Question for those on the board. Has any one or can anyone say they have started
hens on oaks from cuttings from cleaning hens and putting the trimmings around
oaks. I hauled north this weekend, cuttings form the 12.5 pounder I found down state
and added it to oaks on my property up north. looked for older trees. I just wondered
if any one has done it or am I wasting my time? This is a mushroom that is cultivated and
the paper bags I saved thing in they did spore out.
We were pretty dry and found nothing new. I did run the dog in one spot that was loaded I
think with old Honey's that were in a 6 year old cutting. You could smell mushrooms walking in the
area and there were big spore prints around all the clusters. Cant say I had ever seen that on
that scale in the woods before.
Key in on the words: Parasitic & Saprobic below, hope they link from here for you. Else-wise I left the page link. I tried this on some maples in my yard, I mean I get a chicken every year on a big cherry tree! But nothing ever happened in my yard.
I USUALLY-not always.....ever find them on black oaks that are for the most part alive and well. In fact there are a few of my oaks in some spots that blew apart that no longer host hens.....but they do chickens now, and only now?!? I swear I don't get these crazy bastards.
I have found some on dead stuff, not many and they don't repeat for me.
https://www.mushroomexpert.com/grifola_frondosa.html
____________________________________________________________________
Grifola frondosa
[
Basidiomycota >
Polyporales >
Grifolaceae > Grifola . . . ]
by
Michael Kuo
Grifola frondosa, sometimes called the "hen of the woods" and the "maitake," is a soft-fleshed
polypore recognized by its smoky brown, wavy caps, which are organized in large clusters of rosettes arising from a single, branched stem structure. It is usually found near the bases of oaks, where it causes a butt rot. It is similar to
Meripilus sumstinei (which has larger individual caps, smaller pores, and surfaces that bruise black) and to
Polyporus umbellatus (which has more clearly defined individual caps and stems). Microscopic features will also help separate these species.
Regarding the putative "medicinal" properties of this mushroom: I am sorry to put it this bluntly, but this mushroom is not going to cure your cancer, nor any other ailment you may have—and if someone has sold you a product based on the assumption that it will, you have purchased some snake oil from a witting or unwitting charlatan. The only health benefits associated with consuming
Grifola frondosa result from the exercise involved with hunting for it in the woods. There is no legitimate scientific support for the idea that mushrooms are medicinal. None. There is only pseudoscience, bad science reporting in the mainstream news media, and very wishful science reporting in the alternative health media. For further information, see Nicholas Money's "Are mushrooms medicinal?" (2016).
Description:
Ecology: Weakly
parasitic on living oaks and other hardwoods; also
saprobic on decaying wood; causing a white butt rot; fruiting near the bases of trees; often reappearing in the same place in subsequent years; summer and fall; widely distributed east of the Rocky Mountains, rare in the west. The illustrated and described collections are from Illinois.
Fruiting Body: 15–40 cm across; 10–30 cm high; composed of multiple caps in a rosette, sharing a branched, stemlike structure.
Individual Caps: 3–14 cm across; more or less fan-shaped or deltoid; dark to pale gray-brown (often with vague concentric zones); yellowing with old age; finely velvety or bald; with wavy margins.
Pore Surface: Running down the stem, often nearly to the base; lavender gray when young, becoming white and, with age, staining yellowish; not bruising; with 1–3 angular to slot-like or nearly tooth-like pores per mm; tubes 1–3 mm deep.
Stem Structure: Branched; whitish; tough; often off-center.
Flesh: Firm; white; unchanging when sliced.
Odor and Taste: Mild; pleasant.
Chemical Reactions: KOH negative on flesh and surfaces. Iron salts negative on cap and flesh.
Spore Print: White.
Microscopic Features: Spores 4–6 x 3–4 µm; ellipsoid; smooth; hyaline in KOH, often with one large oil droplet; inamyloid. Basidia 25–30 x 6–8 µm; clavate; 4-sterigmate. Hymenial cystidia not found. Hyphal system dimitic. Clamp connections present on generative hyphae; absent on skeletal hyphae.