(Image above shows a mushroom that is beginning to darken and break down on the lower edges of the cap.)
Shaggy Mane Mushrooms (Coprinus Comatus) that are dried using a special process to preserve the viability of the spawn (and to keep it from liquifying). Instructions to extract spores are included. (Kit includes a metal tin of dried spawn, and instructions for creating the appropriate substrate and for growing indoors or in the field or lawn.) This product is a standard Coprinus Comatus (Horse Meadows Strain), which was originally gathered wild.
A good quality edible mushroom, must be cooked soon after picking. May be frozen, but must be taken straight from freezer to hot pan when using frozen. DOES NOT CONTAIN COPRINE (Coprinopsis atramentaria and romagnesiana do, but this one does not.).
Coprinus Comatus will break down and liquify from the bottom of the cap, upward, as it matures. This is the cardinal identifying feature for this mushroom. The shape also stays elongated, the cap never quite fully opens (it will widen at the bottom, but not fully unfurl). Fibrils on cap will be white in moist weather, brown in dry weather. Also called Lawyer's Wig.
Shaggy Mane mushrooms like pasture or lawns which have good organic matter, and they appreciate occasional manure applications. They are reputed to fruit on disturbed ground, and we have found them at the base of old tree stumps. They like an area that receives some full sun, and will fruit on warm days just after heavy rains, spring or fall (or during cool summers or warm winters). They naturalize well and will fruit singly, or in heavy clusters. May be grown in containment on compost like other white button mushrooms. They will also grow well in container gardens, but require larger sized containers.
Shaggy Mane Mushrooms are a prevalent mushroom which may be grown indoors or outdoors across most of the US.
May be used to culture into compost to create spawn, or can be direct sown into substrates or into the soil using several simple non-sterile methods.
Each order of dried spawning mushroom contains enough to create two batches of active spores, which may be cultured and expanded, and then sown into the desired substrates.
Dried Spawn is EASY to use! Just reconstitute in water, and either finely chop or use a blender, and pour the resulting spore and mushroom mixture over your substrate or onto the ground where they need to be sown.
Packaged in metal tins for longest storage and viability. We do not use plastic in handling this product (plastic leaches chlorides, which are fungicidal in effect), and our products are not exposed to chlorine or other harmful chemicals during growth, processing, or handling on our property. You may be assured of the highest quality and maximum growth potential.
NOTE: Dried spawning mushrooms must be selected and handled correctly to produce viable spores. They must also be used correctly to extract spores, and then to culture the spores into the receiving medium. Our proprietary methods ensure viable spores, and we give you instructions for culturing them in a non-sterile environment. (If cultured improperly in a non-sterile environment, things go terribly wrong.) You are not only paying for the mushroom spores, you are paying for our expertise in both the processes we carry out before you see the product, and the instructions we give you for using the spawning mushroom.
Cross contaminations DO occur with non-sterile mushroom spawn (they seem to occur with alarming frequency with supposed sterile spawn as well!). In general, these contaminations are harmless, they may produce other non-edible, or other edible mushrooms, but for the most part, the mushroom you paid for will outnumber the contaminations by many times, and will not establish ahead of the desired mushroom.
Additionally, when using non-sterile methods to culture in natural materials, prior colonizations of unwanted fungus may occur, resulting in the fruiting of unexpected, random mushroom types. This is not at all a disaster, and normally does not cause problems. These mushrooms will typically be inedible, and may be ignored - in our experience, the cultured mushroom still establishes well and will produce well in spite of the interlopers! The chance that a poisonous look-alike would grow instead is virtually non-existent - because dangerous look-alikes don't grow in the same environment as visually similar edible species.
We do advise that you KNOW YOUR MUSHROOM - and that you know what it looks like, so you correctly identify anything coming up. This is wise in every instance, because even when you are using "sterile" kits or materials, rogue mushrooms may grow.
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