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tipz

how can i help sustain my patch

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Is there any way besides redistributing spores and mycelium that i can increase the yield of my local natural outdoor patch for subs ?

Would adding a cheap organic fertiliser during winter this year, help feed the mycelium and promote fruiting next season ? If i was to say spread a heap of blood'n'bone around known productive patches ?

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Someone else correct me if I'm wrong, but I doubt blood and bone or any fertiliser would encourage wood-loving Psilocybe, if anything it would be more likely to kill them. They feed on wood. Spreading woody debris of a mix of sizes, like woodchips and wood shavings might help.

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i wouldnt go putting any kind of fertilizers on it

as long as it has plenty of wood debri like woodchips or wat ever to feed off it should be fine

so if its in a good natural spot thats always got fresh wood debri there from the trees around it anyway then you shouldnt need to do anything otherwise you culd add your own wood chips or watever to it

fuck the fertilizers

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I would just stick to the basics mate. Apply fresh woodchips to the patch (so the mycellium is both protected during the warmer months and has a new medium to grow on) and water during the warmer months. If it isn't well protected from the sun I would also put extra debris over the new woodchips. You should also take a little bit and start growing another patch :lol:.

Oh and I've been told that woodlovers prefer older sunbleached woodchips as opposed to fresh ones :wink:.

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yeah - thats what i was thinking - most of the subs i pick are in eucalypt plantations - and under a type of local fern. So i suppose the best i can do is grab a trailer full of eucalypt mulch ( semi decomposed )from my mate who works in tree removal, and take a trailer down to a fewlocal spots... spread my compost then evenly spread my mycelium ( been growing from stem buts in hessian ) and mix all my excess dried mushroom dust ( spores ((must be billions of them)) and finely ground material from under my drying screens put it all in a super soaker and spray the shit out of my secret little spots) ! Its been a terrible season here in S.A ( dried up way too quick as i can see has been happening everywhere else from another thread). Then hopefully if the conditions throughout the year are favourable my patches will go nuts if not next year then the following. Id build my own patch at home but think this is preferable for my circumstances. Cheers for the info guys !

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I think the season has done quite alright, atm if you're not going to a new spot i wouldn't bother going though, very little have pinned in the last week.

If you wish to encourage fruiting of a spot and it's local/secluded enough you can cover a spot you know fruits with a tarp to trap moisture and wet it every few days. You can do this offseason to grow mycelium or you can do it inseason to promote a healthy microclimate. Mushrooms require sunlight to pin though so if you're gonna leave the tarp on during the on season it should be transparent.

^^^^ all 'booklearnt' knowledge, unfortunately no practical experience to speak from :(

well except for the hunting part

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Tipz, your last post sounds like you are one the right track. New mulch should be added each season in any case, to give the mycellium something new to feed on for the rest of the year. I can't talk enough about the importance of creating new patches from old ones. A handful of mycellium is enough to create a whole new patch somewhere nearby (obviously, if you take a chunk of mycellium from a patch it's wise to cover it over with mulch to protect it from drying out). Obviously the more spores you have out there, the more likely you'll be to get new fruit and growth.

Heres a helpful hint:

I've got a great jacket that I wear a lot in winter....great big pockets in the sides perfect for discretely filling up with any finds I have. The best thing is though, after a couple of weeks of picking I've got a couple of inches of spore/mushroom dust sitting in the pockets. Now, whenever I walk past an area that looks like it has potential I just dip my hand in and sprinkle a few pinches of magic dust over the area. Makes me feel like I'm a wizard.

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Good read, my patch hasn't shown signs in about 2 weeks going to have to go down and do some maintenance.

I hear euc or pine sawdust is good for myc, they go crazy on that stuff can mung through it quite quickly ;)

Good luck bud, let us know how you go!

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saw dust is awesome for starting off or boosting a patch. but as you said, the myc rips through it quickly so you'd have to top it up with woodchips at some point. a mix of sawdust and bigger woodchips would be the way to go....oh yeah....

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Topping up with woodchips would be the basic strategy. Smaller chips to provide a larger surface area so as to produce a larger mycelial reservoir to ensure good fruitings and larger chips to provide some opennese of substrate so it can breathe and for sustainable sustanance. A little clean organic dirt added may be beneficial for added trace elements/minerals but one should avoid anything that has added fertilizers or manure as this may encourage the growth of pathogenic bacteria. One should also avoid anything with added dolomite.

A little charcoal may be beneficial and other than that the only fertiliser that I feel comfortable with is a dilute seaweed extract to provide potassium which has been associated with fast growing fungi and which may contain hormones that boost growth. If increased water retention is desired a little vermiculite may be added.

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anyone know if the wood loving mycellium will grow on Coco-coir? i know it works with cubes and the like but would be interested to know if the wood loving species liked it too.

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^ ^ ^ I reckon it would depend on how broken down the coconut fibers are. If they were like shredded coconut, then i would say that a wood loving mycelium would grow on it. Not too sure about the finer stuff though.

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I wouldn't fuck with it too much either, maybe some wood-chips or hard-wood mulch, but don't get carried away the last thing you want to do is kill your precious patch!

If its a super dry summer maybe giving it some moisture every now and then when its approaching winter would help revitalise...

The little buggers are so resiliant from what I've seen that they really don't need much/any assistance, just don't pick any that havent opened up yet!

Peace

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