First time Reishi student seeking some guidance or links

[home food grower]

Hi everybody,

I just received my first Ganoderma Lucidum mycellium in the mail thanks to a very helpful corroboree member. Now to get it going.

Its a very aggressive strain so will apparently grow on anything. I have got sawdust from a fig tree and I have got some old logs.

From what I understand, the logs need to be fairly fresh. Sawdust is only a couple weeks old. The log is probably years old.

I am wondering if anybody knows of some really basic teks? I don't have humidifiers but I do have a fairly natural back yard. Its winter here, obviously SE coast of qld. Not too cold, but too cold probably for the mycellium to take off?

From what I can gather growing in some saw dust is the fastest method. Soak the dust - drain it, mix in the mycellium? I'm a newbie but I've read most of the threads here on reishi. Is it similar to growing shitake though? More or less?

Any pointers would be really appreciated.

Thanks in advance, Bobby.

[home food grower]

From what I can gather the log way looks the simplest. But I have mycellium in agar. Apparently I need to get this mycellium into carpentry plugs and then bash them into holes.

So I need to firstly innoculate the plugs?

[home food grower]

Or, would i just be better off innoculating a bunch of saw dust, filling the holes with that, covering the holes with wax and that will do the trick?

Thanks again!

[gerbil]

I don't have much direct experience with logs, but either or really, plugs or dust, haven't done the plug route so i'm not up on many advantage disadvantage between the too, main one i can think of is dust will be a bit more fiddly over dowels, though threaded dowels are hard to source. Dehydration shouldn't be an issue 'cause of the seal so no biggie there, dowels may have better direct wood to wood contact depending on hole size, but you can pack dust in just the same really.

Yep you need to make some spawn from your agar plate. Be aware that your few year old log will have residents already, not sure how well it'll go on two factors, how strong the residents will compete with the reishi, and how much nutrient is available that's suitable to support the reishi; it's best getting relatively fresh ones so they can eat all the rich goodness with little to no competition, but still be worth experimenting on the old logs. Even with fresh logs, if you've got a strong competitor nearby they'll make themselves at home Reishi are pretty strong from what i hear.

For quicker turn around (but different nutritional value / taste etc, as with any method) you can also make some spawn and use small amounts to spawn wet newspaper / hessian etc., roll into 'logs' and tie off with string, incubate and they fruit much quicker than logs, but only lasts a small time compared to an outdoor log.

if you plan on doing this into the future, would highly recommend getting the collection of books by Stamets, Mush Cultivator is sorta pest/disease and growth focused, Growing Gourmet and Med. Mushrooms is the same but into heavy growth, indoors and out, and Mycelium Running is still on the growth but turns into more bioremediation / outdoor fields.

Edited June 1, 2010 by gerbil

[tripsis]

Gerbil's advice is good.

Logs are simple, but will take a while to fruit and will take a while to show whether they are successful of not. On the upside, they can last for many years.

You can make bags with wood shavings and chips too. You want to go from agar to grain to the final fruiting substrate.

Keep in mind that whatever you are doing, when creating spawn it should be done in sterile conditions or it is likely to fail.

[Darklight]

Damn, I can't seem to find Gerbil's incredibly sexy recycled newspaper tek for growing reishi. Have googled it as well

It had lots of yummy photos. But I only have 2 questions, maybe someone here can help:

If I use enough sterile spawn, do I need to autoclave the newspapers I tie it in before I inoculate with the spawn?

How much of a weed risk is this as an outdoor grow? I'm hearing different accounts. Seriously, if the spores are that much of an issue, is it going to make much difference growing indoors, given that all the rooms in my house are only a frog's fart away from wild nature

cheers

DL

[tripsis]

I've not done Gerbil's newspaper tek, but you shouldn't need to sterilise it, just pasteurise it. Rieshi is incredibly aggressive and should colonise its given substrate quickly, easily outrunning and out-competing any competitor moulds that might be present.

