Growing medicinal mushrooms
I'm really interested in learning more about the cultivation of medicinal mushrooms such as Chaga and Reishi. I'm looking for good quality resources on the subject, and am keen to hear from anyone in the group who may have experience in this "field" (pardon the pun :)
Comments
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Chaga is a very slow growing fungi. It can take many years for the mycelium to spread through the tree before the conk will start to appear. It can only be grown on Birch (it will grow on other trees but other species do not have the betulin that is converted to betulinic acid by the fungi). At least one study has shown that betulinic acid seems to be lower in quality or completely absent in cultivated chaga. Wild harvest in this case is best. Chaga also is a boreal forest fungi so it is doubtful that it would grow in a climate like Cornwall.
Reishi, although not common, does grow wild in the UK, as well as 5 other Ganoderma species. There are lots of suppliers of reishi spawn in Britain and they would have the best growing instructions for your area. Its ease of growing was discussed in TNG's Growing Edible Mushrooms certificate course. I highly recommend any books by Paul Stamets (also recommended in the course), particularly this one: Stamets, Paul. Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms, 3rd Ed. Ten Speed Press, 2000. I am very excited about attending a workshop by Paul Stamets to be held in my area in the near future. I will right a post about it to share.
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@torey thank you so much for sharing your expertise. I'll definitely check out those resources. I'm currently working my way (too slowly!) through the medicinal mushrooms course, and so your comments are particularly helpful. The information regarding the cultivated chaga is also interesting. Thanks so much.
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@sarah121 You are very welcome! You might also want to have a look at this book: The Fungal Pharmacy by Robert Dale Rogers. I have taken 2 workshops with Robert (in different climatic zones) and they were both excellent. He has another new book out as well on Mushrooms Essences with case studies.
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@torey Apologies, I've just seen this. I'll be sure to check this out. Thanks so much for sharing!
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