aruse
Rising Star
I hope i'm starting a new thread the right way and not furthering the clutter of the forums?
I feel like i made it past level 1 to level 2 of outdoor shrooms. I'm no longer worried about starting them if I have to but now I'm trying to spread them and i'm nervous that i might be loosing momentum. I might just have over stressed them when I tried to take 1/2 the patch to a safer location. I wasn't sure how much to take. I think I took too much last winter because although I still see lots of thick ps cyan mycilium I got only about 2-3 grams (dry). The patch is big enough that last year I got 3/4 oz and I still expect it will produce more since only small section popped each time. Maybe I'm already spreading too fast and that's how invaders are getting in? Another questionable move was taking mycilium from the center thinking that would be the strongest and purest. I guess i did want to make sure i move the whole patch, over 2 years time. I took the middle but i left what looked like a thick donut of mycilium with ~6" tracks of mycilium cris-crossing the whole. Then I filled it with fresh chips. The new separate patch looks great, but it's 1 y/o now and I don't expect shrooms until next season. I do worry about the edges of the original cyan patch but only in so far as it's my backup if my new patch doesn't take.
Now the more nerve racking part. Is it possible to ID mycilium? I'm growing in the woods and it seems like there is a lot of other fungi out there. I did try hard when i started the patch to dig down and start in the middle of an larger open area to avoid competitors. Now I'm spreading out into the ferns and it's harder to clear 100%. ps cyans and azurescens have fairly "ropey," white mycilium, but it seems there are a lot of different mushrooms with finer white mycilium. I'm even wondering now if it's possible (with a microscope maybe?) because I saw some questionable stuff this season (fluffy white cotton) that turned out to be good and I threw away some more questionable mycilium that now looks good too (i didn't throw it too far in the bushes). This worse looking stuff was light yellow and very different looking, sort of old and dusty like an old man's ears, lol, descriptions. Maybe my azes (this is a second patch from the cyans, but the mycilium looks much like the ps cyans) where mixed with this invader? I have a 2nd invader in this patch as well, at least it looks totally different, but heck if i know maybe they are the same??? It looks like rotting... turds? Tiny black, irregular pellets that turn into slimy goo-ie, sort of like vomit. So gross. Then it gets these tiny tan puffball looking things. I don't know where this comes from. I see traces around the patch but it also seems to start in random places in the center of thick azes mycilium, on top of it. I don't know how big of a threat this is but I scoop it out anyway.
So, am I doomed? haha. I hear Stamets recommends starting over rather than fighting invaders but it seems what I have is mostly strong (as in super thick, dense, solid white clumps of alder chips) and it seems like there are lots of potential invaders out there. The azes patch isn't huge but despite my taking out obvious invaders that took hold of 1/2 the patch 2 years in a row, it still produced 3/4 oz each year (this patch is much smaller that the ps cyan patch but same yield). So maybe not doomed but I was surprised this year that i got any. Perhaps a little stress is good? Perhaps I'm just anxious, but it took me so long to figure out how to transfer mycilium, it takes me 2 years to get every new patch going now, and, well, i need to have shrooms guaranteed forever! Haha. Thanks for reading :lol:
I feel like i made it past level 1 to level 2 of outdoor shrooms. I'm no longer worried about starting them if I have to but now I'm trying to spread them and i'm nervous that i might be loosing momentum. I might just have over stressed them when I tried to take 1/2 the patch to a safer location. I wasn't sure how much to take. I think I took too much last winter because although I still see lots of thick ps cyan mycilium I got only about 2-3 grams (dry). The patch is big enough that last year I got 3/4 oz and I still expect it will produce more since only small section popped each time. Maybe I'm already spreading too fast and that's how invaders are getting in? Another questionable move was taking mycilium from the center thinking that would be the strongest and purest. I guess i did want to make sure i move the whole patch, over 2 years time. I took the middle but i left what looked like a thick donut of mycilium with ~6" tracks of mycilium cris-crossing the whole. Then I filled it with fresh chips. The new separate patch looks great, but it's 1 y/o now and I don't expect shrooms until next season. I do worry about the edges of the original cyan patch but only in so far as it's my backup if my new patch doesn't take.
Now the more nerve racking part. Is it possible to ID mycilium? I'm growing in the woods and it seems like there is a lot of other fungi out there. I did try hard when i started the patch to dig down and start in the middle of an larger open area to avoid competitors. Now I'm spreading out into the ferns and it's harder to clear 100%. ps cyans and azurescens have fairly "ropey," white mycilium, but it seems there are a lot of different mushrooms with finer white mycilium. I'm even wondering now if it's possible (with a microscope maybe?) because I saw some questionable stuff this season (fluffy white cotton) that turned out to be good and I threw away some more questionable mycilium that now looks good too (i didn't throw it too far in the bushes). This worse looking stuff was light yellow and very different looking, sort of old and dusty like an old man's ears, lol, descriptions. Maybe my azes (this is a second patch from the cyans, but the mycilium looks much like the ps cyans) where mixed with this invader? I have a 2nd invader in this patch as well, at least it looks totally different, but heck if i know maybe they are the same??? It looks like rotting... turds? Tiny black, irregular pellets that turn into slimy goo-ie, sort of like vomit. So gross. Then it gets these tiny tan puffball looking things. I don't know where this comes from. I see traces around the patch but it also seems to start in random places in the center of thick azes mycilium, on top of it. I don't know how big of a threat this is but I scoop it out anyway.
So, am I doomed? haha. I hear Stamets recommends starting over rather than fighting invaders but it seems what I have is mostly strong (as in super thick, dense, solid white clumps of alder chips) and it seems like there are lots of potential invaders out there. The azes patch isn't huge but despite my taking out obvious invaders that took hold of 1/2 the patch 2 years in a row, it still produced 3/4 oz each year (this patch is much smaller that the ps cyan patch but same yield). So maybe not doomed but I was surprised this year that i got any. Perhaps a little stress is good? Perhaps I'm just anxious, but it took me so long to figure out how to transfer mycilium, it takes me 2 years to get every new patch going now, and, well, i need to have shrooms guaranteed forever! Haha. Thanks for reading :lol: