Growing: casing and spore question

[Katra]

In article <bl359c$pml$1 at bob.news.rcn.net>, <enferex at softhome.net> 
wrote:

> I am new to the whole growing mushroom deal
> I am interested in growing shittake mushrooms 
> 2 questions:
> 
> 1)Other than buying spores or mycelium from a supplier could
> I just buy some edible shittakies in the grocery store and use their
> spores or mycellium?
> 
> 2) What is the best/easiest/safest casing to use for shittake
> Can i just simply use sawdust or is it an absolute must to use some
> other type of casing if my spawn substrate is rye grain? (is that a good 
> substrate to use for shittake?)
> 
> 	Thanks,
> 	Matt
> 

You can cut some sterile flesh from the inside of a fresh mushroom cap 
and place that on a culture plate to get a mycelial matt started.

I'm also very new to mushroom cultivation, but I'm so fascinated with it 
that I've been studying hard! <lol>

I _strongly_ suggest getting this book by Paul Stammets! It has a wealth 
of information on both home and commercial mushroom production of 
several different species and has a huge chapter on Shitake:

http://www.fungiperfecti.com/books/cultivation.html

The book is also available from Amazon.com

According to Stammets, you can start out with grain substrate and 
transfer it into fortified sawdust/wood shaving mix for fruiting.
Dowel/plug innoculum into broadleaf hardwood logs also works and will 
give you longer lasting production.

You should make a sawdust spawn out of your grain spawn prior to placing 
it into fruiting bags/jars.

There is no casing involved.

K.

-- 
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