simulacrum

I have spotted this one in the suburbs of Melbourne. There is a birch in a friend's backyard that has leccinum scabrum growing under it, which he harvests and devours everytime he spots them. I have no knowledge of mycorrhizal biology, but would taking spores, mixing with spring water and sprinkling under birch trees be likely to help spread this species, or whould I be wasting my time?

I've heard this is a subspecies of eryngii.. Any chance of getting a wedge or spore print?

cheers mate. I actually finished mine a few weeks back and ended up just using hot glue to fix the threaded jar "sleeves" on. I drilled 4 holes all the way through the sleeve and the boxand injected a bead of hot glue all the way through and flattend on both sides before the glue set.. overall it came out quite neat. I'll take some pics tomorrow.

Here's another video I found, uploaded by the company that manufactures the systems for automation of this technique.. seems odd I must say.. surely some sort of tray growing would be a bit more efficient than growing in bottles.

Love pleurotus eryngii.. relatively easy to grow and has that firm texture that you find in a lot of wild mushrooms, as well as a nice sweet, nutty taste. Just getting started in mycology and I'm growing a test brf cake of p.eryngii at the moment.. it's fully colonised and the mycelium is giving off a very distinctive pleasant floral odour.

Thank you very much for the generous offer watertrade! I think I'll try the LC tek naja suggested first see if I can learn something.. though I think if I experience failure again I think I'll be PMing you to take you up on the offer..

sweet... that's quite ingenious, I hadn't even considered liquid cultures. What kind of medium do you use.. i've read talk of this mysterious Karo stuff around but haven't spotted any at the supermarket

I'm a noob too, but I'll attempt to answer your question. You can either propagate from spores or clone from mycelium culture. mycelium should be gathered from the middle of a fresh (ie not dried) mushroom & grown on agar. Here's a vid: http://www.iplayerhd.com/player/e63564bc-4...e8cda9f956.aspx PS - should credit the video, it's from a website run by RogerRabbit from the shroomery forums. I believe it is froma dvd that he sells about mushroom cultivation.

heheh good to know who the goto person is.. but really I think that would be asking a bit much given I've just joined and have nothing to offer in return. It'll be good for me to learn myself anyway.. fungi are such fascinating organisms

cheers I'm a mycology noob. I've been trying to grow brf cakes off spores collected from market king oysters. Limited success so far. I've got what looks like tight white mycelium covering most of the jar but can also see patches of fluffy green mould I think I'm having trouble collecting a contaminant free spore print. I think I'm going to have to give up the brf cake idea and try cloning on agar, transferring to grain spawn then to whatever the cheapest bulk substrate i can find. If anyone has valuable insights on how to grow these babies, or cheap places to pick up agar or bulk substrate (sawdust, straw etc) I'd love to hear them

Don't know if anyone's posted this video before.. but it's an interesting insight into how p.eryngii are commercially grown in korea. I've never heard of tofu being used in a substrate before.

i'd hazard a guess it's isopropyl alcohol..

I believe a pressure cooker actually builds up positive pressure, raising the boiling temp of water. So if you set the pressure to 15psi, the boiling point would be around 120C. apart from that.. has anyone done the research on suppliers of agar? There are a few options on the net but I'm not sure which ends up being most cost effective.. if anyone has any suggestions they would be highly appreciated.

Nice one Kenny, I had the same idea.. I bought myself a suitable box and jars and cut the holes, but can't find a suitable adhesive to stick the plastic with. I think its made of polypropylene/polyethylene which are notoriously difficult to get something to adhere to. I've heard of fancy fusion adhesives for this purpose. hat did you use?