Reddit mentions of Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World

Actually, in most cases it isn't, but it is pasteurized. Sterilization would make the medium insanely contamination-ridden, due to the lack of competing microbes. Once mold starts growing, you've gotta toss the medium completely. While this is probably a nice hippy-dippy way to sell mushrooms, there's no way it's going to maintain healthy flushes for long with a "tame" culture like agaricus bisporus. It just can't compete with molds like trichoderma, which is possibly the most common mold on earth. That's not counting the possibly hundreds of people touching the growth medium, throwing their trash in it, discarding unwanted mushrooms into the pile, and the like.

I've read a lot about it (I was once an aspiring mushroom farmer) and I believe it has something to do with pressure+heat killing fungal spores, but leaving beneficial bacterial endospores intact. Essentially, the bacteria and other microbes take up real estate until the fungus shows up, and then it moves into their turf and consumes them as well.

The interesting thing is that in commerical mushroom grows, pasteurization temps are reached naturally due to the size of manure piles. The mass of the piles coupled with the immense activity of microbes within them raises the internal temperature to anywhere between 140f-170f.

Source: Paul Stamets, The Mushroom Cultivator and Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms.

Edit
Here's some more places to find information about mushrooms, since I'm hardly an expert. I'm just a guy who reads a lot, essentially.

Books:

• Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms, Paul Stamets
  
• The Mushroom Cultivator, Paul Stamets
  
  Those are the standard grow manuals, but if anyone has a suggestion for a more comprehensive or up-to-date manual, it'd be welcome. Mycelium Running is a great book if you're just looking for a fun read about mushrooms.
  
  Websites:
  
  
• /r/mycology - The subreddit devoted to mushroom growing and identification. Probably more relevant info here if you're interested in growing mostly edibles.
  
  
• Fungi Perfecti is good for equipment (I bought all my HEPA filters there, at the time they were the cheapest around). I think they have a YouTube channel too, and that's got some interesting stuff on it.
  
  
• Shroomery.org is a moderately famous mushroom growing forum, with a bit of a bent more toward psychedelics. However, I found tons of great people and information in the edible mushroom forum, and I received a few commerical grade cultures from a very generous member. There can be a bit of a circlejerk surrounding some "celebrities" that post there, but take what they say with a grain of salt, and always fact check against your grow manual. If you see something that looks stupid, it probably is, unless it works. Edit: I don't think Reddit likes linking to the Shroomery, removed the formatting.
  
  Videos:
  
  
• TED Talks: Paul Stamets - Six Ways Mushrooms Can Save The World - This is basically his "standard" speech he gives when he does talks. There have probably been additions and improvements to it, but the message hasn't really changed. This is "Mycelium Running" in about 5 minutes. Watch this to decide whether you want to read that book.
  
  
• Let's Grow Mushrooms! by Roger Rabbit - One of the aforementioned Shroomery celebrities. His videos are helpful, but make sure to fact check why you're doing stuff, because he tends to leave a lot of that out. This is very nuts and bolts demonstrations of how to prepare substrate, how to provide humidity at a low cost, and several different methods of growing for different species of mushrooms.
  

Seconding u/theUnmutual6's recommendations, in addition to u/BlueSmoke95's suggestion to check out Ann Moura's work. I would like to recommend Ellen Dugan's Natural Witchery and her related domestic witchery books. Ellen is a certified Master Gardener and incorporates plants into much of her work.

Some of my favorite plant books!

Plant Science:

• Plant Physiology and Development (you can get away with the previous edition of this one!)
  
  
• Botany for Gardeners
  
  
• Essential Plant Pathology (do NOT get the first edition - the second edition is superior in almost every single way)
  
  
• American Horticultural Society Plant Propagation: The Fully Illustrated Plant-by-Plant Manual of Practical Techniques
  
  
  Foraging & Field Guides:
  
  
• A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and central North America
  
  
• Edible Wild Plants: Wild Foods From Dirt To Plate
  
  
• The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants
  
  Herbalism:
  
  
• Rosemary Gladstar's Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner's Guide: 33 Healing Herbs to Know, Grow, and Use (this is the first one I would recommend to novices)
  
  
• The Herbal Apothecary: 100 Medicinal Herbs and How to Use Them
  
  
• The Herbal Medicine Maker's Manual
  
  
• 300 Herbs: A Materia Medica
  
  
• Culpeper's Complete Herbal
  
  Ethnobotany:
  
  
• A Modern Herbal Vol I and Vol II (these could belong in the above section or here - I love love love these books. I think they are a must for any hedge witch or green witch!!)
  
