holymountain

very, very cool. thanks for sharing!

Been a while since I posted on here, but thought that this was definitely worth sharing. I was visiting my folks house in the country a few weeks ago and though I grew up in that town, somehow I never noticed this one house with an epic cactus garden. I left a note on the door about my interest in cactus plants and asked if I could come around one day and have a look at the garden. I got a phone call and was told I was most welcome. A little old lady and her husband had been collecting cactus plants for the last thirty or forty years. They'd gotten most of their plants from a mail order company in South Australia. They were kind enough to give me a bunch of cuttings of all sorts of different types. I returned the favour the next day with a small box of different trich cuttings, which I have no doubt they'll look after and hopefully will one day be as big as the scops they've got all around their place. Note- would have been very easy to just break off some branches in the middle of the night, but that's just not the way to do things. In my experience 100% of the people I've approached for cuttings have been very generous and in one case told me I could take the whole thing. It's always better to ask permission, trade some cuttings of your own if you have them and develop a relationship with the owners, who knows, maybe one day they'll say I can have the lot. Anyway... thought I'd share some pics. I got a cutting of the massive scop, it's already taken root and looks like it will flower soon too. Remind me in a year or two and I'd be happy to send out cuttings or seeds if anyone is interested.

Bit late, but you know I love you still. Happy Birthday buddy!

Duffamn, that is just awesome to hear. Good vibes and blessings from the MycoGods yesterday it seems... Just to top it off, a few hours after posting my reply I got a message from a friend asking if i could come and investigate a suspicious patch for him. For the last year I'd been giving him similar advice to what I gave above. He'd been checking out all the places near his work etc, getting frustrated, sending me pictures of lookalikes etc...Just last week I'd said...'next time you speak with the mushroom, ask it to help you find a patch, ask to work with it'....So he picks me up from a train station and shows me this area he has found in some parklands. Sure enough it's crawling with subs, giant old king subs and hundreds of tiny pins popping up everywhere. Probably the biggest patch I've seen. When I confirm that these are indeed the subs he has been searching for, he jumps for joy and laughs like a little kid. Can't top the feeling of seeing hundreds of subs, it turns you to jelly. Turns out just last weekend he had asked the mushroom for assistance. Sure enough, the mushroom followed through. Bonus lesson in karma: Feeling sorry for this friend I had offered him that day to take him to my patch just to show him what they look like in the flesh so that he could get a better understanding of locations and appearances and so he could succesfully identify them if he did come across a patch. I debated weather I should show him the patch for a while before thinking 'fuck it, it's more important that he learns'...so I made the offer but instead, he takes me to HIS patch and it's loaded. Very fun experience with enough coincidences and moral lessons and humour to know it was all set up by the MycoGods. PS. I know the pic is a touch blurry but just for kicks see how many you can count. This was only one section of a massive area.

Hey Duffman. Keep looking, they are definitely out there. I have heard of them being found in the western suburbs, been told by a real live person, not just on the internet...so don't despair! In my experience, you have to get amongst it for the whole of the season every year. You need to be possessed with a hunger and desire that makes your friends laugh and your spouse get frustrated! You need to be dreaming of them, you need to be talking to them, making deals with them. 'If I find a massive patch, I promise to ensure that the spores are spread far and wide and that the land is protected and kept clean, I promise to work with the mycellium and spread it to new areas'. They love it when you offer something back. They'll start messing with you and popping up in all sorts of awkward situations, testing to see if you've got what it takes to reach your hand through that fence or duck off from a group of friends like a dog chasing a scent. You need to take walks through areas two or three times a week. One day it's empty, the next it might be full of fruit. You can't make any hard observations unless you are thorough. It helps to keep notes of the weather, the date, amount of rain etc. That way next year, you can compare. Some areas don't really start taking off until July. Some at the start of June. It's rare to find many before June in Sydney, though you might come across a couple of early flushers. It's not unheard of to discover a new patch every year by taking as many walks as you can to different areas that you suspect may have potential. It's all about observing as much as you can and then drawing conclusions based on what you've found. After a couple of seasons you'll be an expert. Keep an eye out for disturbance of woodchips. It could mean there is a patch, but other visitors might be aware of it's gifts. Keep your eyes peeled for all woodchipped areas and be thorough in your searches. I know of one park with hundreds of trees that are mulched around the base. Out of a hundred trees or so, there is only one where subs grow. If you do find a place, look after it, love it, clean up the rubbish and protect it. There is nothing worse than visiting a patch and finding someone has dumped a bucket of BBQ grease and oil all over it. Keep searching! edit: also, In my experience, subs in surburban or urban areas are mainly found in woodchip mulch beds. Have gone on many bushwalks and not found any. They seem to be around areas where people are, normally on the edges of things rather than in the centre. Hope that helps, might save you hours of going on bush walks when they might be growing in the car park all along.

