Which tree suits which mushroom?
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Look up which wood is suitable for growing mushrooms and you quickly land on lists full of sugar maple, hickory and white oak. All fine trees, they just do not grow here. This page covers wood you can actually get hold of in the Low Countries and most of Europe: from your own garden, from municipal pruning or through a tree surgeon.
The short answer for quick deciders: beech is the safest choice for almost every species, oak is the best long-term investment, and soft woods like alder, willow and poplar give fast results but run out sooner.
The rule of thumb: hard wood lasts, soft wood sprints
The denser the wood, the longer the mycelium needs to conquer it, and the more harvest years you get back. A thick oak log with shiitake can produce for six years or more. An alder log with oyster mushrooms is sometimes spent after three years, but gives you a first harvest within a year. Neither is better, it is a choice between fast and long.
Which tree for which species?
| Tree | Suitable for | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Beech | Almost everything: oyster mushroom, shiitake, lion's mane, nameko, pioppino | The all-rounder of the European forest |
| Oak | Shiitake, maitake, reishi, chicken of the woods | Slow, but years of harvests |
| Alder | Oyster mushroom, velvet shank (enoki), nameko | Fast results, shorter lifespan |
| Willow | Oyster mushroom, velvet shank, chicken of the woods | Free everywhere after pruning season |
| Birch | Oyster mushroom, shiitake, turkey tail | Nice soft wood, fairly quickly spent |
| Poplar | Oyster mushroom, pioppino, lion's mane | Pioppino literally means poplar mushroom |
| Ash | Oyster mushroom, chestnut mushroom | Widely available due to ash dieback |
| Elder | Wood ear | Really the only serious tenant |
| Fruit trees | Oyster mushroom, chicken of the woods, wood ear | Apple and cherry work, plum is hit and miss |
Is your tree not listed? Almost any broadleaf is worth a try with oyster mushroom, the least fussy species there is.
Which wood should you avoid?
Conifers. Pine, spruce, larch and Douglas fir are full of resin and our cultivated species want nothing to do with it. Also best avoided: wood that has been lying around for months (other fungi already live there), painted or treated wood, and black locust. That last one resists rot so well that even an oyster mushroom finds little to eat.
Does log thickness matter?
Yes, more than most people think. Ideal is a log of 10 to 40 cm thick and 50 to 100 cm long. Thinner than 10 cm dries out too fast, thicker than 40 cm takes very long to colonise. A thin log fruits sooner, a thick log fruits for years. At the nursery we prefer logs of 20 to 30 cm: the middle ground between waiting and lasting.
Where do you find good wood?
No need to fell a tree yourself. During pruning season (November to March) wood becomes available in every neighbourhood. Ask your council what happens to pruned wood, talk to a tree surgeon working in your street, or check local classifieds under firewood. Freshly cut is the magic phrase: always ask when the sawing happened, because for inoculation you want wood no older than six weeks. Why that matters is explained in our piece on the inoculation season.
Torn between two types of wood for a specific mushroom? Send us a photo of the wood and we will think along. It costs nothing and saves you a year of waiting on the wrong log.