Sclerotia forming fungi - a great alternative

[Jagube]

There was a thread on here about the myceliated grain tek.

Another stealth and easy alternative to mushroom cultivation is sclerotia forming fungi. I'm growing what was labeled P. galindoi (Edit: as pointed out by coAsTal below, "Galindoi" is a strain of P. tampanensis), which is popular for sclerotia (stone) production.

This does away with the need for fruiting. The stones are as good as the fruits and their potency fresh is roughly 3 times that of fresh cubensis. Dried stones are half the potency of dried cubensis, as they dry to 30% fresh weight. People, however, prefer them to cubensis.

I have 5 jars, made mostly with WBS, some with brown rice mixed in, and some with coffee and lime added. They were inoculated with LC. They colonize very fast - fully colonized after 3-4 weeks, after which the first stones should start appearing. The addition of coffee is said to speed up the process even more.
Today I also inoculated some Uncle Ben's style brown rice bags. These 250g bags should produce roughly 40g fresh stones each after 3 months.

A jar or bag can be left alone in a closet for months. It's worth waiting at least 3 months before harvest, but longer waits can yield more. If you happen to go away, a jar should still be fine at least 10 months since inoculation without any care required at all.

Once the stones are harvested, the grain can be cased or spawned to bulk and fruited, which can also yield more stones on top of the fruits.

 

[PedroSanchez]

i am still very new to the mushroom growing world, but sclerotia was my main interest when i decided to start the hobby. i decided to start with fruits and learn about sclerotia afterwards.
while reading around i saw a lot of people saying similar things, that they seem to be the logical option, and i wonder if i should have just jumped straight into that? :?

i have just finished sterilizing my first BRF cakes today so i will stick with it for now, but i am keen to learn more about sclerotia. they just have such a strong nostalgic feeling to me

 

[observe]

Pedrosanchez I also learned to fruit before sclerotia depsite sclerotia seeming the most discrete to the individual in growing and not looking like a typical mushroom. I have galindoi atl #7 jars that are over a month into colonization I keep forgetting exist.

 

[coAsTal]

Another stealth and easy alternative to mushroom cultivation is sclerotia forming fungi. There are a few sclerotia forming species (the most well-known ones being P. mexicana, P. tampanensis, P. galindoi and P. atlantis). Galindoi, also known as ATL#7, is popular for sclerotia (stone) production.

In the interest of clearing up perpetual naming errors in description of the stone-producing mushrooms referenced, it should be noted that there has been genetic sequencing work done in the past couple of years that has conclusively proven that there are only two genetically distinct branches of this mushroom.
1) P. Mexicana, native to Mexico, and
2) P. Tampanensis, the northern "cousin" of Mexicana found in the SE USA.

P. Mexicana varieties include Jalisco, Chicon Nindo, Mex A, and others. Produce small sclerotia.

P. Tampanensis varieties include "ATL#7" and "Galindoi". Produce large sclerotia.


There is no such thing as P. Galindoi or P. Atlantis.

The original classification published for each of these was nullified when modern genbank testing revealed that what was originally called P. Galindoi (and found in Mexico) was actually just a P. Mexicana-- and that the "P. Atlantis" was revealed to be P. Tampanensis.

Much of the confusion exists because "galindoi" was mistakenly applied to a Tampanensis mushroom by Workman, a prominent mycologist and vendor-- so as it happens, what is called Galindoi today is a Tamp like ATL#7-- not a Mexicana, as it was originally thought to be.

8)

 

[Jagube]

Thanks, coAsTal.

I thought P. galindoi was synonymous with ATL#7. All my naming info comes from a certain mushroom-related forum, and the older parts of it, where it was also claimed that P. atlantis was a species, not a strain.

Anyway, what I'm growing was labeled P. galindoi and the same person also had what they called P. tampanensis - so the confusion seems to have been perpetuated.

I've now edited the original post title and body.

 

[coAsTal]

No worries-- most of us do get our info from the same places, as there is only a small number of people working on such things.

It was Alan Rockefeller that did the analysis-- so he's the intrepid fellow we owe this clarification to. These results are under 2 years old, so it's no surprise that outdated info has yet to be corrected everywhere-- especially in light of some vendors stubbornly (or by ignorance) neglecting to change their print names.

So as to contribute directly to this thread:
Please take a look at some Tamp ATL#7 in a jar:

 

[sbios]

This is quite informing thanks & may I assume these are what we'd typically see as "truffles" in the Netherland region shops?

For a while I was assuming they somehow forced the mycelium to develop within without fruiting. But now I'm getting the sense that only certain types of mushrooms will develop the truffles. This is really appealing for people especially without the space and equipments to go through the fruiting stage.

 

[Jagube]

This is quite informing thanks & may I assume these are what we'd typically see as "truffles" in the Netherland region shops?

Yes, these are what is sold as truffles in the Netherlands, and they're formed by certain species and not others. Of course these species also produce fruits, which is the only way sporulation and therefore sexual reproduction can occur.

Update: made a P. allenii bed to add to the collection.

 

[sbios]

Thanks! Hope someday to get to research these types of spore soon!

 

[coAsTal]

Here's my modest stone harvest from my Tamp. var. Galindoi shoebox from the end of the summer:

**edit** I still haven't done anything with the Tamp. Atl#7 jar pictured earlier-- but I expect to break it open, harvest the stones, and will spawn the rye to substrate in a shoebox to see how well it fruits (it will also likely make more stones in the sub).
The Galindoi shoebox the stones came from netted me a bit under a half ounce dry fruits i think-- pretty poor fruit weight for a quart of spawn, but for my first Tamp try (T2 multi-spore) grow I am quite happy with it.

 

[PedroSanchez]

Here's my modest stone harvest from my Tamp. var. Galindoi shoebox from the end of the summer:

**edit** I still haven't done anything with the Tamp. Atl#7 jar pictured earlier-- but I expect to break it open, harvest the stones, and will spawn the rye to substrate in a shoebox to see how well it fruits (it will also likely make more stones in the sub).
The Galindoi shoebox the stones came from netted me a bit under a half ounce dry fruits i think-- pretty poor fruit weight for a quart of spawn, but for my first Tamp try (T2 multi-spore) grow I am quite happy with it.

nice work