by Sofia Moutinho

• Mycorrhizal fungi live in symbiosis with plants, providing them with nutrients necessary to thrive and potentially playing a key part in preserving threatened species.
• Although research into mycorrhizae has so far been sparse in Latin America, efforts are gaining momentum, with experts studying how the fungi could help save the Colombian black oak, an endangered, endemic species.
• In Huila, Colombia, local communities are successfully working with researchers on a black oak restoration project using seeds “inoculated” with fungi.

“All this forest above us, and we are here looking down,” says Corrales, a fungi ecologist and expedition leader at the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN), a nonprofit research organization mapping fungi worldwide. For the last two years, the group has been searching in Colombia’s black oak forests for mycorrhizae, a type of fungi that establishes a unique symbiosis with plants that’s fundamental to keeping forests alive.

Most plants worldwide are associated with these fungi. Mycorrhizae grow around roots, forming vast networks of thin, cotton-like filaments that extend into the lower soil levels and reach the litter fall. Through this system, the fungi can break down organic matter, such as dry leaves, and even mine minerals in rocks and deliver water and essential nutrients directly to plants’ roots. In return, the roots provide the fungi with sugars, essential for their survival.

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First yield from this: log inoculation using sawdust spawn

These are lovely, they have a nice nutty flavor and are very, very tender. Hence why I've never seen them in a store.

One of the joys of gourmet mushroom cultivation is having access to all these edible species that I would otherwise never get to taste.

I was supposed to bury these per the north spore instructions but they seem to be doing just fine above ground?

https://fxtwitter.com/redditships/status/1824505077198975231

Early autumn loot is really getting started where I live. Chantarelles have been abundant for weeks now and these guys are just now starting to surface, about three weeks earlier than last year. And looking at how much small ones there were, it's going to be an epic year for mushroom drying. This truly is the poor mans truffle.

Chicken of the woods successful harvest demonstrates the viability of sous vide tek for medium pasteurization

Chicken of the woods successful harvest demonstrates the viability of sous vide tek for medium pasteurization

My fourth year searching for them and i finally found a place! Few hundred feet off the trail and there it was among the mayapple and waterleaf, i could hardly believe it. Tree ID is HARD and i don't have any tips on that front but i don't think there were any elms around because the (lack of) canopy in the area didn't show any sign of flowers/buds. Ended up with 9 ounces and i left some tiny ones behind that still seemed healthy enough to keep growing.

Shout out to the curious deer that patiently led me right to the spot.

Lil song with cute mushroom video for mushy friends

Super catchy 'mogu mogu' refrain which also kinda works as a cross-lingual pun because mogu (蘑菇) means mushroom in Mandarin and is an onomatopoeia for chewing in Japanese.

I wonder if this belongs in c/mycology most cos it's mushrooms, but it's also c/sino, c/food and c/music lmao

Learning about the different types of fungus is cool, my favourites were the ones that sprung up after the fires. Also learning that an estimated 5 per cent of the surface of the globe is lichen is pretty

Hey I am wondering if anyone else had headache issues after taking these mushrooms and stopping. They have gotten slightly better over time but very slowly, and it seems to be stagnating. Been having the headaches for 6 month daily since stopping.

Don't know if this is the right community on this site to post about this, but since it is a mushroom I thought to post it here.

Im going to put woodchips and oyster stems in a BUCKET and it will ALWAYS WORK!!!!!

found this image randomly and thought it would be appreciated here

Old and CRUSRY and HOME TO MQNY INSECTS! this is a proletarian mushroom. Truly.

Mycena haematopus and Spinellus fusiger. i should get a real camera

new crime pays mushroom vid dropped

Have you wanted to grow mushrooms but didn't know where to start? Here's a relatively easy and foolproof technique that doesn't require equipment or sterilization and can be done in an afternoon.

MATERIALS:
Mushroom spawn - the two types that work well for this are oyster mushrooms (any variety, although given that oyster mushrooms tend to be copious spore producers and the spores are known for causing health problems, sporeless oysters are best for indoors/small spaces) and what's known as bear'a head or lion's mane. The latter produced a shaggy ball-shaped mushroom and is enjoying a moment right now because it helps keep nerves healthy. It's also darn tasty and can be enjoyed in stir fries and sushi (if cooked!). Pioppino might also do well in this setup, but I have never tried it. Mushroom spawn can be purchased online. I like Field & Forest Products as a supplier.

Yesterday's News Kitty Litter: made from pelletized newspaper, do not substitute feline pine or other wood-based brands

Guinea Pig Chow: you want pelletized Timothy hay

Dechlorinated Water - Hot water out of the faucet that has been allowed to cool works, so does distilled or filtered water, or tap water that has been brought to a boil and allowed to cool. You need 4 cups per batch.

Newspaper Bags: any tube shaped plastic bag will do. Small mushroom grow bags are available on Amazon and also work well.

