Hyphal

You could be referring to Lipstick Mold – Sporendonema purpurescens (Geotrichum candidium), or Pink Mold; Red Bread Mold – Neurospora. LINK

I read that insect agar is great for starting cordyceps... HERE

Yeah for sure man... I thought you may have been referring to one of those store bought ready-to-go kits - they are great fun and as easy as it gets... But germinating your own Agaricus bisporus spores is a different story... This is a quote from 'Workman' from THIS THREAD which explains it a little more - And a quick gloogel search found THIS ARTICLE. And this is an interesting article but doesn't mention the difficulty in germinating spores, rather just outlines how to start a commercial button mushroom farm HERE.

These are actually not at all easy to grow....

I think I have said this before but I had a syringe confiscated. I still have the letter somewhere, it was from the Narcotics department and described my package as a "Narcotics related item" but if I would like to collect I need to contact them to arrange. Needless to say I never got in contact with them, but nothing came of it. AFAIK spores themselves aren't illegal.

I have pondered this a lot lately... Have you ever driven past a large cattle farm? What about a city centre? These things are not natural and I think there are more than enough things already introduced to our ecosystems to not worry about it, the introduction of a mushrooms species is the least of our worries in these environments. If you are talking about introducing them to an isolated, undisturbed part of native bushland where they are not already then that is a different story - I agree its probably wrong. But in an urban landscape - go crazy!! The more the merrier... If they became a weed in an urban environment, to quote someone on here, "I think that would be a great weed problem to have". And as creach said, there would be more than enough pickers to keep them under control anyway.

Looks likely but pretty old, I wouldn't eat them based on that though.

Depends how much you are using! Brown rice, in a coffee grinder, should only take about a couple of minutes to grind enough to make up a batch of jars... Unless of course your doing a LOT of jars.... Grains and pressure cookers are the way forward then.

sexy!

If you own a coffee grinder simply grind your own from store bought brown rice. Coffee grinders are cheap as chips, starting at around $15 for the type you find in the coffee isle in Coles. If you want to spend up to $50 you can get an amazing grinder that will last you years. It has been suggested that freshly ground brown rice is superior, but if that's true I'm sure the difference is only minimal.

I think it seems most reasonably likely that the cattle in the area has helped in spreading them exponentially. There has been cows moving through the pine trees (or ex pine trees) around the main haunt for years.

If I want a good quality beer and can't be bothered putting in the time and effort involved in brewing it, then I'll head down to the bottle shop and buy a carton. And just because I paid money for that carton, it doesn't mean I enjoy it any less. And the same goes for a nice drop of red wine. I agree though, the times I have brewed the beer myself have been the most rewarding when I finally crack them and enjoy them, as a relationship with the process and the final product was developed, therefore making it a more intimate experience and overall more enjoyable. I'm sure the same could be said for fungus, it really just depends on how much effort you want to put in.

If you chuck your stem butts into a flower pot of soaked woodchips, and keep them watered all through the summer then you should get friends popping up next winter. Compost probably hasn't got enough wood in it.

The tub is already colonised so it wouldn't help the tub they are in, but there is a chance the spores could have blown elsewhere and germinated. Probably quite a low chance in an urban environment.

Much like plants, the more H2O and nutrients available, the healthier they will grow. Primarily there are 2 substrates that they grow from. There are wood de-composers and dung dwellers, that most people on an ethno board are interested in. All mushrooms will consume grains but most prefer either dung or wood for fruiting.

Far out!! Those are some F**KING thick stems!! Amazing, amazing looking specimens.

Impossible to say without more information like a spore print etc. Doesn't look like an active to me though, and I see no blue bruising.

I would almost go as far as saying they are almost not a sub, but definitely a psilocybe.. if it is a sub, like you guys said, incredibly unique looking specimens.

Down south, the usual town name springs to mind.

Wow! AMAZING photos Morg!!

Yes the auto digestion is what makes me suspect Coprinus, but I could be wrong.

Spectacular and very inspiring as you hoped! Nice work...

Most likely some sort of Coprinus sp. I reckon..

Old John allen is a funny guy. Its a *reasonably* good text but a lot of his writings are based on hearsay, for example he states that Tasmania is home to cubensis. His work is quite outdated...

Off topic I know, but have you ever found a woman that doesn't have a whine for every occasion? Do they exist?