cab
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St. Georges Shrooms... None yet here.Its getting to that time. Because morels are as common in these parts as chorlton and the wheelies was dull and monochromatic, the St. Georges shroom is the first proper harvest of mushrooms (excluding oyster mushrooms, that can appear any time at all) of the year.
None yet though. Anyone else?
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Jonnyboy
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We had snow yesterday, followed by a frost. Seeing something green would be a bonus.
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cab
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Well... Snow and frost at this time of year often bring out oyster shrooms. So it isn't all bad news.
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ross
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cab, what locations do St George Mushrooms tend to favour?
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cab
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| ross wrote: | | cab, what locations do St George Mushrooms tend to favour? |
They're oddly unfussy. You'll read that they a mushroom of pastures and fields, but I've found plenty of them growing in oak and sycamore woods.
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alex.swann
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How long now - somebody must have found something by now?
Where are our mushroom friends?
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cab
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| alex.swann wrote: | How long now - somebody must have found something by now?
Where are our mushroom friends? |
Patience, patience 
Remember, April 23rd. is when they're meant to be appearing, and THAT is generally considered a little early. I'll check bacl to see when I found my first last year.
(pootles off, checks blog from last April)
Got some the weekend of April 16th-17th, but they were tiny little white buttons at that time.
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cab
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Still none. Had a good nosey around the woods, found none.
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Maxwell
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The snowdrops and daffs were a month or so behind this spring, I wonder if the georges are going to fruit late this year too?
No luck so far with my patches of Marasmius oreades either, hmmmm...
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cab
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Well, some things are late but others here are bang on time. Its VERY early for fairy ring marasmius, though. Are yours usually this early, Maxwell? (oh, and welcome aboard!)
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Maxwell
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| cab wrote: | | Its VERY early for fairy ring marasmius, though. Are yours usually this early, Maxwell? |
I was picking M oreades at the end of March last year and around mid April the year previous (S Yorks).
Hope they're up soon, I've just about run out! 
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cab
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| Maxwell wrote: |
I was picking M oreades at the end of March last year and around mid April the year previous (S Yorks).
Hope they're up soon, I've just about run out! |
Wow, they were really early up there! I got my first M. oreades last year in May. Used to find them earlier up in Notts, but not (that I recall) in March. But them I probably wasn't looking.
Do you get morels round your way?
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nettie
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Still no sign of St George's around here, not even little buttons. Mind you, everything's late, the grass has only really just started growing in the horses' fields. This time last year the grass and nettles on my St George's patch were nearly knee high - made it impossible to spot the shrooms!
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Maxwell
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| cab wrote: | | Do you get morels round your way? |
I have yet to find a morel round here but I'm feeling hopeful this year.
Last June on an organised wild orchid wander I got chatting to a fellow mycophagist who told me that I could find a "small type of morel" growing in woodland 15 minutes drive from where I live.
I hope these "small type of morel" are Verpa conica and not Mitrophora semilibera as the latter aren't considered worthwhile as an edible.
Managed to find some Blewits today at a farmers market in Nottinghamshire! 
I'm taking prints right now as I fancy trying my hand at cultivating them. If I get my arse in gear tonight I might even get around to cooking up some agar and cloning some mycelium! 
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cab
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Maxwell, blewits are farmed so finding a good protocol for getting 'em to grow and then spawn oughtn't be hard. I would go for a sterile mycelium clone over spores, I rekon that'll be a better bet. They always sell well in Notts, you seen them for sale right through winter (wild picked field blewits) in greengrocers in Nottingham, the locals call them 'blueys'.
If you are going to have a bash at culturing them then keep us informed on how you get on. I got them to grow a few years ago with malt yeast glucose agar, I'll post the recipe I used if you like. Stamets probably mentions them too.
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Maxwell
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I got chatting to the guys who ran the stall and they said they cultivated them the same way as Agaricus but I was thinking about experimenting with pasteurized wheat straw - same way as Pleurotus are cultivated except using casings instead of logs.
I've had good luck culturing using peroxidated PDYA (potato, dextrose, yeast agar) without a flow-hood/glovebox but it would be nice if you could post your formula.
Had a few beers tonight so I think I'm going to go the easy route and just take prints, can't be bothered with any cloning/agar work atm lol 
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cab
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| Maxwell wrote: |
I've had good luck culturing using peroxidated PDYA (potato, dextrose, yeast agar) without a flow-hood/glovebox but it would be nice if you could post your formula.
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My gut feeling is that PDYA will work. MYG has worked to get it growing on plates in the past; thats got 5g malt extract, 2.5g yeast extrace and 10g glucose per litre. Then however much agar as reccomended by the manufacturer or, if there isn't a reccomendation, 15g.
Generally speaking, its a good medium to start with. Works for lots of things.
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Maxwell
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Well, the damn things didn't drop any spores so I've cooked up a batch of Peroxidated PDYA and cloned some tissue from the caps. I just hope the specimens aren't too old to work with.
Heres the formula if anyones interested
Peroxidated Potato Dextrose (Yeast-extract) Agar (PD(Y)A)
9 g agar
5 g of instant potato flakes
7 grams dextrose( = glucose, or 10 ml honey or corn syrup )
1 gram brewers yeast or yeast-extract (optional)
500ml water
5ml Hygrogen Peroxide (H202)
***Since Hydrogen Peroxide decomposes at 60 degrees celsius, you need to let the temperature of the agar drop to around 55 degrees celsius before you add the peroxide. Otherwise it will decompose into water and oxygen and be effectively useless.***
Anyway, back to the subject of mushroom hunting!
Had a wander today and still no sign of the georges. I checked out a tree that I harvested chicken of the woods from last April but no joy there either.
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Mat S
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Checked a favourite site yesterday - nothing.
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