Mycology

These seem pretty common, still don't know what they might be though. Showed up the same day as the last mushrooms I posted. It's fun to see so many different kinds.

Can you say what theses are?

I'm not really sure what they are (I've never ID'd a mushroom before) but they looked cool. We've had some extra rain this spring, and these guys sprouted out of nowhere.

laughed my ass off when I found this assortment, laughing again now. pls enjoy

Genus Hygrocybe according to an iNaturalist user!

It is so dry in my part Germany right now, the only mushrooms that grow in significant numbers are summer oysters. And then they are often too dry aswell. This is the only good patch I found during my last hunt.

How are things in your places?

Edit: cannot upload my oyster pic :(

Will it be ok on the bottom shelf of my indoor greenhouse? Tropical plants have been happy there.

Some wild Psilocybes in SE, Pennsylvania.

It's not much to look at yet, but my oyster spawn is doing nicely after only four days. I picked up some spawn off ebay for pink and blue oysters, not realizing just how tiny an amount 10g really was. Well I had already been reading about expanding spawn in grain jars, and was advised here to also try popcorn kernels in addition to the rye berries I had already ordered. I got seven jars cooked and sterilized last weekend and did the transfer in a still air box on Tuesday. What you are seeing in the pic below is the blue oyster spawn, of which the 10g was divided between three jars (the third one not pictured is another popcorn jar), so there was very little to start with in each jar. I'd say it's pretty happy though!

Once these jars are fully colonized I will be pasteurizing chopped straw in a cold water lime bath to set up my fruiting bags. I'm going to try splitting one jar of spawn between two fruiting bags to see how that goes. I know it's a bit thin, but obviously I'm in no big hurry and can wait for the fruiting bags to colonize.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the pic...

I thought some folks might want to see an update on what I've been growing. For reference, I tried to grown button mushroom spawn on boiled cardboard, only to learn a few days later that this shouldn't be possible. Imagine my surprise when the mycelium started growing anyway!

So it's been about three weeks now and growth has been painfully slow, but then again they didn't really have any decent food. I also realized when I opened the container that there was still way too much moisture in the cardboard. Today I transferred what I could into grain jars to give it a better chance at growth. Basically I went through all the layers and peeled the cardboard apart, then tore off smaller chunks of anything that had decent growth on it. This was divided between a jar of popcorn kernels and a jar of rye berries, so I have a good chance of one or both jars really expanding the small amount of spawn I had available. Considering this was started from chopped stems I got at the grocery store, I'd say I'm doing pretty good so far!

I've started doing some reading on how to make the pasteurized compost for this type of mushroom, hoping to start picking up supplies next weekend to get it ready.

Cross-posted from: https://lemmy.nz/post/79539

Four days ago I added some purchased oyster spawn to five jars containing popcorn or rye (after sterilizing of course). The next day I noticed these white spots on the kernels of only one jar. For reference, the pink oyster spawn in this jar was also added to a jar of rye, and there is no sign of these spots in that jar, so I believe the spawn itself was fine. Transfer was done in a still-air box, and this wasn't even the last jar I did, so I'm not really sure if it is contam or not?

One thing that strikes me (and I'm not sure if you can see the detail in this pic), I have seen white spots like this on sweet corn, which I believe is also a fungus, but the popcorn kernels were boiled for 20 minutes, dried for a couple hours, then put in a pressure cooker for 90 minutes at 15psi, so I don't know how any fungus would have remained in the jars?

Regardless, I was wondering if anyone had seen something like this before, and if the jar is likely a loss? The oyster spawn is actually growing growing, you can see one cluster starting right in the center, and it seems like it's cleaning the kernels that it expands to? This is my first time trying to expand spawn so I thought I'd ask for opinions on this...

Day 4 of growing Pleurotus ostreatus cultures from spore. Only one plate got contaminated, but it was bad. There are two contaminant fungi going to battle, and around three possible bacterial colonies. I must have been losing it at the end, haha! Can't wait to see how they progress!

King Stropharia just emerging.

