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Delay
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Fungi for crop residue management - species suggestions?
#19187182 - 11/25/13 02:05 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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Hi,
I'm an agricultural sciences student with a budding interest in mycology. I have agricultural land at my disposal, and I would like to experiment with the intercropping of fungi and conventional crops, more specifically by growing them on crop residues from previous years(wheat, corn, soy, etc...). The crop residues would be "channeled" in-field into rows of sufficient volume. The potential benefits include:
1-increased plant availability of nutrients which are relatively immobile via the mycelium 2-alternative crop residue management options 3-improving soil structure, and consequently reducing soil erosion 4-possibility of additional revenue stream if marketable mushrooms/sclerotia are produced. 5-possible effects on soil organic matter content (likely negligible).
It's not realistic to pasteurize crop residues in the field, so the species must be very aggressive; the species must be able to colonize un-pasteurized substrate. Because crop residues generally require management in early spring (before seeding new crop), prospective mushroom species should be very cold hardy. It would be beneficial if the species is good at extending it's mycelium into the soil. The species must also be legal.
Any suggestions regarding species/cultivars of mushrooms which are well suited to digesting crop residues would be welcome (cold hardiness optional), and even more so if they yield marketable produce!
Cheers,
Delay.
Edited by Delay (11/27/13 03:29 PM)
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Delay
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Re: Fungi for crop residue management - species suggestions? [Re: Delay]
#19187206 - 11/25/13 02:10 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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I should add that I'll be experimenting with intercropping several oyster strains for the colonization of pasteurized crop residues, but expanding this idea to conventional monoculture would necessitate the investigation of species which don't require pasteurization. I intend to experiment with inoculating via grain or sawdust spawn.
Edited by Delay (11/25/13 02:13 PM)
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wildernessjunkie
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Re: Fungi for crop residue management - species suggestions? [Re: Delay]
#19187265 - 11/25/13 02:22 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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Im curious to see how this goes for you. I think your climate is going to play a big role. Whats your general location?
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Delay
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Re: Fungi for crop residue management - species suggestions? [Re: wildernessjunkie]
#19187573 - 11/25/13 03:35 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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Southern Ontario, Canada.
I'm hoping to spawn around the beginning of June, shortly after last frost, at a spawn:substrate ratio of 1:10. First frost is typically late September-Early October. We have high humidity in the mid-late summer months. First frost is generally at the end of September/beginning of October.
I will compile all necessary climatic information for this project in a few weeks, when I have more time to do so. For now I'd just like to identify some potential candidates.
Thanks again!
Delay
Edited by Delay (11/25/13 03:48 PM)
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laughingsol
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Re: Fungi for crop residue management - species suggestions? [Re: Delay]
#19187827 - 11/25/13 04:47 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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I've heard of Stropharia rugosoannulata being intercropped with corn and its aggressive as all hell. Its one that should definitely be on your list- cold hardy too.
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leschampignons
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Re: Fungi for crop residue management - species suggestions? [Re: Delay]
#19187876 - 11/25/13 05:02 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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5 - Someone can correct me if I'm wrong here but I'm pretty sure It will increase soil organic matter content. Just like any other force for decomposition, be it bacteria, fungi, worms, etc. they will break down unusable stuff and make nice rich compost. The mycelium will be eaten by worms and other critters who poop out rich soil for you! Although there is less physical matter as the piles will rot down, there is more available/useable organic matter for your plants that is produced. Nutrients are locked up in wood chips, for instance, but they need to broken down so plants can access them...Just realized after writing this that you're an agro sci major. I'm sorry if this last bit comes across as overly pedantic.
Oysters might work, I've seen bed style grows with oysters sprouting up out of the soil, but I don't think that's their preferred way of growing, so I don't think I'd go with them... maybe do a test plot with em?
Perhaps King Stropharia,
Maybe some species of agaricus or coprinus comatus (not sure on the scalability of this particular species...) or some other dirt/compost lover?
Edited by leschampignons (11/25/13 05:03 PM)
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Delay
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Re: Fungi for crop residue management - species suggestions? [Re: leschampignons]
#19188015 - 11/25/13 05:33 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
leschampignons said: 5 - Someone can correct me if I'm wrong here but I'm pretty sure It will increase soil organic matter content. Just like any other force for decomposition, be it bacteria, fungi, worms, etc. they will break down unusable stuff and make nice rich compost. The mycelium will be eaten by worms and other critters who poop out rich soil for you! Although there is less physical matter as the piles will rot down, there is more available/useable organic matter for your plants that is produced. Nutrients are locked up in wood chips, for instance, but they need to broken down so plants can access them...Just realized after writing this that you're an agro sci major. I'm sorry if this last bit comes across as overly pedantic.
