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ARCHIVES
Here we offer
you our archives. These archives contain
information that all mushroom cultivators need to know. In addition to
information we have published, you will find
links to information made available by other experts in the field. We plan to
update this section continually, so check
back often!
We plan to get more of our back issues on-line in the future.
Until then, they may be ordered from us
on paper. Here you will find a complete list with contents of
each issue as well as instructions
on how to order. As an added bonus, we've included the WWW links to the sites we
have mentioned in the newsletter.
Each year, there are a number of opportunities to learn more
about mushroom cultivation. There are also
several produce exhibitions where you may want to display your products. Click here to see a
current list.
Basic Background Information
The North American Mycological Association has developed several slide shows their member clubs use to learn about wild mushrooms. Some are now available on the web. This information will help answer your questions and the questions of your customers. It will also help you learn more about the way mushrooms grow in nature so that you can better understand how they grow on your farm. Choose a program from the following list:
R. A Davis and B. J. Aegerter, Department of Plant Pathology, University of California, Davis, put together a short summary on how to cultivate nine species of mushrooms.
Dr. George J. Wong, Associate Professor of Botany and Graduate Chair, Botanical Sciences at the University of Hawaii- Manoa has posted a nice overview of the history of cultivated mushrooms at www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/wong/bot135/Lect18.htm.
Dr. Dan Royse, at Pennsylvania State University has posted a nice overview on marketing of specialty mushrooms at http://aginfo.psu.edu/psa/s99/mushroom2.html.
Miscellaneous Information
USDA Fact Sheets
The complete text of two mushroom fact sheets written by us and published by the
U.S. Department of Agriculture,
Cooperative State Research Service, Office for Small-Scale Agriculture.
Shiitake Cultivation Information
If you are thinking about growing shiitake mushrooms on natural
logs, these five articles from Ohio State University will get you
started. If you want more information, we recommend Shiitake Growers Handbook
- The Art and Science of Mushroom
Cultivation by Paul Przybylowicz and John Donoghue. It is available from our
on-line bookstore.
The University of Kentucky offers another series on shiitake cultivation:
For more free information about shiitake see:
Agricultural Information from
Penn State University
Pennsylvania State University offers a searchable database of
documents about all aspects of
agriculture. When you search for the term "mushroom" you will find
several interesting items. Searching on
other terms will find you a wide array of information on other agricultural
topics. Go ahead, give it a try: SEARCH PENN STATE.
You may or may not find it during your search, but Dan Royse at Penn State wrote an
article a few years back that provides. an overview of cultivation techniques for several specialty mushroom species. A similar article by Dr. Royse was published in Progress in New Crops in 1996. It includes tables and photos.
Growing Maitake (Grifola frondosa)
Maitake are relatively easy to cultivate and the resulting fruit is a prized medicinal in
many countries. (See this summary of
research on the health benefits of maitake.) As the popularity of maitake rises among growers and researchers,
there will, no doubt, be more information on the world-wide-web. Here are a few links:
Growing Morels
Morels are one tough mushroom to grow commercially! One
cultivation process has been patented. The
patents are held by Terry Farms and vigorously defended by them. Still, at last
report, no one has been able to produce
morels by the instructions in the patent. Just perhaps, the patents left out a
detail or two? Terry Farms opened a morel production facility in Auburn, Alabama and offered their products for a few years, but eventually closed down the operation. We suspect the economics were pretty marginal. Some of our
advertisers sell morel spawn with instructions for creating a small outdoor
patch. This works, sometimes, but it is
certainly not a sure thing and don't expect commercial yields. If you'd like to
try indoor cultivation, you might start
with the instructions on
Mushroompeople's web site (it
has step-by-step details with photos). Terri Marie Beauséjour has also developed some instructions for morel cultivation. Expect to do some experimentation on your
own!
Growing Oyster Mushrooms
In contrast to morel mushrooms, oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus) are one of the easiest species to grow. Oysters grow rapidly and can out-compete most contaminants. They can grow on most hardwoods as well as straw and many agricultural wastes.
- The Westen Montana Mycological Society has a web page that outlines the very easiest way to get these mushrooms started in your backyard. Check it out at www.fungaljungal.org/oysters/oyster.htm.
- Terri Marie Beauséjour of the Mycological Society of San francisco has published a great introduction to cultivating oyster mushrooms
- Ralph Kurtzman's 86-page book Oyster Mushroom Culitvation is available in PDF format:
- MushWorld has also developed a book on the subject:
- There are also videos to help you visualize the process:
Growing Mycorrhizal
Mushrooms
Mycorrhizal mushrooms grow in a symbiotic relationship with
plants, typically trees. The extreme
complexities of these relationships make these mushrooms almost impossible to
cultivate away from trees. In fact, no
one has found commercially viable ways to grow any of these species indoors.
