Hey Psilly Simon, [quote:a9b330d3c6="sillysyban"]Oh cool. I bow down to your greater wisdom on the matter. I was just reporting what I was told. Thanks for the info. Now I am confused as what to do when I go picking.[/quote:a9b330d3c6] not sure to what extent you're being sarcastic...Didn't mean to come across as a know-it-all, I was just trying to provide some information and illuminate both sides of the debate. Sorry if it came across wrong. I also apologize to mardybum if "where did you come off with that bs" came across wrong, too...it was just eye-rolling and nothin' else. no hard feelings... Noman's admirably trying to getting us back on track, but just to wrap this up (I can't resist...): If you're collecting for identification you have to take the whole stem base including some rhizoids, since the stem base can be crucial for identification, so you have to dig or twist out the whole thing anyway. If you're collecting a known mushroom for consumption, I personally would just pinch or cut off the mushroom at the base of the stem as close to the ground as possible. I don't buy into the "infection of the mycelium through the cut" theory because the normal life-cycle of the mushroom entails the fruiting body decaying down to the ground, so there are loads of bacteria, etc. decomposing the stem right down to the mycelium. Also, snails are constantly causing open wounds, and animals eat mushrooms, biting them off in the stem, so the mushrooms should be evolutionarily set-up to fend off this kind of damage. (Hey Mods: is there anyway we can transfer the last four posts dealing with mushrooms to another thread, e.g. mushroom harvesting in the plant discussion forum, or general discussion forum? Noman's right, they're really out of place here!) [quote:a9b330d3c6="Noman"]This is the most derailed thread Ive ever been on. Shall we start over?[/quote:a9b330d3c6] thanks for getting us back on track... I'm going to e-mail coschi about the typos, and coschi already said he could make the General Usefulness (c) of this tek even more explicit...what else needs to be said/done? -z