NSF

Oh sent to the compost heap, bummer, I generally get sent to the dog house. So have you fruited yours?

ZPBG I'm happy to test the two strains side by side, in a dual in which the winner shall be showered with glory and the loser shamed, booed and potentially sent to the compost heap.

Yeah it does produce pretty bouquets when you side fruit it. Right, I'm kicking all my bags over tonight. Side fruit the bastard!

It's delicious to eat. I haven't experimented with ZPBG's strain that's aggressive on agar. I don't know how it compares. I do know that my strain is a proven commercial strain and sets quite a number of pins: Here it is...it's go so many fruit it doesn't know which ones to enlarge: http://ediblemushroom.net/index.php/topic,832.0.html and here it is previously on straw: http://ediblemushroom.net/index.php/topic,537.msg3120.html#msg3120

No I've never tried it on either eucalyptus or logs, but it loves oak sawdust and pretty much every other substrate that people have thrown at it, including conventional compost.

On sawdust I've only got white oyster. Proven to be a great performer though. I've got king and blue cultures too. Hopefully getting grey back soon too.

Just buy the Filter Patch bags...the ones with the collars aren't so great for beginners in my opinion. Well, they have a slightly higher chance of contaminants...which is more devastating when you are new to cultivating.

If you'd like some oyster saw dust spawn then let me know.

Yellow piss = exudate. Orange for oysters Dark brown for shiitake Black for auricularia. I've never seen it on agar either but I have seen Agrocybe, shiitake and morel cultures drastically change mycelium colour with age. Those reishi antlers are incredible! What temp are these fruiting at?

I guess that's why we add lime and gypsum to our substrate mixes...now I'm going to have to invest in some blue lights. I had cool white, they died and got replaced with more cool whites, they died. Then all I could get my hands on was warm white. I'd very much like to go back to cool white...although it sounds like I should be getting blues. Shrooman, please let us know, when the lights arrive, which vendor you bought from and whether you could recommend them.

Tangich...please explain a little more, I'm missing something. The stype, sure, it's smooth in this specimen not rough like shiitake but the gills look a match to me. This specimen appears to have a viscid cap which shiitake do not. Basically, please explain how the gills are so vastly different.

This looks like Lentinula edodes (shiitake) to me. Or at least a Lentinus.

Will, what's this about yanagi-matsutake? Isn't that Agrocybe aegerita? Are you talking about the variety of strains you have or am I missing something?

Have a look at Cordyceps...I think militaris might attack termites. From there, look into Beauveria bassiana which is a natural insect defense you can use. I find that I seem to attract a lot of slugs to my shrooms, them and tiny gnats...not much in the way of ants. Do termites tend to live in mulch beds anyway?

I went in June and it was a fraction late (too cold already)...also it was a bit of dry winter/autumn seemingly. 2014 has been a much better year for fungi than 2013 was.

Alright I'll package up a plate of each strain and send them over. Please PM me your deets.

That's an amazing set up, well, it's superb that for the money you have so little to do. Although you certainly would be busy producing enough blocks to go into it. Culture swap, I've got a couple of strains of Ag. a, I have T.v and a Hyp.t - not an Hyp.u though. Are you sure you want Hyp u though? Are you wanting to plant it in the garden? True Hyp.u won't grow in soil, Stamet's incorrectly IDed Hyp.u is really an oyster (note the decurrent gills). Tessulatus has adnexed or sinuate gills, closer to free.

I've got Macrocybe crassa/crassum/Tricholoma crassum. Is that what you are referring to? I haven't proven it but it comes from a reputable source.

I try to never move pics once they are uploaded and I have a specific account just for fungi...but yep, I agree with your frustration. I do try as hard as I can to keep them on reputable free services. No guarantees they will hang around forever though. Sometimes you might want to load the same image to more than one forum though. I guess you still can, it's just a little slower.

I love your setup...very envious. What would you say the total setup cost was? Fancy a culture/spawn swap? I'd really love to play with a proven reishi culture.

Or don't upload them to the forum at all. Open yourself a photobucket account (or picasa or flickr or whatever) and then just post the 'direct image link' here in the forum. I do that, that way I 'own' the image still and can post it to any forum. I also don't lose the image if the forum goes down or changes software or some such.

*slaps forehead* Jox...of course! Can't believe I left that essential bit out.

I'm not a SGFC pro but don't guys cut fewer but larger holes that they fill with polyfill, so they 'filter' the air going into the FC?

I'd look to include a little lime the substrate. I haven't 'proven' it to be beneficial but it seems to help my grows. Then again the lime I use isn't the pH altering kind. Do you take the blocks out of the SGFC between flushes? Sometimes drying the surface can keep mold at bay. Take it our for a day or so and then rehydrate either with a brief (hour or so) submerge in water or spray the surface more regularly. You could put 1% of bleach in your spray water too.

I can't speak for others but I'd be more than happy to look at the photos you post and try and figure out exactly what you've got popping up. Sounds like you live in some kind of rural paradise. Remember, take a photo of the mushroom/rooms before you pick one, so we can see not just the cap but also whether they grow singularly or in clumps. Then pick a mature and immature specimen and photograph the underside of both (in the one pic is best). Then if you are being really thorough cut each in half down the stem and photograph that. Also, list what the mushroom is growing on/near. Is it in grass? On dead wood? On a live tree? Under a tree? What kind of tree? Is there likely roots of a tree under the soil where the mushroom is growing? Also, does the picked/harvest specimen bruise? These are just some of the basic questions. You could also try using the field ID sheet in post 9 here: http://ediblemushroom.net/index.php/topic,245.0.html