  
• Folklore and Symbolism of Flowers, Plants and Trees
  
  
• Whispers from the Woods: The Lore & Magic of Trees
  
  
• Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
  
  I also encourage y'all to look into fungi as well. I work with both plants and fungi and I think they bring a fascinating and fulfilling aspect to my work. Plus, hunting for mushrooms is super fun! I can recommend field guide books for folks who are interested, they just tend to be very region-specific so I'm not going to list all of them here.
  
  For general fungus reading I recommend the following:
  
  
• Magical Mushrooms, Mischievous Molds
  
  
• The Fifth Kingdom
  
  
• Mycelium Running
  
  
• Radical Mycology: A Treatise on Seeing & Working with Fungi
  
  
• Mushrooms Demystified

If you enjoyed this article, check out a guy called Paul Stamets, he did a TED talk on how fungi can save the planet:

http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_can_save_the_world?language=en

Also his book is about mycelium, the "internet" of the plant world

http://www.amazon.com/Mycelium-Running-Mushrooms-Help-World/dp/1580085792

Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets. Here's my brief review.

Edit: I also really enjoyed The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.

there is a book on the subject, mycellium running, we have a copy and it is worth reading.

The Mushroom Life Cycle

An Easy Wild Bird Seed Tek

Building A Fruiting Chamber

Easy Bulk Substrate

Edit: If you are really interested in mycology all Paul Stamets books are must reads

Mycelium Running is a good start

This is where I get my mushroom plug spawn.

There are many others out there but I pretty much stick with Everything Mushrooms.

Here's a good page on how to do the log cultivation.

I used Gulf Wax instead of cheesewax because I wanted the logs to be vegan, turns out cheesewax is still vegan.


It's good to have a second person. My grandfather was a huge help having a lot of experience with torches, tools, and lumber in general. He marked a 5/8" drill for the proper depth and drilled all the holes while I went around with a rubber mallet nailing the plugs in.

Once we finished drilling and hammering we rigged up an old food can with some metal handles and melted the wax in it with a torch. Using some old craft brush, I'd dip the brush in the hot wax and dab it on all the plugs, the g'pa would reheat the wax as needed. Then we stacked the logs. Now, we wait.

It's probably too late to do an outdoor cultivation unless you happen to be in a part of the world that isn't going to go below 50 degrees F for another few months. There is always the PF Tek.

If this stuff fascinates you then you need to do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of Paul Stamet's Mycelium Running. It doesn't get into step by steps but covers a wide variety of cultivation methods with lots of pictures of insane outdoor grows.

Look into local chapters of the mycological society or mushroom hunting groups/clubs in your area. This site lists a few options. Looks like the one in Albion may be near-ish to you.

I've also found many of the links in the sidebar helpful, especially mushroom observer and the mushroom hunting and identification forum on The Shroomery. The Shroomery's ID forum is where I go to confirm my suspected ID's after keying out specimens on my own.

I use Mushrooms Demystified, by David Arora, as a my post collection ID book. It's both huge and dated (i think it's latest edition is from the early or mid 80's) so it's functionality as a field guide or the final word in ID is lacking. Even so, it is good to learn to work through dichotomous keys like the ones that it employs and it usually gets you headed in the right direction. Other guides like Rogers Mushrooms, All the Rain Promises and More, and The National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms are good resources, too (I'm sure other folks can add to this list, I'm just dropping the names that first come to mind).

As much as I clash with some of his professional/ethical decisions, Paul Stamets has contributed a ton to the accessibility of Mycology to the masses. Check out Mycelium Running and Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms as introductions to the Fifth Kingdom.

I'm also really enjoying Tradd Cotter's new book, Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation

Fungi for the People and The Radical Mycology Collective have also been hugely influential in my personal growth as an amateur mycologist. If you ever get a chance to attend any of their events, I would recommend doing it.

Best of luck and enjoy your journey!

