NSF

I freaking love it! I had the same visuals you did, even before you described the old man shuffling through the catalogue. The Dewey mushroom system. It could be a difficult task to organise orders with actual postage but do we know anyone who can code an online store? lol Oh and I think the first print should be free, but when you contribute you have to send back 2 (or three as you suggested). But your first free print can only be a selection from say 5, then the more you give, the more obscure you are allowed to take. Genetic diversity could be an issue, you'd have to state what the parent spawn was when you submit, so the lineage could be traced hahaha, ridiculous over thinking from me.

A huge many thanks Magicdirt! So many questions answered before I even needed to ask them. Thank you for cutting me off at the pass. That right there is some really useful guidance! I'm curious though, if you're making agar in a non sterile environment, like you suggest, then storing it in the fridge why does nothing grow? Oh and do you cook the agar? As in, teaspon of vegmite, teaspoon of agar, 1 cup of water, heat it just until the agar dissolves or do I boil the beejesus out of it as a pasteurising/sterilising tek? Also, what temp do you think is good to pour it at after microwaving? (not too specific but should I be able to handle the jar with bare hands? Pour when it's steaming hot?) I guess, if it's hot then it could kill anything in the petri dish as it gets poured in. Cheers, Andrew

Ok thanks for that. One more hijack...i put some cooled boiled water into some boiled jars (pasta sauce) then added some agar (and brown sugar and flour just cause) then i put the lids on loosely and boiled the jars standing in a covered pot for an hour. Is this the go? After 3 weeks in the dishes in near the hot water service some agar had split, some had curled. I was away so don't know whether anything grew in the three weeks but there were few traces of anything at the end. How long should agar in a dish stay viable for?

Thanks for the link Hillbillios. Has anyone used this brand? I've got a packet of it sitting on my shelf and my first petri dishes were a complete disaster (no growth at all from a tissue sample, due primarily to me keeping them in with the hot water service, not having a PC and not mixing in the right nutrients. I guess it's really due to not having the right knowledge to begin with.) So I'd just like to know it was the user and not the agar. But I'm pretty certain I know the answer already. On that topic, when Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms specifies the different growth parameters, which is the petri dish incubation temperature? Under the heading of Spawn Run? That doesn't read right.

I don't think I've clocked 5 posts and I've definitely (and gratefully) PMd and got replies. So nup, I don't think there's a 5 post minimum.

Well I'm pretty excited about growing shrooms and I'm only new here. I just need to reply to threads like this to get my post count up But at the minute I'm trying to stay quiet and read and learn rather than offering up an ill informed opinion. Although in the middle of March that will all change, moving into a place with a two car garage with lots of space. Oh no, I don't know if it has much light though...could be an issue! Maybe under the deck, with just some slats of light getting through. Oops, thinking out loud. I do appreciate your duty of care with regards to potentially young members though.

I don't know about that method, I think this might have more to do with timing more than anything. I've seen Amanita Muscaria attacked by bugs and although after par boiling it's possible to consume it I wouldn't. I suspect the bugs aren't invading with small stoves and boiling up bits before they consume it.

I'm wondering how I should go about identifying the Horse Mushroom - Agaricus Arvensis? I find yellow stainers with a strong ring/veil and if the horse mushroom goes a bit yellow how do I know when it's actually a horse mushroom? I do notice that Xanthodermus seems to spring up in a bit of a boxy shape, not as nicely rounded as say Campestrus. Thoughts? EDIT: I definitely didn't see the thread in the ID section which tries to answer this exact topic. So I'll have more of a chat there.