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fungi cultivation resources

 
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A few years back, I downloaded a couple of handbooks from the now defunct Mushworld website, the Mushroom Growers Handbooks Volume 1 and 2. The first volume deals with Oyster Mushroom cultivation, the second with Shiitake. Originally, each chapter was a separate PDF, I combined the numerous (over 60!) smaller files into two complete volumes.

Oyster Cultivation Handbook (29.97 MB PDF):  http://www.mediafire.com/?2wfs4ccg49d39ca

Shiitake Cultivation Handbook (34.88MB): [url=http://www.mediafire.com/?x7z1341gpv7fzjm]http://www.mediafire.com/?x7z1341gpv7fzjm


The original smaller handbook files are currently available now at this location, for those with dial-up connections.:

http://www.alohamedicinals.com/cultures.htm

Mushworld was (is?) a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people in third world countries cultivate mushrooms, and I believe that these handbooks were printed and given out for free in many of these countries.
 
Franklin Stone
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This link goes to the Flickr Mushroom Cultivation Photo Pool, for those wishing to see photos of mushrooms being cultivated. The pool is open to all Flickr users. Some of the photos are CC licensed.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/growmushrooms/
 
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Looks like a nice reference - thank you for posting!
 
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Came across an article in Farm Show magazine vol. 34, no. 4 called "Creative Log Stacking Helps Grow Mushrooms."  It explains how to drill holes in the logs and filled with mushroom sporey sawdust.  Logs are stacked in moist shady areas and watered if needed, protected from winter sun.  They should produce for 2-6 years depending on type of wood used. 
 
Franklin Stone
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Log cultivation is probably one of the best permaculture methods of growing mushrooms. It fits in very well with the hugelkultur idea of using decaying wood as the basis of soil fertility. Logs can be stacked in shady areas that don't get much sun - like north facing slopes in the Northern Hemisphere - that aren't suitable for intensive cultivation.

The only expense, or difficult part, would be in acquiring spawn - either sawdust spawn or wood dowel spawn. There are numerous commercial sources for obtaining spawn, or you can learn to make your own (with a certain investment in equipment.)

A really great resource for learning how to clone mushrooms and grow your own spawn is the DVD set "Let's Grow Mushrooms!" by Marc R. Keith, available at http://www.mushroomvideos.com/ or Amazon.com or perhaps through your regional library system.

The most expensive piece of gear needed is a pressure-canner, preferably a large one. You will also need Agar-agar. Petri dishes are nice to have, though some people make do with small jelly jars or tiny polypropylene storage containers (which can survive the heat of the pressure canner).

Mr. Keith's videos demonstrate him using a flow-hood to filter his air from air-borne contaminants, and while this expensive piece of gear is very nice to have, I have been able to successfully grow mushrooms over the past few years without one.

I suspect that many people on the permaculture forums already own a pressure-canner for preserving food. The principles behind growing mushrooms are very similar to those used in brewing alcohol or leavening bread - difficult but highly rewarding.
 
Franklin Stone
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Since this thread is nominally about fungi cultivation resources, I guess I should mention the most obvious and important works on the subject - the books of Paul Stamets.

Mycelium Running has tips for wildcrafting mushrooms. This is a gorgeous, full-color book, written for a general audience  with the aim of popularizing mushrooms and fungi for food as well as the basis of cleaning up our polluted environment. It is the book that first introduced me to the concept of permaculture.

Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms, is a bit more advanced, aimed at the commercial grower. It is THE definitive reference book on growing about two dozen species of gourmet and medicinal mushrooms. The book is black and white with a few color plates.

The Mushroom Cultivator, co-written with J.S. Chilton, is an earlier work, largely superseded by GGMM. It has some chapters on growing psilocybin mushrooms that are not covered in his later works, as well as a lengthy section on identifying contaminations in mushroom cultures. (This focus on the diseases afflicting mushrooms was dropped in his later works as he realized that properly-grown, healthy mushrooms don't really suffer from such things.) This book is black and white with a few color plates.

Paul Stamets has a company, Fungi Perfecti, that sells these books and others, as well as mushroom products and everything needed for mushroom cultivation. You can find him on the web at Fungi.com.
 