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/581212

I had many expectations for today, but learning that mushrooms sweat wasn't one of them.

The scientists are still unsure why fungi might want to keep cool.

In their paper, the authors speculate that it might have something to do with creating optimal conditions for spore formation, or it may help fungi spread their spores — by altering the temperature, they might be causing tiny winds that can blow the spores around.

It’s also possible that this phenomenon is due to something else entirely. For example, evapotranspiration also increases humidity, and when asked if it’s possible that the fungi are trying to keep humid, and the cooling is simply a by-product, Casadevall said it was conceivable.

Hello all, there's a new community for identifying different types of fungi! Feel free to come join us!

Super dusty boy

2.8# of fungi! (Was a puffball- No gills or stem, though it was misleadingly shaped. Will share a pic of the inside!)

Hi everyone! In an effort to help grow the community, and as someone new to mycology, I would like to gather recommendations for reference materials. My goal in this project is to develop this into a list for the community to share these resources. Books, websites, apps, anything is fair game for this list.

Please let me express my thanks in advance.

Edit: updating with recommendations.

Edit the second: going to build the list off of mobile and then share. Question? Do we include mycology-adjacent resources?

I'm thinking of the Crime pays but Botany Doesn't YouTube channel who occasionally covers mycology, as an example?

Kind of eviscerated by drought, but a few still holding on.

I'm just starting to get back into growing mushrooms and have a few Oyster blocks ready to fruit. Problem is the temperature in my house/grow tent is usually in the high 70's or low 80's (f), and the humidity is in the 30% range. I figured a swamp cooler could help with both of these problems.

I've made DIY swamp coolers using a 5 gallon bucket in the past, and I nearly did that again this time, but I'm trying to learn CAD so I decided to try and make something and print it instead of DIYing a 5 gallon bucket. Besides the fact that the integrated tubing inside the print is basically impossible to clean it is working well!

Here's the humidity and temperature graph over an hour after turning on the device.

Now this is an interesting fungi!

It is called Gymnosporangium clavariiforme or more common "Tounges of Fire". Around a month ago they popped up all around where I live.

The fungi infects a juniper to form the characteristic "Tounges of Fire" which spread spores. These need to land on a hawthorn as a second host. The spores produced on the fruit of the infected hawthorn then need to find a juniper again and the cycle repeats.

#biology #fungi #mycology #nature #naturephotography @mycology

Wanted to share my nicest spore print to date. It came out exactly as the underside of the hat that you can see in the second picture. Most likely Protostropharia semiglobata, but need to confirm the spore size.

#mycology #fungi #mushroom #biology #nature #naturephotography #macro #picture @mycology

From the left to the right (in the attached photo): two jars of Pleurotus ostreatus spores (now mycelium) growing in grain, two jars of P. ostreatus liquid culture cloned from agar, and two jars of Pleurotus pulmonarius liquid culture cloned from agar.

I also have five agar plates I inoculated with a different collection of P. ostreatus spores, but there's no visible growth yet--so I'll leave those out.

The P. pulmonarius was cloned from a fruiting body growing on a commercial grower's spent block that was salvaged from their waste pile. It's actually a pretty happy, and fast-growing variety. It seems that it hasn't reached senescence yet.

The P. ostreatus LC was cloned from a several-generations old sample that was initially from a liquid culture bought through amazon. It hasn't performed super well--which is why I've taken it to spore in two different experiments. I may end up disposing of this LC, but I'll probably store it in the fridge while I work on isolating some new strains from the spore experiments. Hopefully I'll win the P. ostreatus lottery...

All of this is just done in a simple Still Air Box, it's just a hobby for now. Some day I want to assemble a proper lab with a FFU/LFH, but that day is not today!

Anyone else culturing anything fun?

Moved over to the fediverse today. Lets see if this works here 🙂

For my introduction a picture I took yesterday of Scuttelina sp. through the stereo microscope. The genus seems to be "complicated", but as soon as I can get my hands on my compound microscope I'm hopeful that I can identify the species.

#biology #mycology #fungi #mushrooms #microscopy #nature #naturephotography @mycology