10 replies to this topic

[kudokun]

found one near home. a big one.and im planning on cultivating at home.But i dont know how to get the spores or how to get started. Should i what? :take it and put foil underneath it to gain spore(duh?!)
since its not like other mushrooms im not sure how to acquire its spores help guys.

[copelandiaKidd]

you will need agar my friend..... or tear it into pieces and place between damp cardboard.... the mycellium will start growing into that, and you can establish a bed that way

[kudokun]

I see. will damp cardboard be vulnerable to contams??? if i use agar .should i still tear it to pieces?

[PsyBearknot]

I found one in my yard and set on a piece of cardboard that I put in the bottom of a 1/2 pint mason jar. I soaked the cardboard in a little peroxide then put it in the jar pc the jar then in a glove box transferred my reishi to the jar and with in about a week it started to produce myc I plan to transfer that to agar next

[TVCasualty]

I see. will damp cardboard be vulnerable to contams??? if i use agar .should i still tear it to pieces?

Agar is much more vulnerable to contaminating than cardboard, especially from a wild print. IMO you should clone it (cut a piece of clean tissue from inside the mushroom and transfer that to agar or cardboard).

Another option (if all you want to do is grow more reishi in your yard) is to mix a few gallons of water with a tablespoon of molasses and a pinch of salt (a clean bucket is perfect),pick the mushroom, float it pores-down in the bucket for ~6 hrs, remove the mushroom, let the water sit overnight, then the next day put the water in a garden sprayer and spray it anywhere reishi likes to grow. I've had great success using this method with turkey tails, reishi, a species of phosphorescent fungi I couldn't identify, and chicken of the woods.

Good luck!

[copelandiaKidd]

agar is much more vulnerable to contaminating than cardboard, especially from a wild print. IMO you should clone it (cut a piece of clean tissue from inside the mushroom and transfer that to agar or cardboard).

Another option (if all you want to do is grow more reishi in your yard) is to mix a few gallons of water with a tablespoon of molasses and a pinch of salt (a clean bucket is perfect),pick the mushroom, float it pores-down in the bucket for ~6 hrs, remove the mushroom, let the water sit overnight, then the next day put the water in a garden sprayer and spray it anywhere reishi likes to grow. I've had great success using this method with turkey tails, reishi, a species of phosphorescent fungi I couldn't identify, and chicken of the woods.

Good luck!

awesome idea brother!!!!!!
I will definately try that!!!!!!!!!!

[PsyBearknot]

Agar is much more vulnerable to contaminating than cardboard, especially from a wild print. IMO you should clone it (cut a piece of clean tissue from inside the mushroom and transfer that to agar or cardboard).

Another option (if all you want to do is grow more reishi in your yard) is to mix a few gallons of water with a tablespoon of molasses and a pinch of salt (a clean bucket is perfect),pick the mushroom, float it pores-down in the bucket for ~6 hrs, remove the mushroom, let the water sit overnight, then the next day put the water in a garden sprayer and spray it anywhere reishi likes to grow. I've had great success using this method with turkey tails, reishi, a species of phosphorescent fungi I couldn't identify, and chicken of the woods.

Good luck!

That's just simply brilliant
What does the pinch of salt do?
I want to do that now but weather will be freezing in a month or so
Think it would still work now or should I wait till it warms up for next season?j

[TVCasualty]

That's just simply brilliant
What does the pinch of salt do?
I want to do that now but weather will be freezing in a month or so
Think it would still work now or should I wait till it warms up for next season?j

I read that technique in one of Stamets' books, but I forget which one.

The salt is to inhibit the growth of bacteria; I guess bacteria are more susceptible to salt than fungi. Might be why coir works so well for our purposes (it has a relatively high sodium content if it hasn't been washed, apparently). The molasses is for inducing the spores to sprout so they get a nice head start.

As for timing, I'm not sure but I'd assume that whenever you see the species you want to propagate popping up is a good time to try it. And it's definitely a shot in the dark kind of thing no matter when you do it, but since it takes so little effort it's well worth trying IMO.

Another application for this might be to reduce woody debris in your yard, like from trimming bushes and such. As an experiment once I sprayed a dense brush pile with turkey tail spore water, and as I kept adding brush to it the pile kept shrinking (and producing lots of turkey tails along the way). After four years of adding to the same pile it never seemed to get any bigger, like it was a wormhole that made brush disappear (or something like that). When I dug into the center of that pile at the end of the fourth year, it was picture-perfect topsoil.

[kudokun]

wow thats totally worth a try.
thanks guys!

[roc]

wow thats totally worth a try.
thanks guys!

Welcome to 'topia!

[kudokun]

hehe tnx roc
i washed the reishi specimen i got and put inside a transparent piece of tupperwear and put a white piece of paper undearneath just to see if i could catch some spores.this specimen is somewhat old tho. its kinda big and has littleholes prolly insects chewed or where flies used to live?haha. but before that i took a clean piece off, tore it and rolled it in a clean damp brown cardboard which i put in the tupperwear before the bigger half. FUnny though. i did that yesterday morning. this morning the bigger half has white spottycottony things growing around it. while the damp cardboard showed little growth exhibited by almost invisible white threads making the reishi chunks stick the to cardboard.
so this is cloning huh. the fruit has become the substrate!!!