Growing Turkey Tail Mushrooms From a Boxed Kit

It has been a while since I've made a gardening blog post (I was surprised that it was in 2022!).  As indicated in earlier posts we made the move from Texas to Washington and learned that gardening in WA is completely different than gardening in TX.  Our vegetable garden is significantly smaller in WA than it was in TX but we are still actively gardening.  

Recently I was diagnosed with stage 3 metastatic breast cancer in February 2025. Since the diagnosis I’ve learned every breast cancer is different. Mine is “triple negative” occult breast cancer. It is “occult” breast cancer because the original tumor could not be identified via MRI, CT or bone scans. Only 2 enlarged lymph nodes in my armpit carry the cancer cells. I began 6 months of chemotherapy on April 4, 2025, after my chest port was surgically inserted.  It is considered aggressive. My doctors tell me chemotherapy is very effective against it and surgery will follow.  Of course I have been reading information regarding the diagnosis and what to expect.  Since one of my interests is gardening I have learned there have been several studies on Turkey Tail Mushrooms that have shown some promise in the fight against several kinds of cancer. See "Can Turkey Tail Mushrooms Help Fight Cancer?"

 https://www.healthline.com/health/cancer/turkey-tail-mushroom-cancer#health-benefits

 

Several companies offer Turkey Tail Mushroom Kits.  I decided to go with the Myco Labs product.

https://www.mycolabs.com/turkey-tail-mushroom-grow-kit-5lbs.aspx 

 

I also ordered a portable humidity mushroom tent.  

See:  https://www.mycolabs.com/portable-mushroom-humidity-tent.aspx

Next step was to remove the mushroom infused brick from the box and cut 5 cm holes in the plastic to allow the mushrooms to grow out of the side slits.

Next I placed the humidity grow bag over the large stainless steel bowl I'm using to grown the mushrooms in (it will collect liquids that come off the mushroom bag as the mushrooms grow) and I inserted a Thermometer/Hygrometer in the bowl to monitor both the temperature and humidity.  

Temperature;  58-74 degrees.

 Humidity:  90% humidity during the initial stages of mycelial growth and then gradually decrease humicity to around 70-80% during fruiting.

I sprayed the inside of the bag with unchlorinated water and then moved the plastic covered bowl to my food pantry which has indirect light during the day as suggested in the instructions.

The instructions indicate it will take 1-2 months to grow to full size mushrooms.  After that I will consider several methods to dry and pulverize them into a powder to add to tea and coffee.  I will not be consuming them until AFTER I have completed chemotherapy since there is a concern that their use can interefer with the efficacy of the chemotherapy drugs I am being treated by.

 

This will be a fun project and I'm excited about seeing the results!  I will update my blog with my final results (hopefully success) and I'll also detail how I prepare and store my mushroom powder.

 

Decorations for the Christmas Season 2022 in Beautiful Sequim, WA

I'm always ready to start decorating right after Thanksgiving.  My cat Amelia gets involved too and began inspecting the tree bag and all the decoration containers immediately.

 Our doodle puppy Lily (almost 10 months) wanted to get in on the action too.

I noticed on the first day of decorating that the Thanksgiving cactus had put on blooms too celebrate the occasion!

Outdoor lights went up day by day including a wreath on the raised vegetable bed garden.

 

The front door received its wreath.

 

The kitchen also got some decorations.  Lily and my old kitty Merlin are posing for the camera.  Merlin will be 18 years old in April 2023.

 

We tried Snoop's wine one evening in honor of the Holiday season - hah! 

 

My vintage terra cotta nativity.  I purchased all the pieces separately from Ebay and it took me several years to acquire it all.

 

Lily is checking out the decorations in the garden room.

 

 

 

Li

 

Christmas Tree #1 is up in the garden room.  Amelia is modeling for the camera.

 

The dining room is decorated too.

 

I listened to wonderful music while decorating.

 Christmas Tree #2 goes up in the living room.

