NSF

Some really lovely photos and what a great amount of fungi to find. Here I was thinking it'd be too late in the season and you wouldn't see much but it's been a terrific season. Some of those spots you went to are very pretty indeed. I had never heard of the Fleurieu peninsula before. Does Kuitpo officially fall within the Fleurieu or is that a little further away? Didn't happen to stumble across any of those illusive porcini though

shadow, scroll up

It looks like the police struck gold after 4 mushroom hunters thought they had: http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/police-step-up-magic-mushroom-patrols-in-donnybrook/story-e6frg14u-1226408297183

DTB, good luck with that, especially considering much of what you see (once you really start looking) doesn't even have a name yet. There are many many fungi you can spy that haven't been classified. Those Hypholoma could also 'possibly' be sublateritium. See if you can key it out.

I agree with myco. Possibly Hypholoma fasciculare

Tan spore print...or rusty orange? I was going to guess at a Cortinarius of some kind, but the stype looks a little smooth. Maybe a Dermocybe.

Definitely not subs The first one might be a gymnopilus or less likely a pholiota. The second one looks like a russula and did you take a bit of the underside of the 3rd one? Was it yellow and spongey? Because it looks a bit like Boletellus obscurecoccineus.

It fruits pretty well, I had it cranking out the fruit on 30+ degree days. I'll see what plates I have floating about and I'll be in touch. I might have to prep some more plates, so it might be a little while.

The Australian varieties, there are 2 Grifola natives, they are both edible but too bitter to be palatable. So don't bother.

Ok here's a tip I got from a recipe for agar for agarics. 100gm of good quality phase 2 compost, into 2 litres of distilled water, boil 1 hour. Let cool and then decant/filter. Bring the amount back up to 2L by adding more distilled water as necessary. In a separate container make a paste using 30g of agar, 10g of peptone and a little of the water mixture. Continue to slowly add the water whilst stirring. PC at 121 for 30 mins (30 mins starts once the PC is at temp).

Another little tip for myc on agar and out running contams: Take something like a metal cigar tube, hold it with an oven mit and heat the open end with a gas torch (or stove). Then place the open end into the agar, over the tissue sample. So you burn a little circle indent into the agar. This 'moat' is another little trap for contams, where as mushroom mycelium can leap across the gap, it just gives you a little more time. Allowing the mushroom mycelium to get ahead of the contam growth.

Agaricus species also aren't that found of generic agar mixes, I hear they are rather selective about what they will grow on. Ob, what strength peroxide are you using that you use just 2ml per 250ml? From hair dressing supply type stores they sell it in various 'strengths'. I also agree with the advice to the OP to get more sterile conditions. Even in a glove box or a hood contams are still a very real and fairly frequent issue unless you have good sterile technique.

Great stuff Om! So what strains of Le are browned and ready right now?

There's a tip for young players...always spore print on two pieces of paper, put a piece of black or grey paper beside a piece of white paper or foil and line up the three shrooms along the join. That way any coloured spores will show up. Lactarius' white print is pretty hard to see on white paper. Why do you want to know whether it's Armillaria vs Gym...I hear you can eat Armillaria mellea but what you've got doesn't really look at all like mellea. Aussie gyms are bitter and not active if you were going that angle.

Funny that you say it looked like a fist, I'm pretty sure another name for it is dead man's fist. Or wait, dead man's foot...they are both names for different fungi.

7 is definitely a lactarius deliciosus. The clump in the first post...(the numbering isn't working for me) I'd have guessed it to be Gymnopilus, so I'm interested to hear that ZPBG says Gallerina.

They don't look lilac like a wood blewitt. That doesn't mean they aren't and it doesn't mean they must be a field blewitt they are just missing that purple hue in the pics. Nice pics though.

Yeah I'd vote Laccaria too.

I don't know that I'd bother with those Coprinus/Coprinella for eating. Pretty risky. The second one looks like it could be a Xerula sp. The third one, well, it could be Chlorophyllum or it could be a Lepiota or Macrolepiota. Despite some of those being edible they aren't easy to distinguish and some are just plain dangerous. I'd be avoiding it.

Could be C. micaceus or C. domesticus, slightly older specimen, with the yellow/orange faded.

I really love that you've put in the hard work to get appropriate packaging and graphic design. It's not a backyard operation (well it might be to fill them) but you've made it look like a fantastic product that people would happily put on their kitchen winsow sill. I guess it has a bit of a similar look and feel to the BTTR product. Well done on the whole endeavour and i hope it works out profitably for you Om, keep up the great work.

I wouldn't recommend freezing, I think they are far better off slicing them and then drying them on a rack, or threading them, then hanging them up out of sunlight to dry. The only issue is you've got to keep each slice apart, maybe thread on a slice, a bit of dried straight macaroni, a slice, macaroni etc etc. 40 massive boletes...what a find!

Those red ones could be either Stropharia aurantiaca or Leratiomyces ceres. Very cool pore surface on that white bracket one too...very different.

any pics? And on thread topic, I've been on one of these fungal workshops, they're great. A friend went on the Thursday one and also said it was great.

So if I've found some sort of ganoderma on a living and apparently healthy tree, is it in fact a death sentence? Is white rot consuming the tree's heart wood and it's destined for failure?