mycology course in QLD????

[WarpedAstro]

has anyone ever heard of any mycology course in Brisbane thru TAFE or Adult education?? I would love to grow shrooms, but got no experience. I would love to learn the art of mycology. cheers WA

[Guest reville]

Most mycology taught is at the tertiary level and concentartes heavily on taxonomy

(keying out, describing ...yawn)

I was quite disappointed to find that the growing wasnt covered.

Cultivator mycologists are the rarer breed of the species and we all seem pretty much self taught. We usually find each other as time goes on and get all excited and usaully talk for hours about ideas and past and future projects.

Apart from taxonomy the major skill youd get from formal studies is that of sterile technique - being able to subculture and isolate in a way as to reduce contamination to acceptable levels.

The majority of the basic Cultivation theory you can find in these books.

Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms: Shokuyo Oyobi Yakuyo Kinoko No Saibai

by Paul Stamets (Paperback - December 2000)

Mushroom Cultivator: A Practical Guide to Growing Mushrooms at Home

by Paul Stamets, J. S. Chilton (Paperback - October 1984)

Youll also need a pressure cooker and either a homemade glovebox or a Flowhood (see recent thread). The rest will be books and cheap materials /equipment.

There is also this list at Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/listm...8878435-5462229

Quite a few ive seen already and i agree that these are quite good.Its such a huge field that no one text will tell you all you need to know. however with the 2 stamets books,a good technical/ fundamental type book such as Introductory Mycology (by C. J. Alexopoulos, et al ) and access to the collective knowledge of web shroom communities such as the shroomery you will be well placed.

You can try B4 u buy if you check out what the state library system has to offer as well as your nearest University (you wont be able to borrow but you can photocopy any really good sections)

Heavy tomes can often be found at the state Herbarium - excellent taxonomic references such as 'the Larger fungi of Southern Australia' (?)

Most of your field guides (Mycoporn) will be geared towards Europe and North america (can pick up occassionally in regular bookstore), and what has been done in Australia is mostly in South eastern and a few texts from SW Australia.

Most of the northern Literature is either outdated or severely lacking.

Thats not even saying that the work hasnt been done - there are some highly capable people working on it right now

However most of it is still academic and so only those fortunate enough to go to conferences get to see it.Good illustrated guides are a while off i think

If you are looking on the web and all you find is info on growing Psilocybes and youre after edibles etc. dont distress

Most of these techniques used have been borrowed from mainstream practices and refined for the home grower, in manyways improved because they use readily available materials.

The technology is directly transferable

For example.

For compost lovers like Agaricus the techniques used to isolate and make spawn for P cubensis are almost identical.

The best method i know would be a formula based on the Rye grain (or substituted grain)

method with a little extra Calcium sulphate

Likeise if you hunt through 'Bulk Techniques'

you will find recipes for small scale compost making which can be applied to agaricus as well as sections on making Casing materials.

The straw based techniques are directly applicable to Oyster mushrooms

The sections on Woodloving Psilocybes are usful for making spawn and beds of Species like Smoky gill (hypholoma), Burgundy cap (Stropharia rugoso-annulata) and Blewitt (Lepista nuda).

And the cutting edge work on new psilocybe species gives ideas and techniques at the coalface. Materials like Ryegrass seed and Agar with actiavted carbon are all useful for recalcitrant species.

[squiresk]

Good answer Rev.

Incidently I'm waiting for Stamets' Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms.

I gotta couple of questions, for you though if you don't mind.

If you recall I was attempting to grow shiitake and oyster at the moment.

I've placed some fruiting body mycelia in agar, (Nutrient Agar) and find the colonisation (too) slow. (i.e. somethings not quite right). Firstly do you use PDA to produce mycelium, and at what temperature do you use (roughly). I've always thought fungi were a colder ~25C loving group while the bacteria prefer hotter, like ~ 35C. So if your technique/apparatus/situation isn't 100% aseptic then if you incubate at lower temperatures, this provides the fungi with a better chance.

2ndly, have you tried any aseptic techniques? Like blending a bunch of oysters with water and pouring/spreading this through an unsterilised, Straw/Gypsum/Hardwoodchip mixture, then leaving it to nature?

l8r Kai

Kai.

[Guest reville]

Well you wont be diappointed by that book i garauntee. Try and get TMC as well as it is much more concerned with the fundamentals, and i you want to go beyond the set parameters confidently youll need this.

I heard its banned but F'em we're bloody mycologists an these are the tools of our trade - theres plenty of things openly sold with dual purposes why should books be any different.

Anyway its quite normal for your new isolates to be a little slow - Nutrient agra can be a little rich.

Try PDA Fungi need less nutrients and water than bacteria thats why they reach out with those lovely rhizomorphs.

It really simple just keep the water from your mashed potatoes, add agar (i can help if you dont have), you can add more things but its not really necessary for isolation

If you like you can chuck a few Woodchips from the species youre going to grow on, or some straw to infuse the sorts of nutrients the fungi will have to adapt to into the agar.This speeds things up

These species are naturally primary decomposers and eke out an existence inspecilasied lignin and cellulose rich environments.They can adapt to less complex food sources but it throws them a little.

For example - too rich a substrate can actually *decrease* yields (5-10% is good using bran TMC and GGMM will show you all that)

Secondly - yes fungi like it between 21 to 28 degrees, though there are exceptions like volvariella (35 +)

If you get bacterial contam dont sress. If the agr surface is realtively dry they will grow toform a colony and then sit.The fungi will catch up and sometimes 'eat them'.

Motile bacteria are a bit more problematic - these lil bastards can 'swim' via their flagella. Again firm and well dried agar helps alot.Your pouring technique comes in here - pouring at the correct gelling temp and stacking your plates as they cool to slow cooling and therefore condensation. (see the books)

Store your agar in a bar fridge at a contanst temp to avoid condensation and sweating which always invite disaster.

I have tried non sterile techniques with success.

Although moulds and yeasts are a bitch. If you are using a nice selective media the bacteria are less of a problem.

Unpasteurised wood put into a moist warm high CO2 enrironment is a haven for trichoderma (forest green mould)

You might have luck with processed things like paper or even with hose bags of ready made compost and cowmanure at the hardware store. -see the shroomery (scotts 3 in 1 thread)

Anyway forget straw - i know its been done but those people were just arsy. Dont waste good spawn.

Ive mixed shimeji stubs with newspaper pellets over which id poured water out of the kettle to swell and cool (not proper pasteurisation but a lame attempt)

it worked fine

However the extra effort to do proper pasteurisation is worth it as you can add nutritional supplements and get much better yields.

you should see bluemeanies' posts talking baout transplanting mycelia (Hypholoma and others) that work just fine.

Chips should be fresh and then soaked this givesthe spawn a window to get established

Stamets is selling a garden trio that does the same - Stropharia, shimejii and ...? aha

The “Three Amigos” Garden Pack

For species successionism of friendly fungi in the garden, we recommend using these three garden allies: in concert, the Garden Oyster (Hypsizygus ulmarius), the Garden Giant (Stropharia rugoso-annulata) and the Shaggy Mane (Coprinus comatus). They can be placed in the garden for the benefit of vegetables and for improving soil quality. And, gourmet mushrooms flourish throughout the seasons to create the best of edible landscapes!

KTAG $49.00

Yes and dont bother trying to order from there... they wont.

You need quarantie clearance of $60 and lots of papaerwork and dealing with useless recruits etc...

all these species are already here.and by accidental or legit means

later

rev