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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!

 

Back Issues

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.

 

Upcoming Seminars and Events

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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Questions? Comments? Suggestions?
We welcome your feedback.

This page was last updated on January 9, 2009.