Paul Stamets - Mycelium Running

Book on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Mycelium-Running-Mushrooms-Help-World/dp/1580085792

Paul Stamets TED talk:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXHDoROh2hA

http://www.amazon.com/Michael-Kuo/e/B001ILI9G2/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1603582142/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 http://www.amazon.com/The-Mushroom-Cultivator-Practical-Mushrooms/dp/0961079800/ref=pd_sim_b_8?ie=UTF8&refRID=0V56Q93CSRKQYV2W1C0B http://www.amazon.com/Mycelium-Running-Mushrooms-Help-World/dp/1580085792/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0V56Q93CSRKQYV2W1C0B http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0472030361/ref=oh_details_o04_s01_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0472031260/ref=oh_details_o04_s01_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0394519922/ref=oh_details_o04_s01_i02?ie=UTF8&psc=1 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1580085792/ref=oh_details_o04_s01_i03?ie=UTF8&psc=1

He's named after a real mycologist who has made the cheeky prediction that there will be an Interplanetary Journal of Astromycology when fungi are discovered in outer space. I just started reading the excerpt from Mycelium Running inside the Amazon Description, and it sounds really fascinating. He's even talking about mycelial mats as neurological networks!

Sweet, haven't seen that. He is a seller of his own books on AZ... found it!

I am interested to read anything related to it, which novel was it?

It is a pretty prevalent concept.

The foresight came to me after careful reflection of the smurfs and their intricate little dwellings..

Also, data, garbage disposal and soil health, electricity could one day be transported by GMO [mycelea](
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1580085792?vs=1)

Check out Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets. He also has a great Ted Talk.

I'm a huge myco-nerd.

Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets

http://www.amazon.com/Mycelium-Running-Mushrooms-Help-World/dp/1580085792

A good overview of mushrooms is Mycelium Running. If you are interested in cultivation other Stamet's books are also useful.

This one?

Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World

http://www.amazon.com/Mycelium-Running-Mushrooms-Help-World/dp/1580085792

thanks for the recommendation, going to read it!

Mycology Running has a great science focused breakdown of proven medical benefits of certain species.

I really enjoyed Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets. Not exactly what you seem to be looking for but it certainly would be of value if you have not read it.

Resources to educate yourself

https://books.google.com/books/about/Psilocybin_Mushrooms_of_the_World.html?id=36oG8Wh8mI4C&source=kp_book_description


Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1580085792/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_xZO6Cb0KY73AK



https://books.google.com/books/about/Decomposing_The_Shadow.html?id=Q53PBgAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description



https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Psilocybin_Mushroom_Bible.html?id=ZLksjwEACAAJ&source=kp_book_description

Mycelium Running: How mushrooms can help save the world is a good read. Furthermore, Paul Stamets is the man; a myco-champion on a mission.

So we are taught to laugh at anything called a cure for cancer, but ...

Well here it is since the early 1900's more than 100 natural cures for cancer have been found.

One of the simplest:

ESSIAC, you can buy it for around $20 a pound .. that is enough to make a couple months of the 'tea'. Depending upon the severity and type it may take up to a year to be sure it is completely gone. Some have found that over a period of a half a year or so skin tags shrink and vanish. Others have found that if you take the tea for a few months the tumors will shrink, but if you stop before all traces are gone then it usually comes back very very fast and kills .. a lot like not finishing ones antibiotics, but worse.

Another, Red Reishi, is recognized by the Japanese government as a treatment for cancer. Many mushrooms have strong anti-cancer and anti viral properties. (see Paul Stamets' book "Mycelium Running").

I have a very skeptical co-worker, and I drop small hints every now and again because otherwise he gets grumpy and thinks I'm a nut job. He is becoming more curious on his own now and he's learning what I have come to realize over the years .. we are systematically lied to about everything.

I haven't even brought up the cancer stuff yet.


Edit: For the downvoters, you can read the whole story here. Basically Rene Caisse ran a clinic as a charity, supervised and backed by 8 reputable doctors, for many years before the Canadian government got tired of due process and legality and just shut her down. Rene was only allowed to treat patients that the medical industry could not cure. She was harassed by the medical industry and the police the entire time. She made no money from this and in fact spent her own money curing people with Essiac tea. Anyone who thinks there is a ritual involved is full of shit.

Here are some links for the product in the above comment for different countries:

Amazon Smile Link: (see Paul Stamets' book "Mycelium Running").


|Country|Link|
|:-----------|:------------|
|UK|amazon.co.uk|
|Spain|amazon.es|
|France|amazon.fr|
|Germany|amazon.de|
|Japan|amazon.co.jp|
|Canada|amazon.ca|
|Italy|amazon.it|
|China|amazon.cn|




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