I came across a ridiculous abundance of ps oviods and have been playing with colonizing cardboard to woodchips and just wanted to post some of the progress, it is going much better than expected. I have tried this with cyans with little success, but this myc is crazy aggressive and just wants to grow grow grow!

Here's a little about the process so far: corrogated cardboard was soaked in water and the corrugated part was removed. Some I boiled to remove glues, some I did not. Honestly, it seems like the unboiled is working better, but there is negligible difference in the colonization rate.
I rolled up stem butts into little wet cardboard tubes and then stacked them in a small plastic container. I placed a lid on it with a small gap for FAE and placed it in a dark cupboard for a month. Now, it is almost fully colonized and I am moving the tubes into tubs of woodchips from the same location I found them that have been soaked for two days in tap water. I am going to do two tubs, one with boiled chips one unboiled just to see if this can overpower anything else present in the chips or not. I suspect it will.

Here's some pics:
The last one is especially cool- as an experiment, I placed some butts directly into a small container with some wet woodchips and it began to eat the chips readily and it is actually pinning!!!

Yes - yes! Yessss!!
You won't regret this

Have you put some wood chips in a bin to soak yet? A couple of months anaerobic fermentation seems to set them up nicely, followed by a thorough washing to get the slime off before inoculating with mycelium. Mind you, your myc sounds so aggressive that this could be superfluous, but if you're planning to grow at least some of the myc in a large tub (tote box?) this pre-treatment may help to prevent problems with some competitor species.

As far as cardboard glue goes, I have noticed that ovoid myc seemed to be trying to eat the plastic tub it was in so the glue is probably just a tasty snack.

Yes, I noticed it going after the plastic in one of the little containers!
Thanks for the info on fermenting chips, I did not start doing the soak until last week, so prolly don't have the time for that, but like you said, this stuff seems intent on doing it's thing. They are absolutely dominating the park where I stumbled across them. We are having an exceptionally cold and wet Spring, and with each rain they pop back to life. I work a block away three times a week, and am the only person harvesting the spot despite them being right in the open. At this point, there's no room for pizzas in my freezer despite supplying all my friends and co-workers with a vigourous supply! Totally makes up for a crap Fall, in which I harvested a lousy quarter-ounce dry in total!

Cyan myc is extremely delicate, none of my attempts to do this have been even remotely close to this. It starts but then dies off. I've been keeping the cardboard in plastic containers with sealed lids with holes poked in them, no polyfill or anything. Nothing about this has been close to sterile, no need.

I'm prepping tubs now with chips soaking. I'm going to mix in handfuls of potting soil and leaf debris, and case with leaves.

Should I just stick them in a dark cool spot and let it do it's thing until Fall, just keeping it wet until then? I'm kind of lost from here, the info on this is kind of scattered around the internet.


Absolutely! I wonder if there are any considerations around invasive species with mushrooms? I've never considered that...? Considering how prolific the myc is, maybe it is something to look into. For now, helping them along in urban parks will be my focus along with home cult.

Here in the PNW, we have a great climate for them, but they have only been recently introduced. Someone planted the ones I stumbled across, and either forgot, moved or something else. I truly think that mushrooms work in a symbiotic way with us, you start foraging these things and they take over your life, apartment and relationships!

Going from 'salvaged' myc like this absolutely does not have to be sterile, indeed. Part of the wood chip fermentation idea is to provide a complementary microbiome for the fungus.

Somewhere cool and shaded will do, dark isn't totally necessary as you'll want a loose-fitting cover for your tubs anyhow - plastic sacking with elasticated corners is ideal. Protecting them from excessive wind is also highly desirable. Both these things help prevent the chips from drying out - but it's best to have a tub with drainage holes in the corners to keep the chips from getting sodden.

It should, in fact, tolerate a certain amount of drying out as long as it retains moisture to a level I would call 'slightly damp'. You'd want to water it - preferably with rain water - when it reaches that point. From the sounds of it, it might give you another flush.

These pins are taking off:

Nice!

I've never had any ovoids, but I can get spore prints. Is there an easy tek that doesn't require much sterility to turn an ovoid spore print into mycelium? Will the spores germinate on cardboard or do they need rice?


How would one go about that? Put the chips in a bin with water, cover it with a lid with no air exchange and leave it for a couple of months at room temperature?

I would consider adding a tiny bit of honey or molasses to the cardboard soaking mixture but even the glue seems to provide enough soluble carbohydrate - if it's not fungicidal. I get the feeling that rice starts obligating sterile procedures and with the ovoids I'd be more inclined to go quick'n'dirty - but clean dirt, ofc.

You've summarised the soak procedure pretty well except to add a means of keeping the chips submerged. I used a plastic basket with a brick in it. Also, it was outside so the temperatures were typically around 6 - 22°C. And I put the chips in a plastic mesh sack for easy recovery. Upon taking them out of the soak bath - which really stinks by then - I hosed them down with clean water until they smelled sweet again.