Phoenix Fir Oyster fruiting on Xmas trees (from last year)
Steve
I thought this might interest you.. 11 months after inoculation, I'm
seeing some action on my christmas tree trunks ("harvested" from our
neighbourhood area right before tree collection time last year).
For those of you not living in Bermuda, businesses import thousands of
conifers every year so folks can have a christmas tree on a
subtropical island in the middle of the atlantic ocean, and then they
collect them in trucks after twelfth night.
I find this extremely wasteful, so I decided to get some yield from
it. A friend and I split an order from Fungi Perfecti (owned and
operated by mushroom guru Paul Stamets) in Washington State, USA.
With better care (these were just tossed to the back of a garden bed
in the shade and covered with burlap), and maybe some closer
monitoring of conditions, we could get something exciting going.
This year I will be doing trials of inoculation by spores fom the old
stock (and so hopefully I'll only have to pay for plug spawn once)..
I'll also be soaking my logs first.
More photos to come. Questions and comments welcome.
Peace and love,
Steve.
--
"What, Sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the
establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty. Whenever
governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people,
they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army
upon their ruins."
~ Elbridge Gerry
Charlie
this information:
>I thought this might interest you.. 11 months after inoculation, I'm
>seeing some action on my christmas tree trunks ("harvested" from our
>neighbourhood area right before tree collection time last year).
It is interesting Steve.
I have to to plead ignorance as my stumbling block to fungi. I had
to look up Phoenix Fir Oyster on the net.
Here we're very careful about any kind of fungi, and only really
collect the common, though not so plain or ordinary mushrooms. Even
those we approach with care, doing a sight, smell and peel test prior to
taking them home. We usually wildcraft these out of the paddocks
round where we live. They appear after the first rainfall as summer
cools to transform itself into autumn and are generally plentiful where
the pasture has not been supered [super-phosphate broadcast] or not had
this fertiliser applied to heavily.
I have to admit to knowing there are many edible fungi, but not having
tried many kinds. Though the European people that settled here, my
parents included collect mushrooms which Australians avoid. To this day
I am not all that comfortable with any fungi other than the common
mushroom, though I have seen them dried in cellophane bags in
delicatessens and seen them used in cooking.
I assume all mushrooms are very nutritional? The mushroom in the
accompanying picture to your certainly looks fresh. I know
that the "ordinary" mushrooms are often grown in old mine shafts in some
places in Victoria Australia. It appears that the Phoenix Fir Oyster
mushroom grows out of doors? Needs burlap [what I think we call hessian]
to keep the spores shaded and cool at the start?
The idea looks like the best way to recycle, and as you mention, use
what would otherwise be wasted.
One thing that we do, though it's probably too late, is any mushrooms
that we find which are too old to eat, we break up and scatter round so
that any spores which may be in the fins under the hood may find
another area to populate.
Be well,
Charlie
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Steve
Well, don't feel bad about pleading ignorance.. one of my favourite
quotes by Paul Stamets describes how, despite his decades of
experience in scanning electron microscopy and being owner and
proprietor of a flourishing mushroom farm, "I know almost nothing
about mushrooms."
I would liken this to the idea that the more we learn, the more we
realise how little we know.
Maybe I wouldn't say "all mushrooms are very nutritional" - though
edible fungi are typically high in protein and other nutrients (by dry
weight). However, all mushrooms are useful and necessary; loss of
diversity in the fungal community signals a drop in the health of the
ecosystem.
Agaricus is the genus name of the common button mushrooms - white and
brown button mushrooms, crimini, portobello.. all are the same genus.
Just a little trash-talk for you.. I heard recently that agaricus
species can concentrate (or sequester, if you like) heavy metals, and
so being adventurous in your choices could save you from eating only
the kind which does that.
Shiitake (Lentinula edodes) is probably my favourite, then lion's mane
(Hericium erinaceous) and the oyster species.. the common oyster
mushroom grows on lots of things - even chopped straw with a little
compost - and the Phoenix Fir grows on conifers, preferring fir trees.
When you talk about being cautious, you're referring to wild-gathering
food, right?
We are not really so lucky here.. due to the state of the soil (or
lack thereof). I think we have an average of 3 inches of soil here.
Low organic matter content is another factor.. Of course there are
some fungi here, but nowhere near the diversity you find on the large
land masses.
In reponse to your questions, yes, the Phoenix Fir oyster grows
outdoors. Though I'm sure you can propagate indoors if you have the
space.
And yes, burlap is hessian.. I know your word from the term "hessian
wick" - a technique for directng water, sometimes underground, towards
plants.
I just used it to stop the sun from striking the logs directly.
Have a great day.
Peace and love,
Steve.
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Charlie
alltrees-allpeo...@googlegroups.com put these thoughts to
the keyboard and sent:
>Agaricus is the genus name of the common button mushrooms - white and
>brown button mushrooms, crimini, portobello.. all are the same genus.
>Just a little trash-talk for you.. I heard recently that agaricus
>species can concentrate (or sequester, if you like) heavy metals, and
>so being adventurous in your choices could save you from eating only
>the kind which does that.
Thanks for that information Steve.
The above is interesting. Because we really have no other mushroom
types in the area, though we do have some known poisonous toadstools.
But there is not much timber for the to live upon, most having been
burnt by the bushfires over the last 10 years. The other problem is
that we don't get that much rain either. So the life of a fungi in this
area is precarious and by necessity opportunistic, just like our own.
This area also suffers from a very thin topsoil layer, though we have
improved it in places, but by millimetres rather than any real
measurement and in very small areas. This by fertility transfer
methods, where we restrict our sheep to certain areas to graze and
confine their camps to places that have very little or no topsoil at
all.
Because of the low fertility, I recall reading that the dreaded
systemic plant toxin wouldn't work with the recommended dose rate, but
had to be increased to do any killing. But not to much so it became a
contact herbicide. To see just how accurate this was, I followed the
root system of a blackberry plant on a hill here. It was about 2 feet
tall, with no more than 20 leaves and a single stem, and the root which
supplied and stored nutrient and sought water was 3 metres long and
wound through the earth over and under rocks and stones. The leaf area
would never have carried enough chemical to kill that extensive root
system. We don't use chemicals, actually don't mind blackberries which
are a declared noxious weed in this state, and have the sheep to keep
them under control.
Be well,
Charlie
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Registered Linux User:- 329524
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We can never have enough of nature. We must be refreshed by the sight
of inexhaustible vigor, vast and titanic features, the sea-coast with
its wrecks, the wilderness with its living and its decaying trees, the
thunder-cloud, and the rain which lasts three weeks and produces
freshets. We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life
pasturing freely where we never wander. ....Henry David Thoreau