Pleurocybella Porrigens (Angel Wings) that are dried in a carefully controlled environment to preserve the viability of the spawn. Instructions to extract spores are included. (Kit includes a metal tin of dried spawn, and instructions for creating the appropriate substrate and for growing out of doors. Due to a preference for cooler temps, this mushroom is best grown outdoors.) Brookhaven Woods strain.
An Oyster type mushroom that grows on well decayed wood (makes a very good secondary digester of wood), and grows well on conifer stumps or downed logs. It is distinctly DIFFERENT than Pleurotus species Oyster mushrooms, in that the mushroom grows in a different shape. A true Oyster mushroom (there are many white ones) grows fat at the base, from a central point, and fans out. Angel Wings grow in a semi-circle from a stump or log (always more than half a circle), and they are thin all the way from the bottom where it attaches, to the top. There is no basal thickening. The fact that they are thinner and more transparent is NOT the key identifier, the attachment of the base of the mushroom is the key identifier for Angel Wings.
This mushroom may have useful medicinal benefits, including the capacity to increase hormones associated with health and youth, and may enhance immune function. Like all white mushrooms, it also has the capacity to help your body compensate for environmental exposure to contemporary chemicals from food and water.
NOTE!! This mushroom is suspected of contributing to the deaths of a number of elderly people with pre-existing kidney disease. It is generally considered a safe edible by many wildcrafters, and should ALWAYS be well cooked. This is a fragile mushroom so the tendency is for people to undercook it. It must be cooked well. The instance in which the accusation was made, was one of food poisoning of another item in the meal, due to poor handling, and had nothing to do with the mushrooms.
This mushroom may be cultured onto sawdust, stumps, or half-buried logs, and should be sown onto logs that are already starting to rot. It does well on chunks of wood of any shape, so if you've got some logs that have been in the weather a bit long to use for firewood, this is the perfect use for them! Seems to prefer conifer wood.
May be used to culture into sawdust to create spawn, or can be direct sown onto logs or stumps 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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