                    
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there are also a lot of OMCs (Online Mushroom Comunities) that can help give feed back and answer questions shroomotopia.net is one that is really noob friendly shroomery.com is a slightly bigger one but not quite as friendly these places are huge repositories of up to date info

the most expensive thing you will need to make your own spawn is a pressure cooker and the bigger the better I have a 23quart and I wish it was 40+ and that I had 3 more most of the time

I would avoid trying agar work untill you have a decent amount of growing under your belt and have sterile procedures down pat to start off with I'd recommend buying a liquid culture syringe you should be able to find one for under $20 and you can expand it in a 3% honey and water solution  as well as growing it out on grains you then can use the grainspawn to inoculate wooden dowels for log cultivation or woodschips/straw/sawdust to fruit them directly

you can use a simple clear rubbermade type tote with 2 holes cut out for a simple still air/glove box if you decide that its a hobby you want to invest in a laminar flowhood will help

if you have any questions feel free to ask
 
Franklin Stone
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I just read Sepp Holzer's Permaculture, and I must single out Chapter 4: Cultivating Mushrooms, as one of the best things I have read about growing mushrooms outdoors.

Sepp Holzer is so amazing because he is not afraid of failure and he is willing to try anything.

The rest of the book has some good nuggets sprinkled throughout but could use some editing to help focus the information a bit better (and the translation to English is a slightly awkward and confusing in places). It's definitely worth borrowing from the library, and if it were priced lower I would recommend purchasing it.
 
Franklin Stone
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I just noticed that the link to The Shiitake Cultivation Handbook listed at the beginning of the thread has been broken.

Here it is again: http://www.mediafire.com/?x7z1341gpv7fzjm
 
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sub'd!
 
Devon Olsen
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Franklin Stone wrote:Log cultivation is probably one of the best permaculture methods of growing mushrooms. It fits in very well with the hugelkultur idea of using decaying wood as the basis of soil fertility. Logs can be stacked in shady areas that don't get much sun - like north facing slopes in the Northern Hemisphere - that aren't suitable for intensive cultivation.

The only expense, or difficult part, would be in acquiring spawn - either sawdust spawn or wood dowel spawn. There are numerous commercial sources for obtaining spawn, or you can learn to make your own (with a certain investment in equipment.)

A really great resource for learning how to clone mushrooms and grow your own spawn is the DVD set "Let's Grow Mushrooms!" by Marc R. Keith, available at http://www.mushroomvideos.com/ or Amazon.com or perhaps through your regional library system.

The most expensive piece of gear needed is a pressure-canner, preferably a large one. You will also need Agar-agar. Petri dishes are nice to have, though some people make do with small jelly jars or tiny polypropylene storage containers (which can survive the heat of the pressure canner).

Mr. Keith's videos demonstrate him using a flow-hood to filter his air from air-borne contaminants, and while this expensive piece of gear is very nice to have, I have been able to successfully grow mushrooms over the past few years without one.

I suspect that many people on the permaculture forums already own a pressure-canner for preserving food. The principles behind growing mushrooms are very similar to those used in brewing alcohol or leavening bread - difficult but highly rewarding.



i am currently growing both shitake and blue oyster mushrooms and i didn't make any significant equipment investments but i also had things available to me from grandma's cupboards and what not, the largest investment i see for someone looking to make their own spawn would be a pressure cooker, but due to cold-pastuerization methods for innoculating straw, you may be able to do the same sorta thing with grain and avoid a pressure cooker altogether? though im not sure that the grain would lose its anti fungal properties with a simple soaking...

otherwise i used jars, a tube of 100% silicone, some poplar dowels from the hardware store to create the plugs for log cultivation, and made due with what was around the house for the rest...
 
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Franklin Stone wrote:Since this thread is nominally about fungi cultivation resources, I guess I should mention the most obvious and important works on the subject - the books of Paul Stamets.

Mycelium Running has tips for wildcrafting mushrooms. This is a gorgeous, full-color book, written for a general audience  with the aim of popularizing mushrooms and fungi for food as well as the basis of cleaning up our polluted environment. It is the book that first introduced me to the concept of permaculture.

Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms, is a bit more advanced, aimed at the commercial grower. It is THE definitive reference book on growing about two dozen species of gourmet and medicinal mushrooms. The book is black and white with a few color plates.

The Mushroom Cultivator, co-written with J.S. Chilton, is an earlier work, largely superseded by GGMM. It has some chapters on growing psilocybin mushrooms that are not covered in his later works, as well as a lengthy section on identifying contaminations in mushroom cultures. (This focus on the diseases afflicting mushrooms was dropped in his later works as he realized that properly-grown, healthy mushrooms don't really suffer from such things.) This book is black and white with a few color plates.

Paul Stamets has a company, Fungi Perfecti, that sells these books and others, as well as mushroom products and everything needed for mushroom cultivation. You can find him on the web at Fungi.com.



Yes Indeed! his books are really great describing in detail important information for growers: spawn production and mushroom cultivation methods. Here's a link where you can buy his books:Mycology Books
 
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