guildfordcycads

I saw this ad showing how to “plant” a mushroom fruiting bag directly into a garden bed to grow, and now I’m wondering what the best methods are for establishing a specific colony in the garden. I have wine cap in my future plans and perhaps naively assumed you just syringed inoculant into the mulch.

Thoughts? Would mushrooms “planted” this way spread and stick around? Even if it didn’t spread effectively, would this situation benefit that particular garden bed? I can buy the bags locally but not the syringes, I would have to order them and it would be a huge bonus for me if I could buy a “kit” from our local guy instead.

Please excuse me if I am mycology illiterate, I am fairly new to this part of my soil health.

So I moved to my current house about 2 years ago now. I got my backyard situated first (it’s all violets and strawberries back there cause it’s super shady with 3 big trees) and now I want to move on to the front.

For context of the area, I’m in KCMO (zone 6b). My main goals are to create space for native polinators, and to grow some edible species for myself and my neighbors. I want to make the space feel welcoming, especially since my neighbor to the right has 3 daughters that currently use the lawn to play on sometimes. There’s a slight hill to the yard with the low point being about 5 ft in from the road.

Currently I have 1 serviceberry tree, 2 elderberry bushes, and 2 beauty berries ready to plant. I wanted to use those as my larger plants for the guild I’d like to have. Also planning to stop by a local native plant seller and grab their opinions on what to plant with these guys. I was planning on putting the serviceberry over on the right side by the downspout, but from there I’m not super certain how to organize the rest of the yard.

My main question is, how would y’all recommend setting up this space with those goals in mind? The backyard had other stuff for me to build off of already, but I’m a bit lost with how empty the front yard is currently. I was considering basically following the edge of the lawn and making the center open, but I’m interested in hearing what y’all think would be best given the space.

We moved into a house with an acre of land almost 3 years ago. I’ve put in roughly 25 fruit trees. The fruit tree varieties were specifically recommended for my county/sold by a family nursery who specializes in fruit trees for my county. Most of the various fruit trees have survived.

I have one patch of yard where I’ve planted 6 pear trees (various types). 5 pear trees have died.

Last year: planted 3 pear trees. One died.

This year: Planted 3 more pear trees. All 3 of those never broke dormancy. One pear tree from last year had leaves and was flowering and then just died all of a sudden. There was no evidence of pests or fungi contamination. The tree’s leaves turned brown “overnight” and then was dead.

In this same patch of yard, when we moved in, we had a dead live oak. I am guessing the live oak was maybe 10 years old. There was no evidence of oak wilt (that I could see).

I planted the trees in December (recommended for our hot area). We’ve had slightly above average rain (slightly below average rain last year). The spot where these pear trees sit has good drainage.

Basically, all of my other fruit trees have survived. I wanted cross-pollination to occur in that area, so that was my “pear tree area”. So, I don’t have any other pear trees surviving/dying elsewhere to compare to.

I am not a beginning gardener and am pretty ok at it (I’m no Monty Don, but I can get by). I did get lazy and didn’t get soil AgriLife tested for N-P-K before planting. Trees were put directly into the ground, no amendments, no fertilizer, no fancy things (as directed by the nursery). Trees were planted so collar was above ground. (I am thinking if I did a dumb job of planting the trees, all the fruit trees would be dead or suffering).

I am beginning to suspect possible soil contamination from construction waste (maybe?!?). The house is 30 years old, but some contaminants can remain a long time. I thought pear trees were pretty bullet-proof. Live oak trees are almost bullet-proof. It’s just weird everywhere else the trees are thriving. But this one patch is the death patch.

Do y’all have any thoughts on this occurrence? (Maybe pear trees are whimps, and the dead live oak is a red herring).