Recent reports from researchers in the
U.S. and Sweden indicate that certain species of chanterelles can be made to
fruit when their associated tree is only
a seedling. See:
Japan is the major market for matsutake. The Japanese have developed various
techniques for enhancing the natural growth of matsutake. For more on this topic see:
Researchers in New Zealand have been developing an industry based
upon the cultivation of some of these
species in concert with small wood lots. The New Zealand Institute for Crop
& Food Research Ltd has created documents addressing different
species:
Dr. Kanaqa of the Dr. Khanaqa Research Institute, in cooperation with the University of Hanover (Institute of Plant Nutrition), has posted some information on his techniques for truffle cultivation on the web at:
For more information about black truffles, Tuber melanosporum, check out
the Sainte Alvere website in the heart
of France's Perigord Region.
Growing Agaricus Mushrooms (white, brown and portabella)
Growing Paddy Straw Mushrooms (Volvariella volvacea)
Contaminants and Diseases in Mushroom Cultivation
A variety of contaminants can affect your mushrooms. Here are some web pages with helpful information:
In Season
In Season is an on-line magazine published by Mark Thompson.
It addresses the whole range of organic agriculture with a focus on news from small farms.
One of their articles addresses Dean and Kathy Hansen's mushroom farm near Fresno, California:
Mushrooms and Your Health
Mushrooms can be very good for you. In the following list are
several pages on the web that provide information on the health aspects of mushrooms:
The Commercial Harvest of Wild Mushrooms
In the U.S. and around the world, harvest of wild mushrooms has become a big business. Species like chanterelles, matsutake and morels offer many opportunities. Learn more about happenings in this segment of the industry from the following links:
Bibliographies from USDA's National Agriculture
Library Jerry Rafats
works in the Reference and User Services Branch of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's National Agricultural Library.
He has also grown shiitake commercially. Jerry has developed two "Quick
Bibliographies" one for oyster mushrooms and
one for shiitake. He updates them periodically. These lists of important
articles are now available on the
World-Wide-Web. If you want to get photocopies of any of the listed articles, the
library offers a document delivery service, for a fee.
Mushroom Recipes
Mushrooms are the food for the next millennium. We hope to
build this section into a cookbook of
favorite mushroom recipes. It will focus on cultivated varieties other than the
common white/brown mushrooms (those are
also known as buttons, crimini, portabella, portabellini etc.). If you have a
favorite recipe that uses cultivated
mushrooms like those listed below and you would like to share it, please send it
to us. If it meets our high standards, we'll include it here and you will be
credited. Before you begin cooking up
these recipes, you might be interested to know that besides being delicious,
mushrooms are good for you.
- To see a nice photo and a brief description of each mushroom, courtesy of
Coosemans, a world-wide wholesaler of
fresh produce, click on the species below:
Pennsylvania State University also has a page describing button, crimini, portabella, shiitake, oyster, maitake, morel and enokitake mushrooms.
- For some general information on mushrooms, check The Mushroom Council's web site.
- The Cookbook of the Mycological Society of San Francisco - Complete online!
Preserving Mushrooms
Yes, you can preserve mushrooms for future use. Here are
instructions from a couple sources:
Other Internet Resources
There is a lot of information about mushrooms on the internet. We
consider the following resources to
be the best to get you started.
- First, check out our advertising. There you
will find links to our advertisers'
web pages and e-mail addresses. Fungi Perfecti and Mushroompeople have web pages
that offer their catalogs as well as
great information on mushroom cultivation.
- ATTRA (Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas) has developed a great web page
with the basic information you need to get started growing mushrooms. Check it out at
http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/mushroom.html
- Best Practices for Environmental Protection in the Mushroom Farm Community [PDF-7733K] is a complete manual produced by The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
- The bionet.mycology
newsgroup should be on every grower's
newsgroup list. The discussion is primarily for the benefit of researchers
working on all kinds of fungi. Nonetheless,
they welcome growers and dedicated amateurs. Your mycological questions will get
answered at bionet.mycology! For a less scientific discussion about
mushrooms, both cultivated and in nature, try the alt.nature.mushrooms newsgroup.
- Wild Mushrooms:
- Wild
Mushrooms in Ohio. Get the scoop from Ohio State University, with photos.
These mushrooms grow in many other parts of the world too!
- Bryce Kendrick, author of The Fifth Kingdom (an introduction to
mycology) and
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