Mycology

I don't know anything about mushrooms. Found these in my garden, Washington state (Puget sound)

I love how tiny and delicate they are! Northern West Virginia.

These are some older photos of what I believe is Hericium cirratum, a species related to Hericium erinaceus (otherwise known as Lion's Mane Mushroom).

Apparently this mushroom is rather rare where I am (Central England).

The older mycologists I'd informed of the location had told me not to share the location online as apparently this mushroom is very popular for poaching.

Still one of the most unique mushrooms I've encountered

Found this all over my local trail in Hawaii. Looks like turkey tail but not white on the edges and not a lot of color separation. Also, Ive never id’ a mushroom.

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