Are you having problems with your Turkey Tail? Here’s what I realized after multiple failures.
I got my turkey tail from the wild when I was a complete novice mushroom grower. I (very stupidly) failed to ID and catalog the tree from which the specimen was taken for me to reference at later dates. Anyway, I got my specimen from a downed pine tree that was torched by the Bear River fire up in Colfax California. I took three specimens home, but the only one I had success with was the log as the first two or three cloning attempts did not work out. It wasn’t until the other day (1-19-25) that I realized my original specimen was growing on pine not oak!!! I am a novice, so I’m not sure if the species is able to prefer softwood vs hardwood, but the first mycelial test seemed to be positive. Either way, the fruiting blocks for turkey tail are not supplemented with enough to contaminate easily, so I plan to use any failed pine blocks to inoculate wild stumps/ felled trees of the coniferous variety.