Considering how aggressive the species is, I would be careful about where I grew it. That said, it's already been recorded growing wild in Australia and with dozens of amateur (and perhaps professional) growers cultivating it, I expect it won't be going anywhere. As you say, the spores will find their way outside, regardless of whether it's grown indoors or out. When I was growing pink oysters I had some palm logs outside the house. A few months later I found pink oysters fruiting from one of them. Point is, spores do travel and will colonise suitable substrates, so I think it is quite likely that growing reishi would introduce it to an area locally.

[occidentalis]

There are also native reishis

genetically similar to G. lucidum enough to be considered the same species. Growing on the host trees (Albizzia) used for the indian sandalwood plantations in the ord river area up north WA.

[tripsis]

There are several native Ganoderma species, but they are not the same species as what is commonly referred to as "G. lucidum". As it is, reishi is not actually "G. lucidum", it's either G. multipileum or a species from China and Japan whose identity has not yet been worked out. See this link for more information.

Ganoderma multipileum, a species originally known

only based on the type specimen from lowland Taiwan,

morphologically resembles Taiwanese ‘G. lucidum.’ This

species was originally described mainly based on three

features: (1) two kinds of pilei, one from the stalk with

some of the stipes and pilei growing together, and the other

growing from the lower pilei; (2) a thin crust, composed

of enlarged and bulbous ends of hyphae, 16.5 × 2.35-6.05

μm; and (3) basidiospores 8.2-9.4 × 4.7 μm, ovoid,

truncate, with numerous and minute echinulae. The former

two characteristics are less useful for circumscription of

G. multipileum. The feature of multiple-pileate basidiocarp

was proven to be unreliable in a cultivation study of G.

multipileum by Chang (1983). The presence of enlarged

hyphal ends in the crust is not diagnostic because this

feature is common to all laccate species of Ganoderma.

Hence, only the feature of basidiospores is meaningful

in identification. The holotype of G. mutlipileum shares

all of the fundamental morphological characteristics with

collections of ‘G. lucidum’ from Taiwan, including the

feature of basidiospores with fine echinulae. Their conspecific

status was confirmed in this study.

‘Ganoderma lucidum’ from mainland China and

Japan formed a distinct clade (clade B ) separate from

clade A where G. multipileum was nested (Figure 2).

The morphology of ‘Ganoderma lucidum’ from Japan

examined in this study differs from G. multipileum by

having moderately echinulate basidiospores and a paler

context. Currently, the true identity of this fungus in clade

B is still unknown.

There is one species in Australia which used to be thought of as "G. lucidum" but has actually been found to be a separate species called G. steyaertanum. Is this the species you were thinking of occidentalis?

Smith and Sivasithamparam (2003) described a new

species, G. steyaertanum from Australian and Indonesian

collections, which has been commonly mistaken for

G. lucidum. They stated that a previous ITS sequence

analysis by Smith and Sivasithamparam (2000) indicates

the allopatric speciation of G. steyaertanum from a species

from India and the Philippines, respectively, based on

ATCC 32471 and JMM P93.1 (both determined as G.

multipileum in this study). Furthermore, they concluded

that the distribution of G. steyaertanum may not extend

much further north of Indonesia. However, the morphology

and hosts of G. steyaertanum (Smith and Sivasithamparam,

2003) are generally consistent with those of

G. multipileum. The ITS sequences of these two species

also exhibit high similarity. Although they formed two

clusters in the phylogenetic tree (Figure 2), they were

grouped together with strong bootstrap support (90%). The

relationship between G. steyaertanum and G. multipileum

merits further study.

Edit: typos

Edited March 21, 2011 by tripsis

[occidentalis]

They are several native Ganoderma species, but they are not the same species as what is commonly referred to as "G. lucidum". As it is, reishi is not actually "G. lucidum", it's either G. multipileum or a species from China and Japan whose identity has not yet been worked out. See this link for more information.

 

hmmm thanks for that.

There is one species in Australia which used to be thought of as "G. lucidum" but has actually been found to be a separate species called G. steyaertanum. Is this the species you were thinking of occidentalis?

 

No idea

I'm just going by what I was told from the person who gave it to me

who is pretty knowledgeable when it comes to native fungi genetics but perhaps is a little behind on this one.