Oysters might work, I've seen bed style grows with oysters sprouting up out of the soil, but I don't think that's their preferred way of growing, so I don't think I'd go with them... maybe do a test plot with em?
Perhaps King Stropharia,
Maybe some species of agaricus or coprinus comatus (not sure on the scalability of this particular species...) or some other dirt/compost lover?
5- Inputs into the agroecosystem would decrease and outputs would increase; instead of fully decomposing and re-integrating OM with soil, additional OM would be extracted in the form of marketable fungi. Furthermore, the mushrooms releasing all of the medium-term and long-term organic matter pools could adversely affect soil OM content if it is consumed too rapidly, because those pools "feed" short-term OM pools. These trains might be negated somewhat, however, because mycelium would increase nutrient availability to the autotrophs, which would increase the energy(sun) use efficiency of the field, resulting in more biomass and therefore OM production. Hence my uncertainties whether my project could reduce OM content levels. I don't necessarily want this subject to distract from my species-oriented goals with this thread, unless it's relevant or somebody has something to add to this.
I see on fungiperfecti that the Garden Oyster, King Oyster and Shaggy Mane are suggested as a polyculture for garden beds. Is the rationale for this that they fruit at alternate times of the year allowing a more continuous harvest, or is there some other benefit to growing these three species together?
Edited by Delay (11/25/13 06:50 PM)
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forrest



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Re: Fungi for crop residue management - species suggestions? [Re: Delay]
#19194934 - 11/27/13 01:43 AM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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i also read about Enoki having good synergy with some plants: http://radicalmycology.wordpress.com/2013/11/15/amateur-mycologist-makes-new-mushroom-plant-companion-discovery/
corn you could combine with beans, where you plant the corn first, and then let the beans climb in the corn stalks. the beans fix N from the air. and in between the rows of corn and beans you coulc make rows with mushrooms, wich would benefit from the shade.
i think a problem with harvesting the mushrooms is that in the days that the mushrooms mature, you have to walk over whole your land to see wich are right for picking, so it would be very labour intensive. but as an alternative you could let people pay a bit to go out on your land to pick some mushrooms themselves.
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Delay
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Re: Fungi for crop residue management - species suggestions? [Re: forrest]
#19195460 - 11/27/13 08:51 AM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
forrest said: i also read about Enoki having good synergy with some plants: http://radicalmycology.wordpress.com/2013/11/15/amateur-mycologist-makes-new-mushroom-plant-companion-discovery/
corn you could combine with beans, where you plant the corn first, and then let the beans climb in the corn stalks. the beans fix N from the air. and in between the rows of corn and beans you coulc make rows with mushrooms, wich would benefit from the shade.
i think a problem with harvesting the mushrooms is that in the days that the mushrooms mature, you have to walk over whole your land to see wich are right for picking, so it would be very labour intensive. but as an alternative you could let people pay a bit to go out on your land to pick some mushrooms themselves.
You mean Nameka (Pholiota nameko)? Very interesting link, thanks.
I've thought about your point regarding harvesting as well, but gourmet mushrooms have a high market value by weight. If sufficient volume were produced, I imagine it would be economically sensible to hire temporary farm hands for harvesting. It would be labor intensive, and a significant cost, but that's the case for a lot of agronomic crops; While it's an important consideration, it's not necessarily inhibiting. This is something that I need to investigate further. For now, I'm more interested in developing a prolific plant-mushroom pairing system than I am in developing a profitable system. Remember, even if the mushroom being cultivated yields no marketable product, it could be profitable to the farmer by improving soil conditions and preventing soil degradation/loss. Furthermore, many innovative production systems are not economically viable in the research phase, after which technological innovation can facilitate commercial production.
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Delay
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Re: Fungi for crop residue management - species suggestions? [Re: Delay]
#19195804 - 11/27/13 10:34 AM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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To follow up on leschampignons, I asked a professor who specializes in soil sciences and nutrient cycling about the influence of fungi cultivation on soil OM content. His intuition is that it would have a negligible effect on OM content, because the crop residues would be decomposed by other organisms in the soil regardless. Those soil organisms would evolve most of the organic carbon as CO2 gas, whereas mushrooms would convert it into biomass. Therefore, even though you would have additional outputs in your field via harvested mushrooms, soil OM levels would be relatively unchanged.
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solumvita
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Re: Fungi for crop residue management - species suggestions? [Re: Delay]
#19241211 - 12/07/13 02:29 PM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
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the fungi to use in crops would be Trichoderma spp (good for the soil/plants not so good for mushrooms), in addition investigate the use of VAM's (vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizae) mostly in the Glomerella spp complex, they produce glomalin, which is a key soil building ingredient. it would be interesting to see if mushrooms produce glomalin or a similar substance.
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