Mushrooms #4: Naturalizing Mycelium using Cardboard

Now that’s mycellium running!
Well done Robin!
Now that you’ve managed to propagate the mycellium successfully, doyou require to do anything to force it to bloom. From personal observation, most mushrooms show up here in cooler weather.

-- Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves. - Thoreau

Too cool and fun!

-- There's a box?

intriguing

I can picture you guys with your white lab coats and magnifying glasses!

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)

Looks like you’re becoming quite the shroom farmer there Robin.Good luck with all your experiments.

-- Bon,Hastings,Ont.....zone 5a....Always room for one more

Thank you for reading about our experiment and all your wonderful comments.

Steve, my understanding is that mycelium produce mushrooms when all the optimal conditions (primarily sufficient water and within an acceptable temperature range) are present and the mycelium has stored up enough energy to produce the fruit. I found this educational website about mushrooms that shared this cool information on why mushrooms grow so quickly:

“Plants and animals grow through cell division – to get bigger they have to produce more cells. Cell division is relatively slow and requires a lot of energy. The mushroom body also grows by cell division. However, the mushroom fruit does not grow by cell division. Just about as soon as it starts to develop, a mushroom has almost the same number of cells that the mature mushroom will have. The mushroom increases in size through cell ENLARGEMENT! This means that the cells can balloon up very rapidly. Very little energy is required, basically the cells just enlarge with water. So a mushroom can increase in size as fast as water can be pumped into its cells. Almost overnight a mushroom can go from a pin head to a large mushroom.”

The website has more fun information if you are interested in reading more about experiments with mushrooms.

-- "To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves." M. Gandhi

Robin – thanks for that ! mushrooms are fascinating. So how do you encourage your mycelia to grow mushrooms? or does it just happen?

If I get a chance I will photograph a particular kind of mushroom here which demonstrates the inflating cells very well. It grows ( well maybe it’sjust the fruiting body?) on the surface of the ground and on a normal, hot day, it looks like a cow pattie – but there are no cows there. When it rains, it swells up and then looks like seaweed washed up on shore! I have no idea what it is called and I’ve been stepping on it for a long time before anyone even pointed it out to me!

-- Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves. - Thoreau

Steve, I am not an expert by any means, but I think the best strategy is to give the mycelium enough time to gather up sufficient energy and then provide the right conditions for fruiting. Whenever the mycelium is disturbed (crushed, tilled up, dried out) it has to spend energy to reestablish itself. The less it is disrupted, the more quickly I think it will fruit.

Outside I generally see fresh mushrooms in the spring or autumn. They usually emerge quickly after lots of rain and when temperatures are fairly cool but definitely above freezing. I don’t know if this batch of mycelium will have gathered up enough energy to fruit this spring. but I will be happy even if they don’t show up until next spring. When growing mushrooms inside the house, you can measure the temperature and humidity and make changes when you need to, but outside I will be dependent on observation and nature. The variables I can control are the location (the shady, moist area under the weeping willow tree), the food (wood chips, wood shavings, logs, etc.) and moisture (irrigate if precipitation is lacking) supply. I know from my readings that mushrooms beds and inoculated logs are sometimes covered by tarps to keep the moisture high where the mushrooms are growing. It will be a learning adventure.

I am very curious about the mushroom you describe. Yes, please take photos of it when you see it.

-- "To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves." M. Gandhi

I recently purchased oyster mushroom kits made with recycled coffee grinds from a young entreprenure at the Philadelphia Flower Show. They are working out of California. No flush of mature fruits yet, but they are active.

-- A weed is a plant that is growing where it was not purposefully placed by human hands.

mmh, is your kit from the Back to Roots company? They have such an interesting story behind their company. Good luck with your mushrooms! I hope you have as much fun as we are having.

As a quick update, our indoor kit is starting its third flush! This one is much smaller than the previous two, but I am sure they will taste as good. As for our mycelium in cardboard experiment, I can see from the bit of vertical cardboard that is above the shavings/coffee grounds mixture that the cardboard has been thoroughly colonized by the mycelium. We check on the box periodically to make sure the substrate is still damp but other than that we are leaving it alone as it gathers energy.

-- "To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves." M. Gandhi

I just wanted to let everyone know that our cardboard-mushroom experiment is working! They are still tiny, but I am so pleased to see that our experiment worked.

-- "To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves." M. Gandhi

that’s wonderful!!
Another A+ :D

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)