14 replies to this topic

[roscoe]

i have been watching for this fungi for 2 years now with no success. then my buddy told me he saw some "nasty stuff" growing on the corn, at a corn maze he took his kids to. eureka! so i thought what better day to go then on a tuesday mourning. but when i got there i was surprised to see bus loads of kids waiting to get in. good thing they all wanted to take the hay ride first thing. i quickly paid my admission and was the first in. ha, now i would have the whole 45 acres to myself, for a minute anyway.


now on to the reason why we are here. Ustilago maydis, or corn smut, an alleged "gourmet mushroom". at some point this may turn into a cultivation thread, depending on my skill or luck which ever the case may be. so any advice you might have for me to capture this wild find would be greatly appreciated. i will, of course employ the usual routes ie. smut to agar, smut to corn, smut to lc, and lastly smut print. sorry smut does not get enough play in my vocab.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_smut

can you see it there?

http://mycotopia.net...54&d=1286916517

looks tasty, don't it?
http://mycotopia.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=192857&d=1286916517

if i'm not mistaken the whole fruiting body, like a puff ball turns into spores. rough and gritty, black to gray, with an earthy smell.

http://mycotopia.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=192860&d=1286916517


it looks a bit different on the "indian" corn.


http://mycotopia.net...68&d=1286916724

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[MrChen]

From the wiki...

In Mexico, huitlacoche is mostly consumed fresh and can be purchased at restaurants, street or farmer's markets throughout the country and, to a much lesser degree, can also be purchased as a canned good in some markets and via the internet. Some farmers markets and organic growers are endeavoring to bring fresh huitlacoche to their customers and local food service trade.

Another thing I must try sometime. Nom nom nom. :rasta:

[roscoe]

alright i'm wasting no time on this one. i give you smut to agar.:pirate:

by the way this stuff is delicious, corn like, real sweet, texture was smooth to mealy.


http://mycotopia.net...18&d=1286946362

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Edited by roscoe, 13 October 2010 - 12:11 AM.
caveman stylings

[August West]

Nice work man. I love gourmet smut. In fact, any smut will do in a pinch.
Also, dude, glass pieces are totally against the rules at a corn maze. You're lucky they didn't toss you out on your arse.

Can't wait for the grow update...

[roscoe]

ok smut update...FAIL! the bits of tissue just turned to black ooze, and did not germ.:eusa_booh

[Beast]

You might have had better luck propagating some of the spores instead.

However I noticed this little bit about cultivation in the wikipedia article:

Life cycle

When grown in the lab on very simple media, it behaves like baker's yeast, forming single cells going by the name sporidia. These cells multiply by budding off daughter cells. When two compatible sporidia meet on the surface of the plant, they switch to a different mode of growth. First, they send out conjugation tubes to find each other, after which they fuse and make a hypha to enter the maize plant. Hyphae growing in the plant are dikaryotic; they possess two haploid nuclei per hyphal compartment. In contrast to sporidia, the dikaryotic phase of U. maydis requires infection of the plant in order to grow and differentiate and cannot be maintained in the laboratory.

[roscoe]

well i'll be dammed. thanks beast, i don't know how i missed that in the wiki article. maybe i should have read it more than once, or payed attention the first time i read it.:headbang:

[TastyBeverage]

So it sounds like to keep an active culture, you need to have some corn growing at all times?

Come back and update us... ARCHIVE MATERIAL.

[ethnobotanist420]

this stuff looks so strange... how is the taste?

[roscoe]

to me it tastes like the corn only sweeter. and a tad mealy, kinda like the outside of a tamale. i would diffenitly eat some more if i could find it in good shape.

[Fungareter]

Dear Roscoe, and Mycotopiates!

