Dave Bennett said:

You could try casing half the patch and leave the other half bare and see which side does best.

I'm not sure I'd use a lot of coir as wood lovers can digest it so it wouldn't act like a true casing layer and once colonised it would turn the surface of patch hydrophobic.

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I have a small patch as well, I'll leave that without a casing. Thanks for the heads up on the coir, what do you suggest I use as a casing? I don't have my own compost

PhenoDreamers said:

I am curious to see how a side by side goes for you kloakk. I wanna hear Dave's response but you've mentioned about other people finding success with soil with azurescens. I'm wondering if potting soil would be best for casing. Otherwise I'd imagine jiffy of some sort. I know you're not in the states. So any seed starter like that. Remember, everything is resilient outside.

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Thanks man, yeah I was thinking of using the same seedling/cactus soil I got laying around, some of the sucky coir that's mostly fibers and a pinch of cow manure compost, maybe mixed with some verm or perlite even

I see several people grow them in pots with what looks like regular garden soil as a casing because there's plants in the pots. I'll wait to see what Dave or other members think is the best move and consider what y'all say before I make up my mind.

As soon as I can start spawning the indoor azzie grows I'll do more tests, but with this one big patch I would rather just get some fruits

Mr Piggy said:

I have been fruiting woodlovers, especially azzies, outdoors for over a decade.  Never once have I ever needed the chips to be covered in anything.  The few times I tried it ended up giving me a poorer yield.

Outdoor woodlovers, especially cyan clade, love to fruit off of bare chips sitting on the ground.

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I am getting mixed information, which I pressume could be because of the different climates around the world. Adas told me that his patches will dry out an die unless he mixes wood with soil, if I remember correctly he's doing 50/50 chips and soil.

Tweeq's picture has stuff growing around his mushrooms so I would assume there is soil there as well?



And then there's Dave's outdoor tubs, which have half an inch of his homemade compost casing layer.





So yeah I'm not really sure what to do You know I value your insight Piggy, I just really want this to work out

Churpee Choozle said:

Kloakk, as Pheno points out there will be a layer of leaves in autumn, providing a perfect microclimate. And, after one season, some fine mulch between the chips.

I've had a lot of fruits popping from the soil / chips interface on the sides of the bed. But also a lot of fruits coming from inches of chips and nothing but chips. Covered in leaves.

Like these subaers


Or these cyans


Or these


Or these ovoids

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Beautiful pictures Churp and thanks for sharing. I can get behind any sort of top layer to maintain a better microclimate and even though I practically live in the forest, there's mostly pine around here and the patch is in my lawn, which I mow and I can assure you that there won't be more then a couple of leaves on my azzies patch and maaaaaybe one stick if the kids throw it there by accident

It might not matter when fall actually comes and the patch might stay humid 24/7, but like I wrote to piggy I don't know and I really want this thing to poop this year and why I am thinking about adding a casing during this hot ass summer

I appreciate all of you for holding my hand through my first outdoor woodlover, I just want to to it right.

Kloakk said:

Dave Bennett said:

You could try casing half the patch and leave the other half bare and see which side does best.

I'm not sure I'd use a lot of coir as wood lovers can digest it so it wouldn't act like a true casing layer and once colonised it would turn the surface of patch hydrophobic.

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I have a small patch as well, I'll leave that without a casing. Thanks for the heads up on the coir, what do you suggest I use as a casing? I don't have my own compost

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Wood chips...


Really though the best casing is some live vegetation like vinca, strawberry, clover, pachysandra, any creeping low growing groundcover really. Ivy will choke/tox them out ime.

Straw, sun dried grasses, some types of leaf litter, a thin layer of peat, all such things will work but they are unneeded and favor other mold, fungi, and slimes moving in. You will have no trouble with a topper as the worms in your patch will cover everything with casting. A solid woodlover patch will generate several inches of really nice dank dark humus every year. At a certain point, keeping the shrubbery and little trees and weeds at bay is the biggest challenge. They build topsoil fast just by being there.

Personally from the way your patch looks I'd just LITFA aside from feeding as needed.

Nichrome said:

Wood chips...


Really though the best casing is some live vegetation like vinca, strawberry, clover, pachysandra, any creeping low growing groundcover really. Ivy will choke/tox them out ime.

Straw, sun dried grasses, some types of leaf litter, a thin layer of peat, all such things will work but they are unneeded and favor other mold, fungi, and slimes moving in. You will have no trouble with a topper as the worms in your patch will cover everything with casting. A solid woodlover patch will generate several inches of really nice dank dark humus every year. At a certain point, keeping the shrubbery and little trees and weeds at bay is the biggest challenge. They build topsoil fast just by being there.

Personally from the way your patch looks I'd just LITFA aside from feeding as needed.

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Kloakk said:

Well all right then, I'll relax, you're all excellent growers and I'll leave it be, just one last question, do I lightly water it every three days or something? We've had like 1 day of rain for the last month.

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PhenoDreamers said:

No, you can only choose one of us to be the best grower. So choose now and everyone else will hate you forever.

In the driest times, I'll water it like once a week dude. I don't think you have to be too picky. I went like a month without watering lol. But mycelium also doesn't like to feed when it's TOO wet

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And fair enough, just water lightly if it gets very dry for a week, got it, thanks again guys

Mr Piggy said:

I have been fruiting woodlovers, especially azzies, outdoors for over a decade.  Never once have I ever needed the chips to be covered in anything.  The few times I tried it ended up giving me a poorer yield.

Outdoor woodlovers, especially cyan clade, love to fruit off of bare chips sitting on the ground.

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