Yesterday afternoon I observed a local patch in the city. The mulched area had a few of the larger, thicker type subs growing, similar to those observed over the last three years at the same patch. However, walking around the area, I noticed that there were now several scattered subs growing in the grass nearby. These subs all displayed the characteristics of bush subs, much smaller, thinner and pointier caps. Previous years there had been no subs outside of one woodchip patch. Hard to say without a microscope, but I'd imagine they are the same species and that it's the woodchips that account for the differences in size, strength and colour.

Hey buddy! Sorry to hear about this. I suspect it could be an amazing lesson or life changing event that has disguised itself as a painful problem for the time being. Short Story: Time will take care of all of this. Notes from previous experience: Your own brain might be your worst enemy. During periods like this, I found it was my own thoughts, my own expectations, my own ideas about life that were causing me the most pain rather than anything a girl had said or done. At times, I'd just be stuck in fear. Heart beating, stomach churning, chain smoking and unable to do anything but ponder over all the bad things that were happening or might be happening. It was insane. But it helped me develop a technique which is useful. One exercise I found to be use was to sit and meditate and to let all the negative thoughts play out until their conclusions. If the mind wanders into unpleasant territory e.g 'is she with someone else now?' instead of letting your heart beat faster and your stomach sink, just sit and ask 'And then what?' or 'And why exactly is this bad?' By doing this you can rid yourself of pain that you don't actually need to feel. You realise it's the ego that's causing all the pain, that there is nothing 'bad' or 'wrong' about what is going on, it's just a process. Anyway, I found this useful to explore the thoughts that were causing pain and think them through to their absolute worst possible conclusions but all the time asking 'and then what?' or 'and why is this bad?'. Even the worst thing I could conjure wasn't really that bad, despite the nagging voice in my head saying 'how could she?, this is horrible, awful, wahh'. Having explored those painful thoughts, they no longer sting or cut as much. Anyway, it'll be a rough ride, but I don't know a single person who hasn't come out of a break up with a better life as a result (in some cases it did take a long, long time though!). All the best.

Thanks Duffman. I might do a bit more researching and post some more of Grimman's stuff here, he has a lot of good information on subs and their habitats based on his years of observations.

