Portland Oregon 2019, cyan season personal report

[null24]

Howdy y'all, the seasonal harvest if ps. Cyanescens is in up here in Portland Oregon and if just like to use this thread to collect some of my pictures, thoughts and experiences this season in hope that y'all will enjoy them and maybe get a little useful information from it all.

I have been watching an incredible spot that is being reclaimed for beaver habitat for several years and last year it blew up. Unfortunately, the line individual I showed it to turned out to be much less than I thought he was and has ruthlessly raided the young pins down there this year, out of greed, I guess. There's lots down there though, and I am going to let the mushrooms themselves help me work through the feels what I see as a real also in the face give me.

It also has led me to perform a drastic experiment in an attempt to preserve at least a steady supply for myself that I do not have to compete it stay up at night worrying about getting taken. I have transplanted two small patches by hand to two separate locations. I will detail the method and document the results here as the experiment progresses. It looks promising, the first chunk has again started to grow and produce a pin after going into shock and experiencing heavy bruising to the one mushroom I'm trying to keep in it.

The other piece is large, with about 50 or 60 pins at about 3-5 days out from primordia. I can't constantly observe those, but they don't sound like they even went into shock and are continuing on their meet growth cycle. Again, success or failure, I'll document all of it. I'm kinda excited that the first chunk is growing, I had literally just thrown it a paper bag and too it home on the bus after I accidentally ripped a huge chunk of myc out. The genetics of these cyans are amazing, best mushrooms I've ever eaten by any applicable metric. I'll be collecting spot prints too.

So here's a few pics. The first is the experiment.

SEASON UPDATE: it promises to be a very prolific year in PDX for cyans. They were a little stubborn to come out, but that is due to dry conditions. After one week of sub 50 night temps the last two of which has decent rainfall, they began to pop. This is great, Portland has been notorious for it's lack of cyans.

I'm worried now though that the recent popularity of hunting, that is seeing a lot of people who simply armed with a smart phone app and belonging to a self-congratulatory Facebook group are out there ravaging the parks. Let's all respect the places we forage in and not act like poachers. Cyans seem to exclusively inhabit areas that are being remediated, reclaimed for nature and are in need and the process of healing themselves. Don't be greedy in your search for wellness or betterment. There's no punishment if you are, but if you care about the same for others and for the ground itself, then think about your actions out there.

 

[Orion]

Very nice, I'll be following this.

I've always wanted my own outdoor patch and had basically the same idea of moving material around and growing out the myc. I hope it's a success !

 

[null24]

OK, couple updates.
I need to preface this with a disclaimer. I AM NOT ANY KIND OF NYCOLOGIST. I have been hunting Cyanescens in the Portland Oregon area for about 7 years, and have made some observations about their growth and fruiting cycles too make me think this would work. The real reason for actually doing it was my big mouth. I told the wrong person about my spot, and we had a falling out and...well... I'm trying to make sure they survive.

I went down to my honey hole and found a couple new patches that seem to have good genetics; bountiful clusters with dozens of pins, long and somewhat meaty stems and fast growth. I took a bunch of colonized and fruiting chips from the location and moved them, and it seems to have worked.

The first set of pics is from the first attempt, when I discovered my patch raided and panicked. I had accidentally ripped out a chunk of mycelium by moving a large chunk of wood I thought was too big to have colonized and figured that I prolly couldn't hurt it more and just did it. I lifted carefully the chips, the myc, and the later of dirt and humus beneath to try to keep it as interact as possible, dropped it in the paper bag I had and too it home on the bus.

That was 10 days ago, I think, and the one shroom that was in it doesn't look so great, although the cap did open a little. I bruised it so much in the collection it looks like Jesus before they nailed him up, poor thing. (Maybe the sacrifice will actually be worth it this time...) However, you can see two tiny pins in the pic and that is new growth!

What I want from this is not only to spread the myc and create a home patch that will fruit next year, but harvest this year too. My motto is "nothing is impossible" and I guess this kind of thinking is why.

