I want to put some observations of fungi, but I can get many because I can’t go out of house, so is there a way to grow lots and lots of fungi of different species, if yes then is it easy?
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Do you have access to any outdoor space? I like to keep a little pile of rotting leaves and logs in a corner of my yard and see what pops up. Sometimes if I go for a walk and find a mushroom I want to bring home to photograph, I’ll throw it in the pile afterward and see if anything comes up from it.
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This is good advice. Most fungi are saprotrophs, meaning they decay organic matter like leaves and wood. I’ve spent an hour just making observations of fungi within my reach, sitting in the woods. Often they are very small and easily missed if you are not looking closely, like these guys https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/92700103. Really, every leaf or stick likely has fungi living in it just waiting for the right conditions to fruit.
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If you truly can’t go outside, leaving almost any organic matter in cool damp places will result in fungal growth. My kids frequently accomplish this by stuffing half eaten pieces of fruit into any space they find around the house. I sometimes accomplish it by forgetting to clean out the old vegetables in the back of the refrigerator. Even a damp piece of paper left in the dark will grow fungi. Different substrates, temperatures, and moistures will result in different species of dominant fungi.
The next question is, if you put out substrate hoping to grow fungi, but don’t actually inoculate it with fungi, and something grows, is it wild or captive?
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I’ve called a local arborist and had them dump their extra wood chips on my property. After spreading them out and waiting a month, I now have a huge diversity of fungal life growing.
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There are companies out there that sell mushroom grow kits that are pretty easy to use (mostly for edible species). You could get several and have a variety, but they don’t last more than a few fruiting cycles most of the time, and of course, cultivated mushrooms wouldn’t count as research grade observations.
Yeah I have open space
If it was in the substrate then I guess and I helped to grow it, it sure is captive, but there are plants which grow along with weeds but I never put them captive, I don’t grow them so I don’t remove them. I guess they are captive all along
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I don’t care about obs getting research grade I care about seeing a wonderful fungi with my eyes.
and as per that kit it looks kind of expensive for me, because I cannot waste any money on these things. Still I have a plan :)
If I pulled all the weeds out of a patch of soil and tilled in some compost, but didn’t plant anything, I’d argue anything that grew there would be wild. The space is meant to grow plants, but any plants that appear are there of their own accord. Like how if you set up a koi pond and dragonfly larvae appear in it, those larvae are still wild.
So I’d say putting out medium and seeing what grows would result in wild organisms. Though that logic does imply that a mold growing in one’s refrigerator would be considered wild, which makes sense but seems a bit silly.
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If you want mushrooms and not microfungi (moulds), woodchips will be best solution. Compost will not work so well. If you have some soil mixed with woodchips,you may even experiment - buy different species of mushrooms in a supermarket (there are usually 2-3 or more species), eat them but keep several caps (most mature ones). Leave these caps on your mixture and see what you get. If you bring mushrooms from field, check that they are not mycorrhizal. These will not grow.
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Ooh will try :)
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