available when ready to use from the middle of April through to the middle of May. * *
If you are interested in inoculating some hardwood logs with mushrooms this coming spring, I am pleased to be once again partnering up with Northern Grove to be able to offer you the opportunity to connect with them and purchase hardwood logs that have been harvested throughout this winter.
If you are interested in this, feel free to get in touch with Paul @ info@northerngrove.ca. Here is a little bit of information about Northern Grove:
Paul Kruse and Heather Unger own and operate Northern Grove, a business that revolves around restoring healthy relationships with earth through tree care, permaculture design and soil health consultation.
Rather than seeing human activity as necessarily damaging to the earth, Paul and Heather seek to partner with earth to be a benefit - to regenerate ecosystems, create ecological and economic resilience, and benefit their community.
In that sense, they hope to make as large a ‘footprint’ as possible. Northern Grove is thrilled to partner with River City Mushrooms to provide high-quality wood for mushroom growing.