Creating Outdoor Mushroom Gardens
Mushroom cultivation need not be limited to artificial growing environments, or lab style cultivation techniques. In fact some fungi seem to reject the proposition they can be mastered and controlled.
An outdoor EGA provides us with the perfect opportunity to drop the aseptic facade and learn some hands on techniques for capturing, cultivating and spreading mycelium from the wild, to grow mushrooms in our own backyards, or for potentially rewilding local areas with native mushrooms, sadly removed through poor horticultural practice.
Culinary species such as the red or white varieties of Wine Caps (Stropharia rugosoannulata), or Wood Blewitt (Collybia nuda) can be easily cultivated in garden settings. These species are readily available from commercial suppliers as spawn, but can also be collected from existing locations and with appropriate techniques moved elsewhere. The techniques demonstrated can also be adapted to native species to help fascinate their use in urban plantings, to helping to re-establish native populations, or in more experimental mycoremediation approaches.
A variety of techniques will be covered, with opportunities to ask questions and discuss a variety of garden scenarios.
