I have been reading, watching and studying growing edible mushrooms for a long time now. I have scoured the internet for spores and have found inoculated dowels to be the source. However, I still have a few questions concerning mushrooms. I read somewhere that you shouldn't use logs that are extremely old. Oak seems to be the perfect wood to inoculate with oyster, shiitake, lion's mane and I think reishi. Now I don't have oak logs and I do have very old and worn out logs. But today we cut down a Kafferboom tree otherwise known as Coastal Coral tree and was wondering if I could use this. I read somewhere that it's not a good idea to inoculate freshly cut wood because of the tree's natural anti-fungal properties. But, if you let it sit out for a week or two then it should be fine. My main concern is if I can use this particular log to grow mushrooms? If not, I regularly pick up cofee-grinds from a local coffee shop and was wondering how I can go about making use of that. I also have fresh or well rotted horse manure as a resource and if anybody has any suggestions on how I can used any of these growing medium to produce mushrooms.

May