Hi Duffman. There is definitely a difference between 'Urban Subs' and 'Wild Subs' that other enthusiasts have noted. Urban Subs will grow densley in woodchipped areas, they will grow in clumps and often be thicker, fatter, darker in brown and allegedly are a lot, lot 'stronger'. This could be simply because they are fatter and thicker than the spindly ones found in the wild. It's not uncommon to find hundreds growing closely together in small areas. 'Wild Subs' are found scattered throughout pine regions, they are thinner and paler in colour and rarely found growing in large clusters. While they will be found in little patches, they won't display the density that Urban Subs show. Here's a table of info from the late mycologist Jim Grimman who did some rough studies on the two. Type: Wild subaeruginosa Substrate: Pine needles, grass, decaying pine, soil Growth Style: Solitary or scattered loosley in small areas Cap Shapes: Acutely conic to convex cap shapes. - “Wizard Hats” , “Gnome Caps” Other Features: Light blue bruising, if at all. Thinner stems. Type: Urban subaeruginosa Substrate: Garden mulch (eucalypt, pine), grass, wooden debris Growth Style: Grows densely, as many as fourty specimens in each cluster. Many clusters alongside each other. Cap Shapes: Umbonate, convex and campanulate. With strong wavy margins in taller specimens. “Wavy”, “Bell Caps” Other Features: Strong and vivid blue bruising, thick, strong stems. ‘Meaty’ Here's some info from Grimman on the origins of naming and identification of the species. As you'll see there has been dispute as to weather these are different species. Further research needs to be done (beyond the usual bioassay): Psilocybe subaeruginosa was first identified in 1927 by the early Australian naturalist and mycologist, Jonh Burton Cleland in 1927. The first recorded research with subaeruginosa in Australia was undertaken in 1969 by R.W Rickards and J. Picker. After reading reports of Psilocybe cubensis being found in southern Queensland and northern New South Wales, the two scientists sought the assistance of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to find specimens for scientific analysis. They collected the mushrooms in late Autumn in the ACT. After performing extractions on the materials, Rickards and Picker succesfully identified psilocybin, psilocin and other alkaloids in the subaeruginosa and Australia became aware of it's first native hallucinogenic mushroom. In 1978, the Mexican mycologist and anthropologist, Gaston Guzman and the English mycologist Roy Watling described three new Psilocybes in Australia: Psilocybe eucalypta, Psilocybe tasmaniana,and Psilocybe australiana which all bore strong similarities with the subaeruginosa (Guzman & Watling,1978). Note contrast in cap colour between older and newer fruits in this cluster of urban subaeruginosa (Grimman, June, 2011) The comparitive studies of Chang and Mills (1992) sought to prove that these three strains were actually one and the same and should therefore be classified as Psilocybe subaeruginosa (Chang & Mills, 1992). As such, all woodloving psilocybes in Australia are known now as subaeruginosa. However, Paul Stamets points to Chang and Mills admission that they did not find the key features of chocolate brown pigmentation in their specimens as sufficient reason to doubt that they had obtained true subaeruginosa for their comparisons (Stamets, pp.155, 1996). The vast differences between wild and urban subaeruginosa observed by Grimman meant he too disagreed with Chang & Mills and this only encouraged his belief that further tests must be done in order to settle the doubt surrounding their study. Grimman’s own work with the mushroom, indicates that the chocolate brown colouring varies depending on the age of the specimens. He observed deep chocolate brown in younger specimens which would change to pale yellow brown as the mushroom was exposed to sunlight, evaporating moisture from it's cap and changing colour. Chang and Mills may have obtained similar discoloured specimens of subaeruginosa. Wild subaeruginosa displaying it's conical cap. Grimman reffered to these as 'Wizard Hats' Jenolan State Forest, 2010 However, Grimman's studies with urban subaeruginosa show that the frequency of a dark chocolate colouring is far greater in urban subaeruginosa than in wild subaeruginosa which tended towards lighter 'caramel brown' to pale yellow caps, even when still in their early stages of development. The images found in his archive show a clear difference in the size, shape and colouring of urban and wild subaeruginosa. Grimman also suspected that the variations in concentrations of wood in the substrate of mulch beds compared to the scattered debris of the forests may impact on the size and density of the flushes as well as the thickness and strength of the mushroom in the same way that concentrated light and fertilisation creates larger and stronger Cannabis plants when grown hydroponically. Grimman did not smoke or grow cannabis for fear of gang related violence. The two pics below are a great example of the differences between the two. A Village of Wild Subs. State Pine Forest, NSW, May 2011 A city of Urban Subs. Sydney, June, 2012 References: Chang, Y and Mills, A, 1992 "Re-examination of Psilocybe subaeruginosa and related species with comparative morphology, isozymes and mating compatibility studies" from Department of Plant Science, University of Tasmania, originally published in Mycolology Research. 96 (6); 429-441 (1992) Cleland, J.B, 1927, Australian fungi: notes and descriptions. No.6. Transactions of Ihe Royal Sociely of Soulh Australia 51, 298-306. Guzman, G. & Watling, R. (1978). Studies in Australian agarics and boletes. 1. Some species of Psilocybe. Noles from the Royal Bolanic Garden, Edinburgh 36, 199-210. J.W Pickard & R.W Rickards, 1969, 'The Occurrence of the Psychomimetic Agent Psilocybin in an Australian Agaric Psilocybe Subaeruginosa' from Australian Journal of Chemistry 23(4) 853 - 855. Accessed: October 10th, 2012 http://www.publish.csiro.au/?act=view_file&file_id=CH9700853.pdf

better help you out and claim them then! i have cooked some spaghetti squash. what an amazing plant. would love to try growing some. cheers!

