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trichpach

Possible contender for largest sub record? [& hunting pics]

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Good evening my fellow shamans,

Went for a great forest walk last Saturday and found some new magical patches.

Many species about, but also found some of the largest (and tallest) Psilocybe Subaeruginosa specimens we have ever seen.

Enough with the text, on to the photos;

3NOya.jpg

Meet Lentil the sausage dog, and faithful hunting companion in training to spot the interesting varieties. Xerula Gigaspora.. Not quite what we were after...

0YWD9.jpg

THAT's more like it...

2mAfnh.jpg

7oksJh.jpg

Quite a few sizeable subs amongst the ubiquitous Mycena Sp.

zFnl9h.jpg

More hunting success.... and having a freakin' ball at the same time! :-)

And now, the mother of all subs,.... Well the largest (by far) that i've ever seen. I used to be proud about finding subs the 'width of coke can' but these were bigger than the palms of our hands. I tried to get habitat shots, but they were growing in extremely tall grass and were pretty covered and didn't turn out well.

1uIB5h.jpg

Yes... that's a 50c coin next to that beast. The other subs seem dwarfed compared to this one, but they were all beasts in their own right before we found him.. He had a split cap due to the sheer size and was living with three others of around equal or slightly less size, but they had gone rotten.

Have any other myco enthusiasts seen ones this big before? I'm curious.

EFfNhh.jpg

and some more finds that day:

EQvMeh.jpg

I said it before, and i'll say it again, I love a good day out in the forests. I've never seen super specimens (or a rich diversity of species for that matter) like this in wood chip mulch gardens, that's for sure. Not to mention the amount of fun the puppy has out there. Only had one run in with a leech, quickly diffused with a bit of salt and post traumatic puppy licks.

I'll have to take my field guide out with me next time.

Muchos abrazos amigos...happy hunting.

TP & Lentil

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i have learned that salting leeches is not a good idea, they regurgitate into the wound, infecting it and slowing down the healing (which serial leech victims know takes weeks anyway)

scrape the head off, scrape the tail off, then flick away.

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i have learned that salting leeches is not a good idea, they regurgitate into the wound, infecting it and slowing down the healing (which serial leech victims know takes weeks anyway)

scrape the head off, scrape the tail off, then flick away.

 

Can't you just sizzle them with a match that's just been put out ?

Edited by SallyD

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Sorry to hijack your thread

They are awesome specimens.

If you can, get them in front of a fan heater or in a dehydrator so the insect larvae doesn't turn the them into stains on that paper.

It's better to leave the bigger insect damaged ones to drop their spores and just pick the fresh young ones.

Fukken big bastards for sure.

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Holy shit those are some huge subs! A very good looking haul overall!

Can't you just sizzle them with a match that's just been put out ?

 

Same issue I believe.

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Can't you just sizzle them with a match that's just been put out ?

 

NO. if you traumatise the beast into letting go, it will vomit. you just need to scrape it hard with your fingernail and flick it off before it reattaches, easy to learn when you are being frequently smashed by leeches and it's quicker than going for implements. flick one off and then try using a match/salt, you'll see it puke its guts up.

i never knew i was a leech magnet before i went to the sydney SAB sub sizzle last year. then i had my first very wet summer living on a mountain and they often nailed me between the house and driveway which was a fifteen meter walk.

Edited by ThunderIdeal

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Ahh I see, but at least you get the bastard back when you sizzle it.

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Cheers Sally / at0m... These babies are already cracker dry, as these pics were from last Saturday ...I usually create a mini wind tunnel with a fan, a sheet and some clever peg positions and blast them on full for at least 3 days. Follow that up with moisture squeezed (oven baked for 2hrs) epsom salts and an air tight container. A solution passed on from the Shroomery crew some years ago before that site, or at least the melbourne thread in particular, got infested with f-tards. Seems to work really well, for long term storage.