TRANSPLANT #2- seeing both the possible success of the first transplant attempt and continued pillaging and poaching if my beloved spot ( it needs as much healing, if not more now, than I do thanks to the poachers with machetes:? ), I went in a vehicle armed with cardboard flats and gardening shovel. I quickly learned that the shovel is useless, as these cyans cluster very close to plants like sawgrass with extensive to networks, the only way I could get it it without flat out being destructive was taking my hands and just feeeeeling my way under the myc, into the dirt, and slowly and carefully lifting the entire thing, peace by piece, out and carefully setting it within the flat.

This was driven to another location and has been living in the flat since, being watered everyday by hand since there has been no response here. The pins present (probably two dozen) have not bruised and have already come it of shock to grow. These were handled with far more care than the first.

I don't want to count any chickens but am happy so far with these results.

As far as a TEK, this isn't one. I would have to recommend that any readers take this only as experiential data and do not try to replicate it. The popularity and proliferation of mushroom hunting groups on the web has had an unintentional negative consequence of less than educated and far from patient people out there in the field doing more damage than anything.

I want to bring more education from a user perspective into this topic. The peculiarities and behavior of this species is mostly a mystery, it at least there is little usable info on them.

They want to spread and I want to help.

 

[Tony6Strings]

I've lived here (PNW) all my life and have yet to go on a successful pick. I see the out of towners come and go every fall with plenty. Want an experienced picked to take me out and show me what's what. Cool patches Null24.

 

[null24]

Oh boy, we have not had any rain at all for a week, and nightime temps in the low 30s-high20s, and at least one of my transplants froze solid the other night. The one with the tiny pins. I am goint to the other location today to check on that transplant, and into the feild to see how they are faring, but I have some fear regarding the continuing sucess of this season. It promised to be so fruitful but the weather isn't cooperating...

 

[metta-morpheus]

I need to learn about better ID’ing because I’ve seen a bunch on a trail by my house that look just like those.

 

[downwardsfromzero]

You want to check out cloning cyan mycelium onto cardboard. It's really easy and provides something with which to inoculate your wood chips of choice. It's a bit of a long game but you should see results in 2 years if one year isn't enough to colonise your chips. If you have chips in a large plastic tub, they can be protected from frost.

 

[null24]

You want to check out cloning cyan mycelium onto cardboard. It's really easy and provides something with which to inoculate your wood chips of choice. It's a bit of a long game but you should see results in 2 years if one year isn't enough to colonise your chips. If you have chips in a large plastic tub, they can be protected from frost.

Yes, I have done that. I just pulled these for two reasons: 1, I had accidentally ripped up a huge chunk of myc moving a chunk of wood I didn't know was colonized, and 2: the patches in this little spot have become overrun by poachers and I want to "rescue" a couple. I feel justified because I planted a couple of them with stem burtts last year.

I know this is a potentially destructive process, but could be necessistated for various reasons and I want to see if it can work. So far it seems to be. The littering and poaching going onn here is far more destructive, IMHO.

I'm going out today to check on some spawn I planted in Sept in irrigated areas using the myc>cardboard>chips method. I don't actually have a yard, but have some private spots and a planter going with that.

 

[null24]

I need to learn about better ID’ing because I’ve seen a bunch on a trail by my house that look just like those.

Where do you live? There are a ton of similar looking spp, including deadly galerina, that can even grow interspersed with cys. Cyans typically occur on the West Coast US, Northern CA to WA, and Vancouver, during Fall in disturbed areas and in UK/Europe in somewhat different, more forested areas at the same time of year.

 

[null24]

So the dry, freezing nights continue. The transplanted substrate is doing okay, although the fruits that were in it froze and died the night that the whole thing turned into an ice cube. Soft freezes can instigate fruiting, and there is new that popped up 2 days later, but it also looks like it will abort. Ugh, the forecast calls for rain, but we'll see. I've been covering the stuff at home with plastic at night and it hasn't frozen again.