Collected mycorrhizal fungi (Amanita muscaria)

[Cruiser]

Does anyone have experience inoculating their soil with these?



Found growing underneath Abies procera and Pseudotsuga menziesii.


I’d like to incorporate them into a few Abies pots. The plan is to mix collected mycelium soil into bonsai mix and place caps on soil at base of trees. Unless there is a better way…

 

[BrightsideB]

Never have seen them grow in a pot. If you are going to try in a couple pots with abies. Try leaving the mycelium cake in tact. Or at least as much as possible to get it to colonize the entire pot. Some mycelium don’t do well when they are broken up. Specially in a non sterile setting without abundant resources. You can also leave the mushroom on top of the soil cap down to release spores directly on the soil that has the mycelium.

 

[rockm]

Interesting species--Fly Agaric is a 'magic" mushroom and apparently influenced Christmas traditions...

Amanita muscaria - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Fly Agaric

www.fs.usda.gov

 

[bwaynef]

I had something similar pop up under my white oak canopy. Never tried inoculating bonsai soil with it though.

 

[Cruiser]

Interesting species--Fly Agaric is a 'magic" mushroom and apparently influenced Christmas traditions...

Amanita muscaria - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Fly Agaric

www.fs.usda.gov

Yep, that mushroom. My brother is trying to convince me to save the caps for him… How could I just waste them?
Sorry bro, trees come first.

 

[BrightsideB]

Yep, that mushroom. My brother is trying to convince me to save the caps for him… How could I just waste them?
Sorry bro, trees come first.

You’re probably doing him a favor. They have to be prepared properly. I’ve read bad stories from people who ate them. As someone really into mycology I’ve never tried. They are edible without psychoactive effects but need to be prepared properly.

Still interesting experiment you are trying. Hope you have success!

 

[Cruiser]

You’re probably doing him a favor. They have to be prepared properly. I’ve read bad stories from people who ate them. As someone really into mycology I’ve never tried. They are edible without psychoactive effects but need to be prepared properly.

Still interesting experiment you are trying. Hope you have success!

He’s consumed them raw before. The result was not pretty.
Everyone knows the best method is to wait for reindeer to eat them first, then drink their piss.

 

[PerryB]

Interesting species--Fly Agaric is a 'magic" mushroom and apparently influenced Christmas traditions...

Amanita muscaria - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Fascinating. There's a famous book Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality, https://a.co/d/0LHvvKv that I bought 45+ years ago. Amanita muscari was used in shamanic rituals in several Asian cultures from India, to Mongolia, to far eastern Russia and typically only the shaman or priest ingested the mushroom while his adherents drank his urine in hopes of hallucinations and spiritual direction.

 

[Cruiser]

Freshly opened cap attached to mycelium cake planted with Abies.
Bonsai mix is 50/50 pumice-composted fir bark. Wads of collected mycelium-rich soil were placed throughout the mix and directly touching Abies roots.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I have inoculated my soils with these and it was succesful in a couple.
Especially my backyard patch layered with pine bark is now plopping naturally grown agaric too.

Best to put the cap on a skewer, about an inch above the soil and just let it sporulate.
Do check the same patch where you collected these in a couple weeks and see if there are any other fungi popping up. I found a bunch of boletes and other mushrooms that seem to like a potted environment too.

I'm pretty decent with mycology but I prefer regular magic mushrooms over anything. Those are easier to dose and they don't require any processing or piss drinking. With agave syrup they don't even taste like old socks in a tea.
The 45 euro grow kits we can buy here provide a person with enough mushrooms for at least 10-20 decent talks to god.

 

[badatusernames]

Can’t really speak to whether or not you should eat these, but I think what you mentioned above would be the best method:

“Wads of collected mycelium-rich soil were placed throughout the mix”

The mushroom is just the fruit, so you’d be hoping the spores would create that mycelium. I suspect that would be a difficult way to go about it, and starting with the mycelium itself would be the best bet.

Interesting idea, it could be very pretty! I don’t think amanitas are wood eaters, I’ve not thought about this kind of thing because mushrooms + wood can = rot and eventual dead tree with the wrong fungi

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I’ve not thought about this kind of thing because mushrooms + wood can = rot and eventual dead tree with the wrong fungi

Try growing some gourmet fungi
You'll find that they're very picky eaters!

I have an unknown fungus in my pine pots that can probably devastate some plants, but it seems to protect my pines from needle cast.

 

[Cruiser]

I’m going to start a progression thread for the tree in the above photo.

 

[Cruiser]

More Amanitas were collected. This time from beneath an old oak tree.




They vary in ripeness.




Pieces of cap were used placed on substrate of various firs (Douglas-fir, noble, silver, and grand).
I am not sure if this flavor of amanita only likes oaks. We’ll see.

 

[Betula1]

Here in Britain this fungus is most often found on light sandy heathland soils and often forms mycorrhizal associations with Birch, but is also found growing among other trees including Spruce and Pine

 

[Glaucus]

If you have these mushrooms around you, the spores are probably in the air and the soil. And you don't really need to inoculate anything.