RE: the leech - bugger, i thought salt was a sure fire solution with the least implications! They really seem to not like it. Makes sense that they would regurgitate into the wound before falling off. Just checked out Lentil's leg where the wound was and it's all good. He was straight on to it with puppy licks anyway and I assume the saliva has a lot of healing properties in it.... Should have seen his reaction though since he copped a massive hit of salt on the first lick. Hahaha classic.

Thanks for the tip amigos... love ya work.

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and yeah it's not just me eh!? those are friggen massive. My gut does backflips at the thought of downing one.

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hehe yeah ... tis' a rule, you can't have a sausage dog, which in itself is comical, and give him a normal name. A friend has one called Mustard. Another Bratwurst .. you get the idea....

Now if only i can train him to find sniff out subs! I'm sure it's possible! B)

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I've just noticed a few details about that first pic that I overlooked before.

By some twist of fate that shroom seems to be partially framed by some sort of wire barrier ?

Also there seems to several cats ears or false dandelions growing in the same area as the specimen was found and an immature one in the third pic. I questioned a few people about the occurrence of catsears in sub fields and never got any good answers. That short grass seems to show up a lot in "Sub Country" as well, has anyone got an ID on that ?

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hehe yeah ... tis' a rule, you can't have a sausage dog, which in itself is comical, and give him a normal name. A friend has one called Mustard. Another Bratwurst .. you get the idea....

Now if only i can train him to find sniff out subs! I'm sure it's possible! B)

 

My mate had one that was even longer than normal and it was called Limmo

Just use food rewards and play a game "find it" and only reward him when he finds one, he'll learn fast if you use the right bribe/food

Edited by SallyD

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Scary big. Bigger than a lighter cap wise? Wathc those fuckers. Big pack more than their fair share....

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I've just noticed a few details about that first pic that I overlooked before.

By some twist of fate that shroom seems to be partially framed by some sort of wire barrier ?

 

Looks more like a couple very little twigs to me but I can see where you're coming from.

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haha gold ...

Yep - totally gonna play the positive reinforcement game with the sausage man and see how we go.

Interesting observation on the catsears / grass ecosystem ... i have to pay more attention to this stuff in the forests... at the time all you are thinking is "subs, subs, subs, subs, subs, " rinse, lather, repeat. :wink:

Hang about, i'll take a photo of the size of some of the big ones almost fully dried (4 days in the wind tunnel) and post it.

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Below is a pic'(not focused) of a P.sub' cap that i collected only as i didn't have my camera on me. It was big, but yeah, the subs in this thread would be the biggest i have seen .

post-7430-0-89557000-1338551492_thumb.jp

:)

cap.jpg

cap.jpg

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PS... if i had a sausage dog, i would call it Lentil too, you know, being a vegetarian and all. :P

:)

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Yep - Been vego since traveling thru india... hence the whole Lentil thing.

We are thinking of getting a female and calling her Patty.

:wink:

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Here's some of the mostly dried - i reckon they are about 80% dry.. they just need some more time with the epsom salts for full dry. Still quite impressive, since the drying process tends to shrink them a fair bit.

Shit quality - camera is dead so it's a phone pic :-(

Sorry, should have had something for size comparison.,.. errrm, i have 'normal' sized fingers!??

zhSAq.jpg

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Looks more like a couple very little twigs to me but I can see where you're coming from.

 

If I had a sub that big I'd fence it fence it off from the hoards of marauding sausage dogs.

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hope you got a big team of scientists and a microscopy lab to analyse all those sub spores

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Can't seem to get that link working Hyphal???

EDIT: Never mind. I got it working. MASSIVE!!!

Edited by tonic

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Nice find ! Love lentils collar ! ;)

Mum had two very long lived short haired dachhounds called benson and felicity. Best of friends. When felicity died at the age of 8 benson was distraught for years. he lived for 19 years.

Great dogs. Felicity was o e of the best guard dogs we have owned. She wouldn't let anyone in our yard we didn't know haha. And fast. Very cute I want one now.

Edited by incognito
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