Haru Yasumi

So glad to see this thread is still going strong! This video might be my favorite story - definitely in the top 10 as Paul says. I thought I'd post the vimeo link that is higher quality since the viddler link is no longer valid

http://vimeo.com/32542316

I wish everyone I know would see this.

Colonized substrate will have its own defense mechanisms. It's hard for contaminants to colonize directly on healthy mycelium and there's nowhere else to settle down. Since it looks like your daughter has more than one mass of mycelium there I would recommend she tries different ways of fruiting - not just relying on the one chamber but also trying some outside the chamber. Even with holes in the container it should be opened a couple times daily and the air fanned out/replaced. You say that your climate is dry but I wouldn't assume it's too dry for oysters. I gave my father a box of oyster mycelium that we put in a plastic tote and covered with some regular potting soil in Arizona outdoors and sure enough healthy looking mushrooms emerged. The more comfortable you get with growing oysters the more you'll realize you need not baby them.

Ah it looks like she's using the moistened perlite method for humidity? Yes they do need light to grow well but they also need a certain amount of air exchange to do well. The mushrooms I grew I let fruit in the conditions in my room with the exception of a water misting once or twice a day. That means less CO2 buildup around the fruits and more air circulation much like when a mushroom begins to form outside of wood or just above the ground in nature. If there is not enough air exchange the fruits tend to get a less healthy look to them. I imagine that's what is going on in that picture.

Chris Kott - I don't have any experience growing mycorrhizal fungi outdoors so not sure what to tell you about the chanterelles. If I were to start I'd probably look for the right habitat with associated trees and spread some wild chanterelles finely and densely, either blended or otherwise cut up into small pieces. My thought being that mycelium can continue growing and reform a colony in the right habitat and if that fails there are still spores present that will have a chance of forming colonies. I'm pretty sure people are able to produce sterile spawn of many mycorrhizal species which might lead to more surefire options but I have not searched down that road. I have grown pink oysters, phoenix oysters, these pearl oysters, elm oyster (Hypsizygus, different genus), reishi, and maybe a couple more. I recently got ahold of many more cultures in different conditions such as shiitake, golden oyster, king oyster, shaggy mane, wine cap, reishi, black poplar and am owed a green shaggy parasol culture. I'm sure some of them will either be successes or failures right away as they are small or weak cultures but that might mean I end up with the ones I can cultivate the best which might not be so bad.

Richard Valley - that's great to hear! Buying spawn is a really fun and easy way to get an idea of what it's all supposed to look like and what should happen. I bought this Hypsizygus ulmarius spawn bag from a local farmer's market for $15 and it's so far put on a good performance.

They're going to put out a 3D documentary on Paul Stamets. He posted this preview up on his youtube channel January 23rd, 2012:

Fungal Fantastic: The Spirit of Good

I tried to embed the video but looks like there's not an option for that since the recent forum changes.

Adam, I wonder if the problem might be too much moisture? What I do with the cardboard is get it pretty darn sopping wet then squeeze out all of the excess moisture like it's a sponge.

After it fruits once or if it has dried out considerably you can dunk the mycelium in water from a few hours up to a day then drain it off so it can rehydrate. This way you can rely on the stored reserves of water for the mycelium to take care of itself.

I think I might have written this possibly in some other thread pertaining to apple tree guilds but one plant that's great under apple trees are nasturtiums.  Most of my current garden is planted under a large apple tree and the nasturtiums are great not only as a convenient, easy-to-grow salad crop but as a way to attract various aphids (especially wooly aphids) away from apple trees.  In combination with some other plants such as yarrow which attract predatory insects such as wasps, they can be great under the apple tree.  They also tend to flower profusely and grow well even in partial shade.

Of course, I think the proof comes when you walk out to the garden and see what insects and other activity are out there.  If you plant a full on garden under an apple tree as much as you can with as many various plants as possible you will begin finding out what plants help more than others or not.

ellen rosner wrote:
How was your occupation?

I heard 5000 in Portland. That's a lot!
Was it that big?

It's really hard to tell when you're in a crowd how many people are there.  There were definitely a lot of people - at least 3,000 and some estimates floating around there as high as 10,000, which I think would be an exaggeration.  A lot of people left early or were still trying to find the group later on so I imagine the total number of people who showed up was quite large. 

I think the criticism of not having clear demands is based on the notion that we could just slap a few new regulations/policy changes/tweaks to our current system and be satisfied.  With globalization the top 1% is not only American, but wealthy people worldwide who hoard for themselves and repress others for personal monetary gain.  What we need is a full on cultural revolution that shows the world that this kind of practice is unacceptable.  Capitalism has instilled in our culture the idea that the world is a competition where you need to go "get your own" to survive and anyone is free to take as much as they want out of the pot as long as they know how.  We need something to shift our culture to one which holds co-operation up as the ideal and reflects that the world is finite and connected - that if you take more than your share it will be hurting everyone else and that we all are here and have to figure out ways to live together in peace.  That's my thought process about it at the moment at least.

This is why I think people are misguided when they say simply to shut down the FED.  The problems with our system require a full revolution.