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DreamingNagual

Spreading Spores!

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Hello ppl,

Lets say one had a bunch of wild spore prints on foil.

Then one rinsed spores with Sterile or Distilled water(the type used for injections in fit packs & such) into a sterilised pyrex jug then pulled into 20ml syringe barrels & Sprayed Onto & Injected Into a few Woodchip/Mulch beds about the place!

My Question is, Would these Woodchips/Mulch Beds need to already have a Mycelial Content present to eventually fruit these spores?

Or do the spores themselves (Given ideal conditions) form a Mycelial Network thru their own doing?

In a location where allowed Of Course! I am pretty sure this practice would be illegal In this country. Thankyou.

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ideally they would be fairly fresh woodchips so that they werent already colonised by other species of fungi. it will give your spores a better chance. put the spores into water with a bit of sugar (maple syrup, molasses) and salt, the sugar will promote germination while the salt inhibits growth of other nasties a little. then spread in appropriate places

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Salt? Never heard of doing that before - if it inhibits growth of other nasties, wouldn't it also inhibit the growth of the target spores?

The thing with spraying woodchips with spores is that the likely hood of them getting a foothold in amongst the billions of other organisms is very small.

The best way to start to spread wood loving species is to first use your spores to start a normal grain or pf jar.

Once this is established, break it up and spawn it to wood mulch that has first been soaked overnight, in a bucket or something similar.

Allow the mycelium to transfer to the wood, and by then it should be strong enough to use as spawn to mix in outdoor mulch beds.

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Salt? Never heard of doing that before - if it inhibits growth of other nasties, wouldn't it also inhibit the growth of the target spores?

its taken from mycelium running. the spores will be fine, i havent noticed and problems when using it in the past. ill have a look and post the exact reasoning behind stamets recommending it.

The thing with spraying woodchips with spores is that the likely hood of them getting a foothold in amongst the billions of other organisms is very small.

The best way to start to spread wood loving species is to first use your spores to start a normal grain or pf jar.

Once this is established, break it up and spawn it to wood mulch that has first been soaked overnight, in a bucket or something similar.

Allow the mycelium to transfer to the wood, and by then it should be strong enough to use as spawn to mix in outdoor mulch beds.

agreed. if your looking for something more low tek than this try germinating them on moist corrugated cardboard in a sealed container. cardboard is quite selective so risk of contams is fairly low but its a slow process. once you get some decent mycelial growth its fairly straight forward to expand.

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The ratio in Mycelium Running is 1 tablespoon sugar and 1/4 tsp. salt per gallon of water. Paul's recommendation is to shake the solution 1-2 times per day for 1-2 days, then add to substrate. Google Books Mycelium Running Spore-Mass Slurry Excerpt.

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The salt method is also mentioned in Stamet's 'The Mushroom Cultivator'. I'm a little unsure about how effective it would be, but could very well be worth a shot!

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Salt is commonly added to cultures designed for the use of growing bacteria that normally grow on rotting meat.

5g/L is the ratio if I recall correctly.

An interesting question, so I did a bit of poking. I think what I found only raises more questions:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=A...02a3a32ef4bbf62

Biological leaching of nickel laterite ores is based on the use of heterotrophic microorganisms and their metabolic products to dissolve nickel and cobalt from oxide minerals. High salinity of water supplies and soils in the vicinity of nickel laterite ore bodies can be a major challenge in the application of bio-leaching process in situ. Salt stress can imbalance the osmotic potential in fungi cells generating a water deficit and the influx of sodium may lead to metabolic toxicity. The purpose of this study is to examine salt tolerance development of Aspergillus foetidus using gradual acclimatization technique to salt concentrations up to 2% and to assess the use halotolerant microorganisms in leaching weathered saprolite ores under saline conditions. It has been observed that salinity stress affects the growth but not the energy metabolism of the organism. Kinetic of metal leaching, nature of secondary reactions and metal dissolutions were also influenced by salt stress.

EDIT: Just want to point out that Aspergillus is probably a decent comparator being a hyphae growing microscopic fungus, rather than the single celled yeasts.

Edited by Sina

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I dunno about using spores but if your goal is to encourage the establishment of new mushroom patches how about just transplanting small sections of mycelium collected from the field? Theres a section in the 'Psilocybin Mushroom Handbook' by L. G Nicholas and Kerry Ogame (you guys have probably already read this) which talks about this and also about growing new mycelium from pieces of stem which have been allowed to grow on cardboard first. If it was effective this seems like an easy way of establishing your own beds in convenient places?!

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Interesting info Sina. I have never come across the salt info before, goes to show I should put down the computer and pick up a book...

I can see the interest in playing with some salt, but I still think its not necessary in a 'home brew' liquid culture.

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Thankyou for your replies everyone :)

I am going to try out genki's method with the salt and sugar on some reasonably new beds!

Also I will be experimenting with growing a Mycelial Network within some Cardboard

as mentioned here & in the forum a few times,

Then using this Mycolised cardboard to try and Re-Introduce to a former patch that was once very proliferant <sp?>but sadly does not now produce.

Thankyou again to all who replied, I will keep you informed of how these methods go.

I may even begin a photo diary to accompany my efforts.

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with the amount of spores you have id suggest making up the water/sugar/salt ratio mentioned by stamets but use a smaller amount. i think he uses 1g of spores to a gallon of water. youll have better success with less.

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