Morel mycelium

[xyzzyx]

In article <3ucei6$e4d at nexus.uiowa.edu>, michael-clark at uiowa.edu says...
>
>Hello,
>  Sorry if this seems like a stupid question, but I've recently taken a
>tissue culture from a black morel, and the mycelium looks very
>different from other mushroom mycelium I've seen (C. comatus, A. brun.,
>S. rugoso-annulata).  It is much less dense, whitish brown, and appears
>to grow into the agar as well as on top of it.  My media is standard
>malt-extract agar supplimented with yeast extract with ampicillin
>(200mg/liter of agar) added to suppress bacterial contamination.  Is
>this appearance normal for morel mycelium, and are there any
>recommendations on agar media?  Thanks.
>
>Michael Clark
>michael-clark at uiowa.edu

Hi Michael,
	your description sounds very much like Morchella.  I have a protocol 
for fruiting morels that you may be interested in (although it is amazingly 
complex, it is allegedly effective).  I obtained it from Fred Stevens of the 
San Francisco Mycological Society several years ago, when I took a mushroom 
cultivation course taught by him.
	I actually typed the whole thing in and tried to send it to you last 
night, but my mailer freaked out and crashed my PC just as I went to send it. 
	The gist of it is that you grow up the mycelia in a good growth 
medium, refrigerate, soak, case, then fruit.  There is a fair amount of 
humidity, CO2, and illumination manipulation involved.
	If you are interested, please send me an Email and I will be happy to 
type it up and send it to you.

George Trager
Email: xyzzyx at aimnet.com