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Amara

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Hello. I'm new to mushroom hunting to some degree. I am a gardener, but as new plants become a scarcity lately, I decided to learn more about mushrooms to fill that void. I found 32 different species so far this fall, including shaggy manes which I'm attempting to multiply in afew different fashions. Ill post my finds later, but to start I'd like to share the ones I don't know. Ill share my full collection as I go

Cheers.

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I'm a gardener by trade so it's kinda similar. I get the Latin and how like mushrooms identify. As a kid we collected shaggy manes but that is about it. I have a bit of a phobia of grocery stores so I raise rabbits and garden including a lot of guerilla gardening (mostly heritage grains). Mushrooms seem like a diverse way to include nutrition and meal variety while amplifying my appreciation for nature. Multiplying is important to learn; some things taken don't replish with ease. I want to take knowing I'm giving back. I am also an inventor of a type. I have enough in life I haven't bothered cashing in, but my current project is developing a mulch consisting of mycelium that feed from seeds so the mulch "eats" weedseeds while leaving a garden intact. It's just an idea, but I won't doubt it can be done. But I'm okay with learning a lot to find out if it can't be done. Either way I've enjoyed mushroom hunting this fall

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I dont know. All I even know is there is fungus that attack wheat and corn specifically. Grain seems to be good food for mushrooms. Something is bound to work; I need more experience and knowledge before I can make any solid call.

Today I got more shaggy manes from a lawn. Im going to see what mediums start them best. I dont really know what will work best to start the mycelium or how long I can keep spores. I can't find much for info at all. Most webpages start with the phrase 'buy a kit"which is cool to grow your own mushrooms, but I'm stubborn. I just want to get it start to finish. But I'm more likely to get somewhere talking to other mushroom lovers than going solo. I also am learning to print, got portobellos to spore, I'm not even sure how to do it properly. I'm using sterilized equipment, have them spores on glass for now, using distilled water to move the spore, then putting it in a cooler space to grow mycelium. Is this a good way to go?how important is temp and moisture level?

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Amara, if you haven't already done it, you might want to try stem butt culture of Shaggy Manes or other saprophytic mushrooms. It's a non-sterile method of propagation that is relatively easy. I've had some success with propagating Shaggy Parasols this year, although it took several years before I finally got positive results. The method is described on a number of Web sites and in Paul Stamets's book, Mycelium Running. He doesn't list Shaggy Manes as one of species known to work with this method, but his list is not complete. For my eventually successful attempt at stem butt propagation, I skipped the step of propagating the mycelium on cardboard and just planted Shaggy Parasol stem butts in locations that appeared to have the right conditions.

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I have started mushrooms before like this when I was a kid, but I don't have any concept of why some mushrooms grow like this and some don't. Are some mushrooms perennials and some reliant on spores to multiply? Does that have anything to do with it?

I did get more shaggy mane mushrooms and got more spores collected, though I'm not sure what the best medium to start them with is or how long they even take to start growing. I am trying straw, grain, and cardboard, as well planting the spores directly into the ground at the graveyard (where the conditions seemed best). That being said, I have one batch of spores left for elm oyster, and I found one person who seems to grow them with enthusiasm who says you can grow them on a toilet paper roll or cardboard. I am wondering if cardboard gives sufficient nutrition, or would a crop fall short compared to the use of hardwood shavings?

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Keep in mind that all mushrooms are just the fruiting body of a fungus that lives almost entirely underground or within some other substrate, such as a tree. With the exception of some of the woody polypores growing on trees, most mushrooms are ephemeral; but all of the fungi that produce mushrooms rely on spores for reproduction, though not exclusively. The underground part of a saprophytic fungus, the mycelium, will spread through any appropriate medium and produce mushrooms when conditions are right; so they use both spores and running mycelia to reproduce.

I haven't tried to grow Shaggy Manes, but everything that I've read about them indicates that they like a medium rich in compost and/or manure; so cardboard probably is not the best medium. Since Elm Oysters grow on wood, cardboard would probably work OK.

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