A clean plastic tub for mixing (for best results wipe out beforehand with hydrogen peroxide or a 1:10 bleach dilution)

METHOD

Making the artificial log:
Using clean or gloved hands, mix 4 cups of yesterday's news, two handfuls of guinea pig chow, and 4 cups of water until the water is fully incorporated. Add in about a cup of spawn (less works, but it is slightly riskier), breaking up the clumps with your fingers. Scoop the inoculated medium into your bag, tap on the counter a couple times to pack it down, then tie it off.

Spawn Run: Over the course of the next couple of weeks, the mushroom spawn will colonize the artificial logs, causing the medium to become cohesive and whitish in color. If you see green, powdery growth, you have trichoderma contamination and should discard. Black splotches are mold and also a sign your log is compromised.

Fruiting:
Oxygen is the trigger to switch over from vegetative growth to making mushrooms. Tiny pinheads called primordia will often form in places where there's gaps between substrate and bag; you can look for them and make small x cuts in the bag with a pair of scissors, or you can just pierce the bag in regular intervals on one side. Keeping the bag in a humid environment, placing it in a shopping bag, or misting it regularly can improve yield. Once the mushrooms are mature, you can harvest them (ideally before they drop a lot of spores). If you're growing bear's head, the tips starting to yellow is a sign that the fruiting body is done growing.

A second flush can be obtained by soaking the bags in dechlorinated water for at least a couple of hours. Expect 1-2 pounds of yield from each bag.

WHY IT WORKS

The mushrooms we're growing here are known as white rot fungi and have been evolutionary honed to tolerate wood, a growing medium that most other decomposers hate because it's low in nitrogen and high in forms of carbohydrate that are difficult to break down. White rot fungi are not really used to competitors and are happy to take their time, which means that they can spend years breaking down a log before deciding to fruit. This is disadvantageous from a less patient human cultivator's point of view.

We can speed the process up by offering tastier forms of nutrition, but that will attract faster-growing fungi who can muscle out our target species. Thus, growing mushrooms successfully without contamination requires either an environment more suited to the target mushroom than faster-growing competitors (that is, it is relatively low in nutrients), or a rigorous commitment to ensuring the competitors are kept out of the medium. We take a hybrid approach here: both the litter and the Timothy pellets are sterilized during manufacturing, so we don't have to worry as much about aseptic technique, but the resulting medium is still less nutritious than something designed for high yields, such as master's mix. Keeping the logs comparatively small and using a high spawn ratio also allows the edible mushroom to quickly complete a life cycle before any spores that have drifted in have a chance to get established, with the drawback of increasing cost per unit produced.

COST/MATERIAL CONSIDERATIONS

You're looking at roughly $80 - 100 in materials to get off the ground, with your main expense being the mushroom spawn. A 5 lb bag of spawn should be enough for 20 or so mini logs, so at $5/lb of mushrooms at the high end, you're beating the grocery store or farmer's market pretty handily. This is also a lot to make at once, and spawn does have a limited shelf life (although it can be stored in the fridge for a couple of weeks). High nutrient spawns like rye tend to get chewed through quickly and you can often find your spawn bags fruiting on their own (not necessarily the worst outcome).

If you're worried about waste and not sure where you'd keep 20 newspaper bags full of mycelium, consider splitting the cost with friends or making your own spawn in smaller batches. Spore/mycelium syringes for edible varieties are available online, and the popular and relatively reliable "Uncle Ben's tek" used for Psilocybes will also work for the more licit species of fungi. That's a post for another time, though.

OKAY I GREW SOME MUSHROOMS, NOW WHAT?

Spent logs can theoretically be used to spawn new ones, although the chances for contamination go up and yields can decline over time. They can also be composted or tossed on a log pile to see if you get some mushrooms the natural way.

Took about four or five months with just a tiny amount of mail order spawn and no real effort. May not be as tasty as some of the hardwood types (will know soon enough) but they are fucking huge. Gonna keep adding to the bed and move some of the spawn around till they’re growing all over my garden.

Been getting a lot of mushrooms in the backyard lately. I'm no mycologist, but I still find these little dudes fascinating.

2’ section of clean maple from a log drop, roughly 8” or so in diameter. inoculated last winter with totem method. Overwinter inoculation in the garage was a good move, I had a fully inoculated log in the spring letting me start a full 3 months earlier. Probably wouldn’t have gotten a harvest this year otherwise.

You can see these all came out of the spawn so I’m hoping to get some from the log itself next year. Time will tell.

Biggest ball is 4” or so across.

Very hype for these as I have never tasted them before. They’re supposed to be delicious and are suuuuper expensive at the store (30-40 usd a pound)

But think of the spores

Seen this on so I know nothing about it. I just thought of you fungi nerds when I seen it.

Is apparently called mycena subcyanocephala .

Plz help me mushroom mods i suck at this help help help i spill my jice

Mycena leaiana. There were honey mushrooms everywhere too but they were too old to eat