Other - Growing Amanitas

[The Dreamer]

My cat is interested finding a fresh supply of both muscarias and pantherinas. Since they do not seem to grow (at least not commonly) in his area he is wondering if he might find a way to cultivate them.

However, since both species are linked to certain types of trees they cannot be cultivated in a normal setting. What I'm wondering is: would there be a way around this? Like if he cut a section from the root of a tree or got a small tree in a large pot.

Does anyone have a firm idea of how these mushrooms actually interact with the tree and how my cat might replicate this indoors?

[oggy]

I'm sure I read somewhere that you can buy an amanita tree log and grow them from the log. My haggis is interested in this also.

[Routemaster Flash]

Originally Posted by oggy

I'm sure I read somewhere that you can buy an amanita tree log and grow them from the log. My haggis is interested in this also.

Really? I'd be interested to see that in action. Fungi in the Amanita genus don't grow directly out of a log or tree stump (unlike shiitake or oyster mushrooms, which are cultivated in this way) but grow in soil around certain trees, where the mycelium has had a chance to form a symbiotic relationship with the tree's roots. Specifically, the fungus obtains simple carbohydrates (sugars) from the tree and in return supplies it with minerals and water. See the Wikipedia entry on 'mycorrhizhal' for more info.

But if someone has figured out an effective way to cultivate A. muscaria or related species, I'd be interested to hear about it.

[beefybeef87]

lol you can't grow amanitas from a log. they cannot be home cultivated. they only grow from tree roots.

[Potter]

Well theoretically one might be able to cultivate them, make sure you have suitable host trees availible, find amanita growing versions of those species in the wild. Collect the soil from the wild tree (probably want to try and keep it in large chunks to increase the likely hood of capturing a whole mycillia) and portion of the roots. Dig holes around your own tree, add in the chopped up roots as close to the established roots as possible, fill holes with infected soil. Let establish for a year and then add amanita spores gathered from the original site.

Vulgar process for sure, but it seems worth a try. If you wanted to make a commercial product for doing such things, I was thinking...

Collected multiple hosting trees from different regions and creating a small forest, the various soil bacteria that act as intermediaries could be isolated, multiplied, and mixed into an inoculation culture. The more bacteria species, the more likely one will establish. Over time the different mycillia would interact with each other and new bacterias, hopefully creating a strain that can adapt to any of the various bacteria, instead of being species specific*. Create a soil buffer solution to prepare the host soil as best possible. Sure you're looking at a decade or so of work, a decent clean lab, and the abbility to move whole live trees and soil, but there's worse ways of spending your time, no?

What sort of difficulties would be faced in a hydroponic attack? Identify the necessary chemicals of sustenance, produce and mix them, apply to buffered substrate? Eliminate the need for the bacteria. This may be far more complex, if not impossible (ex. the chems produced by the bacterai and taken in my the mycillia be highly unstable...)


Love.
Potter.

*Not sure if this is true for Amanitas, but it holds true in most other symbiotic species.