Wow there were a lot of spawn kits available at the last meeting! Cultivation night has been organized by Jim Tunney and friends for quite a few years now and this one was pretty special. The main kit was oyster mushroom spawn in a zip lock bag. The spawn was mature and had grown over all the grain and was ready to move to Cottonseed hulls. The second kit was a freshly inoculated king oyster bag. The bag of grain was inculcated on the 14th May and was just starting to grow.  Once the spawn has completely covered the grain in the bag, in a week or so time, it is ready for transferring. We will probably have some more bags of cottonseed hulls available at the next meeting so you can put them in the fridge at that point and they will be fine for a week or two. You can also use sawdust or wood pellets. Instructions for preparing the cottonseed hulls are here. Thanks to Mark Spear and Rebecca Miller for preparing the King oyster spawn.

A team of club members set up a shiitake log drilling and inoculation assembly line. I am not sure how many logs were prepared but it looked like it was over 50. Lots of people were involved with this and we thank all of them for pulling out all the stops and both organizing the assembly line, bringing all the required tools, wax and spawn and of course preparing so many logs. Also thanks to Joyce and Paul Manns for bringing some extra oak logs too.

Then there were a couple of optimal extra kits which cultivation night organizer Jim Tunney had prepared. The first was a Schizophyllum commune (Common split gill mushroom) kit culture in a plastic takeout cup. Keep the cup covered and in a damp place. After a few weeks poke a few holes in the top and the split gill should fruit.

For the adventurous there was a reishi mushroom culture on Avocado pits. You will have talked to Jim Tunney if you took one of these home

 

 

Species list entered by La Monte H.P. Yarroll.

List of species found on the walk at May 2017 General Meeting:
Agrocybe pediades (Hemispheric Agrocybe),
Ganoderma applanatum (Artist’s Conk),
Ganoderma lucidum (Ling Chi),
Hypsizygus tessulatus (),
Lentinus lepideus (),
Phellinus robiniae (Cracked cap polypore, Locust polypore),
Piptoporus betulinus (Birch Polypore),
Pleurotus pulmonarius (Summer Oyster),
Pluteus cervinus (Deer mushroom),
Psathyrella delineata (Wrinkled-cap Psathyrella),
Psilocybe ovoideocystidiata (Psilocybe Ovoid),
Scutellinia scutellata (Reddish Eyelash Cup),
Stropharia rugosoannulata (Wine Cap Stropharia),
Xylaria polymorpha (Dead Man’s Fingers)

Species not currently on clubs life list:
Gymnopus alkalivirens – A little brown collybia whose cap stains green in KOH — identified by Richard Jacob.
Ductifera pululahuana =Exidia alba – a pretty white jelly with two cool names.
Phallus rubicundus – a moderately pleasant-smelling stinkhorn — collected and identified by John Plischke.
Gymnoconia nitens (Orange Blackberry Rust) — Thanks to Adam Harrington for identifying the blackberry leaves.

Comments:

The cultivation meeting always draws a crowd.

Fungal diversity was not great, but we saw several rare or rarely-identified species.