My church, St. Luke's Episcopal in Sequim, WA on the second Sunday of Advent.

My Advent Wreath.

Lily is standing by our festively decorated new gate.

The greenhouse got a festive bow too to celebrate the season.  Happy Holidays to all!

August 17th Summer Garden Update: Composting, Slug Eggs and More in Sequim, WA

It has been almost a month since I posted last on the status of my vegetable garden and the flowers I planted in my yard.  I've had success and some of the plants I'd given up on are pulling through the pest onslaught.  I also ordered myself a tumbling composter from Home Depot and I really like it.

I put it by the garden and one side is nearly full of nitrogen and carbon waste.  I used about a 60% carbon (sawdust) 40% nitrogen split (kitchen waste).

The contents are already starting to warm up and it is looking like it should.

In previous posts I've complained about my concern on the lack of pollinators but honestly I've had good luck and the plants, if they flower, are producing for the most part.  My best producers are the Zucchini.  However, as seen in the picture below, some of the fruit is succumbing to blossom end rot.

I've been reading up on it and it appears to be cause by a calcium deficiency and there are competing arguments on how to address it.  So far I'm getting plenty of edible Zucchini.  I did not have this problem in Texas so it is my first time to figure out how to address it.

 I'm throwing the affected Zucchini in the compost bin.

I used my first harvested large Zucchini to make a mock apple pie.  The flavor was pretty good, but it released too much water when baking and the pie was too runny.  We ate it anyway but I'll make Zucchini bread next time.

 

The next big success story is the tomatoes.  I have several varieties planted and they are growing well and producing a lot of fruit.  I've already harvested several red "Early Girl" varieties.  The smaller "tommy toes" tomatoes (as my mother referred to them) have not turned red yet.

Unfortunately, a couple of the plants have become afflicted with some type of plant disease with small black dots on the leaves (which is totally new to me here in Sequim) and my best guess is some type of fungus.  I'm going to add more mulch and pinch off the lower leaves as a start to tackling the problem.

 So far it does not seem to be affecting their productivity.

 

The next good luck I've had is the Cucumbers started growing and blooming like crazy after we had a warm week (in the 80's).  The temperature gave them enough of a push to start doing well.  I'm hoping for an excellent harvest.

I expressed concern in my last post regarding leaf miners attacking the beans, radishes, beets, and spinach.  They are all growing and doing well.  I think the warm week of weather we had gave them enough of a push and I'm hopeful for a good harvest now.

The entire bed is growing well and the two eggplants at the front of the bed are starting to grow finally as well.

The following pictures just show plant growth over the past month.  I have concluded that these plants really love the heat and they started doing well after we had a week of 80 plus temps.  The temperatures dropped the following week to the 60's and 70's but the one week of warm temps was enough to get them growing.

 

I almost harvested the Broccoli too late.  I kept hoping the heads would get a little bigger and they were almost ready for the blooms to pop open.

The plants I have been most disappointed in are the Bell and Jalapeno Peppers.  They were my top stars in Texas but apparently not so here in Washington.  They remain small and puny looking.  Some of the plants are putting on flowers and there are some small fruit but they are not robust and healthy.  I did fertilize them but it didn't help much.

We were changing out some large planter pots in our front yard and after lifting one of them off the ground we saw some eggs that were new to us.  We had a clue they were slug eggs but I confirmed it after looking them up.

They looked like fish eggs to me.

 Closer up for viewing.

Since I'm retired and have time, I decided to save them in a small container.  I'm going to cover them up and watch them hatch!  Hah!

A good insect post:  I saw a small spider.  I move them to a safe space if they are in an area I don't want them to be.  This is a new spider to me.  I did not see this type in Texas.  I believe he is some type of a hobo spider.

 

 

I'll close today's post with pictures of the Beebalm flowers in my backyard which are blooming now and look so lovely.  I try to plant flowers to bring in the pollinators and this is one of the best.  It grew back from last years plantings.