[peterthinks]

anyone tried spawning some plugs or liquid innoculant and seeding wild areas suitable for mushrooms?
I don't have portabello here but plenty of suitable environments.
I could mix up some liquid suspension from dried spores(3 gallons)and seed the local conifer area.
Lots of bay bolletes here so I know the conditions are right but there just don't seem to be local populations of porcini.

kinda like johnny apple seed with a fungus infection.

[Psynaut]

Good topic

Normally I would say no......screwing with mother nature isn't a good thing, BUT:
There are situations when this is practical - for example, each year the forest here in coastal western Canada produce large amounts of marketable gourmet mushrooms, which produces a multi million a year industry and food source for many. Unforutanly, many of these areas are being clear-cut and many more have been cut already. In the lat 4 years, 3 of my best spots have been clear cut.
So, as a means of providing a alternative to logging and the revenue it produces, I think that setting aside sections of forest that can be inoculated and conditioned to provide optimum mushroom production is a great idea. This creates a renewable recourse that can be harvested every year (instead of every 50+ years like logging) and I would assume the revenue from this would rival what is made from logging it.
I any case, such a situation would be much less destructful then the clear cutting that's happening now....

[peterthinks]

I'm mostly thinking of parks and protected(ahem!..)areas.But with symbiotes.Nothing that would kill the trees.
Not areas that may be clear cut....but a clear cut area would be good for spawning deadwood eaters...Oyster(s)+Enokie
There's twice as much tree in the root system by weight as what you can see above ground.
that's a lot of mushrooms!!
Plug the stumps on the outer edge of the area close to prevailing winds,it will spread inwards year by year.
I just found some Velvet foot today....a wild Enokie mushroom
I'll be cloning them and making spawn.
I'm in Manitoba so it's really cold resistant.
I have some maple logs to infect in the garage.
I thought the season was over..but they keep popping up!
Your clear cut areas may be a blessing in disguise if you have a market for King,Blue,Pink or Grey oyster mushrooms nearby.
I suggest you start making plugs this winter and go nuts with a drill in the spring!A day of drilling could pay off like crazy if it's the right kind of wooded area.(maple,elm,oak any hardwood really)
I've got a really big pressure cooker and some spare time if you want to mail me some blank plugs and your favorite marketable
mushroom,sporeprint or slant.
As for logging areas symbiotes could also be grown while the trees are maturing before they are cut ...they do more good than harm and would help the loggers get a faster harvest."Let me infect your tree farm and you get to harvest 2 years early...but I get to sell the mushrooms"
What businessman would say no?
4% faster trees=4%more profit.
Unless they say take a hike and harvest the mushrooms too.

[Psynaut]

Well, I really think that such seeding project would best suite certain symbiotes, one that can't be farmed and needs the living forest. I see a huge market for such a venture in the Matsutake (Pine) mushrooms and other mushrooms that can't be cultivated outside the forest. Pine mushrooms go for big money simply for the reason that they can't be farmed.....Its becoming a large export business.
I think there are opportunities in western coastal Canada to start seeding projects to exploit this market.

As far as mushrooms that can be cultivated, like Oyster, I would think that a seeding project would be interesting. But, I think these mushrooms would be more productive the a farming/greenhouse situation. This might even be a alternative to traditional farming in areas like Manitoba.
There seems to be a lot of room to innovate in the fungus farming.

Unfortunately, all the logged wood around here is soft. But you have a great idea.

It would interesting to get both the government and logging industry into using alternative management....introducing fungus to logged areas would be a great way to increase profits from logging. Hopefully creating more jobs without having to increase the amounts they log.

[mark_h]

Well as you may or may not know one of the latest things is to innoculate certain types of tree with spores of truffles. I think this could be classed as tampering with nature a bit. In the poll I voted 'NO' because the long term effects havent been studied enough. However *IF* there are long term effects, they will be nowhere near as bad as those of GM crops.

Mark
_________________
Disclaimer: Only pick fungi for consumption if you are 100% sure of what the species is.

Any determination made from photos is in no way fool-proof and should not be relied upon if the species is intended for consumption.

[peterthinks]

Wouldn't the long term benifits even if nobody collected the mushrooms be benificial?
We all know mushrooms do what everything else doesn't...break down the stuff that nothing else can eat.
Even a parasite unlocks the energy locked up in woods and eventually becomes food for the trees themselves.
Symbiotes even help the host trees by providing nutrients that the tree can't get for itself.OK there hasn't been a long term study but I think that if it was harming the trees they would have come up with defences to keep truffles away instead of letting them attach themselves to the root system.
The aromatics like cedar repell all fungus but they also don't get any of the benifits of having them near.all they get is more growing space because nothing wants to grow under them.
A very rude plant the cedar in my opinion...very antisocial.
All in all I think the trees themselves have made thier own studies.The fact that they even give the fungus a chance then feed it nutrients says yes to me.
I wouldn't want to evict all my symbiotes...(Gut and skin)...I'd be miserable without them.and I'd be open to infection from the really harmfull stuff.

[cultured1]

I did some "gorilla spawning" earlier this year with some grain that was colonized with morel mycellium. I started the spawn from wild spores found in the region (southern Ontario). A friend has 100 acres of mixed land; pasture leased to farmer next door, some hay, forest & low wet areas. There are some very old apple trees allong the pasture, I scattered the spawn under these trees. There may already be morels on the property, but they've only owned it for a year & no luck this past springs hunting.
I also have some logs I innoculated with shitake plugs. There are commercial growers in the region, It would be interesting to see if some wild specimens start showing up.
I guess I've explained my yes vote, although I do wonder about the effects with the comercially grown(& my hobby) imports.