Amazing. Mind blown too. Gonna have to get all your stories out of you one day. Could be a book or twos worth!

yip yip! just what I'm looking for! yes please! thanks!

congrats! i'm sure they will be very special!

Had a bit of a eureka moment on the weekend when doing some gardening. Hit upon the idea of using egg cartons as a means of creating, storing and transporting woodloving mycellium. The idea would be to create easily transportable blocks of mycellium that can then be used in a similar way to turfing a lawn with pregrown chunks of lawn grass. Bury three or four (or even one) of these colonised egg cartons in a mulch bed and you'd be well on your way to establishing a power patch. Note: This is a trial. Stay with me as I update with progress..... 1. Soak some egg cartons in water. I happened to have an old styrofoam container that has collected rainwater and been used for transporting woodchips. Hence the water in the tub contains lots of small pieces of woodchip as well as a few thousand spores. I don't think this is crucial but it can't hurt overall. 2. When the egg cartons are nice and soggy and soaked, take them out and sprinkle woodchips over them. Try and get a little bit of woodchips in the egg holes and pat them down nicely. If you have sawdust, I'm sure that would work just as good if not better. 3. Sprinkle woodchips or substrate that have been colonised by woodloving mycellium over the top of the woodchips. The more the merrier but if you've only got a little bit, it can go a long way if used properly. 4. Put a fresh layer of uncolonised woodchips or substrate over the top and put another egg carton over that. Sit it aside in a nice shady space, preferably with woodchips underneath. Leave it alone and keep it damp. In theory...the mycellium will spread across the woodchips and even into the egg carton. The spaces left for eggs in the carton will create nice air patches to prevent the mycellium from getting too wet and soggy. This is the problem I run into when working with straight cardboard colonisation. There's not enough air to get through the cardboard and things can get soggy and messy and the mycellium will stall. Overall you should easily be able to stack a dozen or so of these somewhere in your garden until they are fully colonised. Once you have a fully colonised carton you can cart if off (no pun intended) to a nearby woodchip patch and bury it. You can plant the whole thing or take the top layer off and start a whole new one, as the top layer will have plenty of mycellium working through it. Will keep you updated with my progress.

Once again...I had to move house! The amount of times this has happened is crazy. However, I do know the people who took my room. I have instructed them to contact me if they see anything suspicious in the backyard. That said, still a little too early in the season for this location. Give it another month.

Ding! Sounds great! Much appreciated!

Hi all just wondering if anyone has experience with substrates other than woodchips/cardboard/hessian or sawdust when working with wood loving species. In particular I'm wondering if coir will work? If no one knows I'll get to work on it and see if it's viable. If someone has already tried or has experience with other substrates let me know! Thanks!

awesome. thanks for sharing that.

nice work qualia! i'll put my hand up. would love a cut of either! cheers

there's an interesting idea... so you shread cardboard, mix with oats, soak in water? then make bricks out of them? have you had luck with fruiting from this? any more info would be great!

Count me in too! Would love to have a crest in the collection. Much appreciated! PS. Good to see so many crests getting out and about lately. I remember a few years ago they were really scarce and hardly came up at all. To all of those who are growing them and sharing them, keep up the good work and I hope to join you soon.

thanks everyone. am testing coir at the moment. nut shells would be great if i could find enough of them. the main thing i'm looking for is something that is easily available and cheap. will let everyone know how i go with the coir.

Happy Birthday, to a true character, individual and from what I hear on the scene...somewhat of a fast growing legend. Love you buddy!

moral of the story is...never carry weed at train stations. not worth the risk, and it's increasingly becoming a risk. and if you have to carry it...make sure you aren't carryin anything else. sheesh!

ha ha...trust you to change it from Tool and Sabbath to Darryl Braithwaite! hopefully will make it to the Sydney show...got to give Tool credit...if they hadn't got me into Bill Hicks, Alex Grey and the notion of Third Eyes and psychedelic therapy...well who knows where i'd be these days...