But if you want to culture this, or some other type of mushroom, then you grow them in a liquid culture. This mushroom seems to be very poisonous, so people don't grow it. But your best bet is to get a sterile petri dish with mushroom growth medium, and shake the spores on that plate. Then after 1 to 4 weeks, when you see colonies growing, prepare like a liter bottle of liquid mushroom culture. Like a potato starch or yeast extract. Cover the top of the bottle with tin foil. Then put it in the microwave until it slowly boils, not blowing off the top. Until it is completely sterile. Then take a toothpick, burn it in the flame of the stove, then dip it in ethanol to cool it. Then touch the fungal colony on the petri dish, quickly open the tin foil cap of the bottle, and throw the tooth pick in, and cover the bottle permanently. Now, the liquid culture may require some agitation to aerate the liquid. But this may allow the flash to completely fill with this Amanita muscaria fungus. And then you can do with it whatever you'd like.

Assuming this fungus is easy to culture.

As for plant benefits, I doubt it matters.

 

[Cruiser]

Update for last years inoculation experiment.

-Firs with mushroom caps placed on soil: no signs/too early to tell if Amanita established.

-Trees with mycelial wads incorporated into substrate: Mycelium has grown and is coating roots near origin.

Firs with Amanita appear to be recovering better than those where it is absent. (More robust root growth this season).

The fuzzy coating this fungus creates on roots increases surface area which helps increase nutrient and water uptake. It also provides protection from drought and other unfriendly fungi.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

If you have these mushrooms around you, the spores are probably in the air and the soil. And you don't really need to inoculate anything.

But if you want to culture this, or some other type of mushroom, then you grow them in a liquid culture. This mushroom seems to be very poisonous, so people don't grow it. But your best bet is to get a sterile petri dish with mushroom growth medium, and shake the spores on that plate. Then after 1 to 4 weeks, when you see colonies growing, prepare like a liter bottle of liquid mushroom culture. Like a potato starch or yeast extract. Cover the top of the bottle with tin foil. Then put it in the microwave until it slowly boils, not blowing off the top. Until it is completely sterile. Then take a toothpick, burn it in the flame of the stove, then dip it in ethanol to cool it. Then touch the fungal colony on the petri dish, quickly open the tin foil cap of the bottle, and throw the tooth pick in, and cover the bottle permanently. Now, the liquid culture may require some agitation to aerate the liquid. But this may allow the flash to completely fill with this Amanita muscaria fungus. And then you can do with it whatever you'd like.

Assuming this fungus is easy to culture.

As for plant benefits, I doubt it matters.

Liquid cultures can be fun but they're not very handy and they contaminate easily.
It's easier to catch some spores on a piece of alu foil, and make some cardboard disks with a hole punch, like the ones we use for binders. Put the disks in water, put the water in a microwave, boil for 15 minutes by zapping it in the microwave in short cycles.
Take it out and cover it immediately with alu foil, leave to cool.
Strike the cardboard disks through the spores on the alu foik and put them in a sterile petridish. Wrap with clean saran wrap and 14-20 days later they should be white with mycelium.


Many bacteria can't grow on cardboard. But wood eating fungi do.
Makes it easy to grow at home and less likely to contaminate. Also easy to expand into larger cultures; just add more boiled cardboard.
I have even gotten tiny mushrooms on the disks, perfect miniatures.

 

[Glaucus]

Sounds good. So if you want a liter of mycelium you would use paper pulp over starch?

Could be a good way to get some nice looking toadstools in a display for bonsai or even an actual bonsai.
There's a whole bunch of people that grow mushrooms for food (or maybe psychedelics I don't know, I am naïeve). But one could use the same method for ornamental mushrooms or improving soil mycorrhiza.
I guess you could keep it sterile at home. But if it is not really truly sterile, I guess this can solve any bacterial growth issues.

D you actually mean tiny mushrooms grow on the cardboard discs from a office perforator? That would actually be cool to see.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Sounds good. So if you want a liter of mycelium you would use paper pulp over starch?

Could be a good way to get some nice looking toadstools in a display for bonsai or even an actual bonsai.
There's a whole bunch of people that grow mushrooms for food (or maybe psychedelics I don't know, I am naïeve). But one could use the same method for ornamental mushrooms or improving soil mycorrhiza.
I guess you could keep it sterile at home. But if it is not really truly sterile, I guess this can solve any bacterial growth issues.

D you actually mean tiny mushrooms grow on the cardboard discs from a office perforator? That would actually be cool to see.

I prefer paper over LMEA or PDA because I have issues keeping yeast out of my still air boxes at home.
Second easiest is the Uncle Ben tek, that I borrowed from magic mushroom growers, in case I have a starch loving fungus.

I grow both magic mushrooms (once every three years or so) and gourmet mushrooms and fancy mushrooms like Reishi (ganoderma lucidum, looks like coral in high co2) on rye and sawdust. I use an old pressure cooker for sterilization and used plant tissue culture containers, as long as they're PP5 plastic, can be re-used twice.

And yes, it's toilet paper rolls through a office perforator. If you keep them in a petri dish long enough they will fruit due to a lack of resources.
I've used the perforator disks as inoculant for agar cultures and liquid cultures as well, but I prefer using sterile syringes and needles if I do liquid cultures; sterile water, push some into the spores, suck it back up and eject into the culture. Liquid gasket sealer for car parts is a great self healing material for liquid spore injections, and it's heat resistant so you can use any glass jar with a metal lid. Two holes, one with sealant and one with micropore tape for aeration. Works pretty well.
But liquid cultures, yeah, I don't have a lot of use for those if I'm not extracting DNA/RNA or metabolites.