 

I'm interested in trying to cultivate the corn smut, Ustilago maydis, for my farmer's market pipedreams.  I'm currently intending to sow a few rows of corn, for agricultural purposes, and then I suddenly had this idea, whilst researching the Cahokia mounds and relating to my Cherokee bloodline, I was thinking, dude, wouldn't it be awesome to deliberately inoculate the corn ears with Ustilago maydis spawn?  Have you got any corn smut spawn or spores, Roscoe or whoever's reading this post, however they're best propagated?  I'd pay for this whatever you think is a fair price.  Please either reply to this thread or private message me. Also, if you care to share your growing methods, that would be much appreciated.

 

The Aztecs, whose bloody human sacrifices resembled that of the Cherokee Cahokians, preferred corn smut as a delicacy, according to wikipedia.org, so I've got this hunch it's muy delicioso!  In fact, the Cahokians so resemble both the Mayans, with a "Woodhenge" calendar ala "Stonehenge," and the Aztecs, with a "Birdman" entombed on a falcon-seashell sarcophagus ala King Tut's special treatment, nearby a pyramid shaped Monk's Mound, that I wonder whether the Cherokees dosed on 'shrooms...

 

 

Above is pictured the mummy which archaeologists call "Birdman."  .  Thus Birdman was like a Montezuma, King or Chief of the Cahokians?

 

 

 

Gracias!

 

Fungareter

[coorsmikey]

Dear Roscoe, and Mycotopiates!
 
I'm interested in trying to cultivate the corn smut, Ustilago maydis, for my farmer's market pipedreams.  I'm currently intending to sow a few rows of corn, for agricultural purposes, and then I suddenly had this idea, whilst researching the Cahokia mounds and relating to my Cherokee bloodline, I was thinking, dude, wouldn't it be awesome to deliberately inoculate the corn ears with Ustilago maydis spawn?  Have you got any corn smut spawn or spores, Roscoe or whoever's reading this post, however they're best propagated?  I'd pay for this whatever you think is a fair price.  Please either reply to this thread or private message me. Also, if you care to share your growing methods, that would be much appreciated.
 
The Aztecs, whose bloody human sacrifices resembled that of the Cherokee Cahokians, preferred corn smut as a delicacy, according to wikipedia.org, so I've got this hunch it's muy delicioso!  In fact, the Cahokians so resemble both the Mayans, with a "Woodhenge" calendar ala "Stonehenge," and the Aztecs, with a "Birdman" entombed on a falcon-seashell sarcophagus ala King Tut's special treatment, nearby a pyramid shaped Monk's Mound, that I wonder whether the Cherokees dosed on 'shrooms...
 

 
Above is pictured the mummy which archaeologists call "Birdman."  .  Thus Birdman was like a Montezuma, King or Chief of the Cahokians?
 
 
 
Gracias!
 
Fungareter

You might have had better luck propagating some of the spores instead.However I noticed this little bit about cultivation in the wikipedia article:

Life cycleWhen grown in the lab on very simple media, it behaves like baker's yeast, forming single cells going by the name sporidia. These cells multiply by budding off daughter cells. When two compatible sporidia meet on the surface of the plant, they switch to a different mode of growth. First, they send out conjugation tubes to find each other, after which they fuse and make a hypha to enter the maize plant. Hyphae growing in the plant are dikaryotic; they possess two haploid nuclei per hyphal compartment. In contrast to sporidia, the dikaryotic phase of U. maydis requires infection of the plant in order to grow and differentiate and cannot be maintained in the laboratory.

[Fungareter]

Hello Mycotopia!  I just started a raised bed with a couple varieties of corn, and was intending to execute this pipe dream finally!  

 

Can someone recommend the best spore vendor to purchase corn smut spores from?  Most bang for the buck?  

 

I'm planning on injecting the ears with the spore solution ala normal grain spawn preparation.  There's scarce information to be found on the internet.  I'll post some pictures if this is a successful fungus grow. 

[Myc]

I'm presuming that since it's considered pathogenic to corn - you might not find culture on the open market (as you would with other gourmet fungi).

 

I did search around and found an article where a fellow was propagating the fungus:

https://mycognosis.c...-maydis-part-2/

Maybe reach out and make friends with the author?

[jkdeth]

You can get the culture here:

https://www.themycel...ustilago-maydis