Re: [compost_tea] Re: Plum Curculio Response to Elaine

From: <soilfoodweb_at_aol.com>
Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2004 11:21:21 -0500

Hi Rick -

I have been told by people who are experts on mushrooms that most mushrooms IN FORESTS are the fruiting bodies, or reproductive structures, of mycorrhizal fungi. I have taken that on faith, if you will, because there are some things that I just don't have time to research.

So, most forest mushrooms are going to be good fungi. Try to take just one of the many mushrooms that are present, and be careful about handling them. Each cap has billions of spores, and you don't need even that many. So, don't harvest all the mushrooms present, because then you deplete the diversity of the forest.

Mushrooms in grasslands may not always be good guys. So, let's hold the fungus collection to getting the nice strands of fungi from the humus layer in forests, or in shrub areas.

A group of people that are great references for more information are Paul Stametz (his web site is Fungi Perfecti), Mike Amaranthus (Mycorrhizal Applications), Randy Molina (US Forest Service, and Dept of Forest Science, Oregon State University). Try are others, but they are not poppoing into my mind this Saturday morning.

Anyone have other suggestions on great resource people for this information?

Try your local University or college, and sometimes even the extension service. Look for someone who is a mycologist.

Master Gardeners often have a mycologist they work with. Take a class on Edible Mushrooms, or Edible Plants to find out about what nutrients are in the plants around you.

Many "weeds" are actually edible; why do we have it in for these plants? Answer: they pop up in places we have cleared of other plants. Well, duh! (Ask a question and then answer it, great way to change the topic, huh?)

Anyway, that tells you that you have prepared a great place to grow that plant, which we call a weed. The habitat is right for that plant. How about turning it into a bed of edible plants in your landscape? (Quizzical look coming your way...)

So, do some looking around at who are the good guy fungi, versus who are the not-so-great in your area. This needs to be local knowledge.

In general, avoid the fungi that are on sick plants. Get your fungi from the humus layer, because humus is food for the good guys, not the bad guys. The best fungi grow in good smelling humus. Not anaerobic. OK?
 

Elaine Ingham
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
SFI Corvallis, OR
SFI Port Jefferson, NY
SFI Lismore, NSW, Australia
SFI Hilversum, The Netherlands
SFI Cambridge, New Zealand
www.soilfoodweb.com

 

Yahoo! Groups Links

To visit your group on the web, go to:
 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/compost_tea/

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
 compost_tea-unsubscribe_at_yahoogroups.com

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
 http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/




Received on Sat Jan 10 2004 - 11:50:19 EST

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Tue Feb 07 2012 - 14:15:00 EST