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Andrew Murray

Hi all.

I thought I'd post about something I'm interested in here...

I am currently growing some mushrooms that are very similar to the Wine Cap Mushroom but DNA testing (done by someone else, not me) has revealed that they are not the same species and are not known to science at present. Having said that, they are very tasty and very safe to eat as well, much nicer than store bought button mushrooms or the portobello mushrooms (which are in fact exactly the same mushroom, one is just older and bigger).

Here is a picture of one I found growing out of some cow poop but they also grow in wood litter.



I took some samples of the spores by making a spore print, you just leave the mushroom with its gills over some foil over night and they fall down onto the foil. I thrn made up some agar petri dishes and innoulated them with the spores.


Once they had grow rather well (about 5 days - a week) I then transferred the growing mushroom cultures, called mycelium (which looks like cotton wool and fine strands of white silk), to some jars with bird seed and a big one with eucalyptus mulch. Give it some more time (6-8 weeks) and the whole jars will turn white with the mycelium and then the mushrooms will grow out of them :)





Being clean and having sterile conditions is extremely important. Mould is a fungus too and will grow faster and choke out any mushrooms you might be able to grow. So far, no mould which is a good thing :) Once these jars fruit, I'll put them outside and into the garden where I will top them up with more eucalyptus mulch.

I'll post some updates as they come :)