I just read on that mushroom website someone sent the link for that picking
does NOT decrease your wild mushroom patch because you are not damaging or
removing the underlying support system (forget the technical term) that the
mushrooms grow from.
Debbie
-----Original Message-----
From: Gardens & Gardening [mailto:GARDENS@LSV.UKY.EDU] On Behalf Of swaine
Sent: Thursday, January 09, 2003 6:21 PM
To: GARDENS@LSV.UKY.EDU
Subject: Re: O.T. Things I haven't even tried yet
I assume that one does decrease the chance for wild mushrooms to spread by
picking them - because then they don't get the chance to create their
spores...am I correct?
You're right, Debbie. The mushroom is the fruiting body. The actual plants,
the mycelium, grow underground and will continue to produce fruiting bodies
each year as long as growing conditions remain favorable to them. So picking
mushrooms is like picking apples.
Lee Ann
So... I don't understand why there were no puffballs this fall -- when I cut
them in 2001, I made sure to leave some in the soil... oh well. I will be
watching for the morels this spring!
BTW, for folks who are wary of eating wild shrooms, you cannot go wrong with
puffballs - nothing else looks like them - solid white out and inside. Also
Hen of the Woods - easy to ID, delicious. Those 2 and the morels were the
only ones I've ever found that we've eaten.
I missed my chance to have a hilarious "trip" from ingesting the Big
Laughing Jim (Gym) mushrooms we found growing on a fallen beech; 4 of us on
a field trip found a huge patch of these and brought them in to class to be
IDd. Unfortunately (or fortunately!?!) we let them dry out ... infact,
after I learned what they were, I nuked mine to make sure there were no
microorganisms (critters) in them, thinking we might actually try them
out... oh well, I was too old for that sort of fun anyway...
karen, nj
> I just read on that mushroom website someone sent the link for that
picking
> does NOT decrease your wild mushroom patch because you are not damaging or
> removing the underlying support system (forget the technical term) that
the
karen
Maybe the summer drought caused the dearth of the shrooms in my yard this
year....
karen, nj
plants,
> the mycelium, grow underground and will continue to produce fruiting
bodies
> each year as long as growing conditions remain favorable to them. So
picking
Yes you can go wrong with puffballs. If you pick a rounded ball that looks
like a puffball, slice it open to be sure that it isn't an unopened button
from another species. My favorite guide warns of this possibility.
I theorize that puffballs grow best where the soil the mycelium is in is
distressed. I harvest the biggest ones on campus after a summer of soccer
camps have trodden and compacted the soil.
Lee Ann
So... I don't understand why there were no puffballs this fall -- when I cut
them in 2001, I made sure to leave some in the soil... oh well. I will be
watching for the morels this spring!
BTW, for folks who are wary of eating wild shrooms, you cannot go wrong with
puffballs - nothing else looks like them - solid white out and inside. Also
Hen of the Woods - easy to ID, delicious. Those 2 and the morels were the
only ones I've ever found that we've eaten.
That's why I said "solid white inside"... you have to slice it open to see
that characteristic.
karen, nj
looks
cut
> them in 2001, I made sure to leave some in the soil... oh well. I will be
> watching for the morels this spring!
> BTW, for folks who are wary of eating wild shrooms, you cannot go wrong
with
> puffballs - nothing else looks like them - solid white out and inside.
Also
Ah, I missed that....sorry!
lar
That's why I said "solid white inside"... you have to slice it open to see
that characteristic.
karen, nj
looks
cut
> them in 2001, I made sure to leave some in the soil... oh well. I will be
> watching for the morels this spring!
> BTW, for folks who are wary of eating wild shrooms, you cannot go wrong
with
> puffballs - nothing else looks like them - solid white out and inside.
Also
