Subfinder said:

Here's some photo's of the wild sclerotia I found today. They are concentrated directly on the pine shavings. I was able to easily pull a small pile together.

---

Good morning  cinct buddies
Loving this thread, everyone is posting so much cool stuff, its really interesting and I'm glad to be a part of it.

1WithU said:

Eigholt, first of all I noticed that the stones first start off white then turn blue as they mature. 

---

1withU I'm kinda relieved to see this. I was going through my stack of cinct plates and came across this one. I thought it had gone south but after reading your post I'm hoping these will turn blue in a wee while (I'll update either way).





I also have this plate which I'm going to use to inoculate some grains today. I'm just going to use the section in the centre around the transfer out as far as the blobs. I was also really interested in macs post with the brown rice, so I'm blatantly going to copy and I have BR sterilizing as I type.

Eigholte said:

Ah, I'm glad the site is back up.  I kinda missed you guys, and I have a LOT of news to share:

The unidentified, dehydrated mushroom from the horse farm took to culture like a duck to water, but didn't form blue stones.  Very wispy, and aggressive mycelium formed, and it eventually created small white stones.  I've thrown that stuff outside to see if it fruits for ID.  (if it's not a stone former, it's probably not a good candidate for this experiment, so I didn't want to waste a lot of time on indoor culture).

My Warren plates contaminated with green mold - I think I may have messed up my sterile technique in the SAB.  Despite that, I still got blue stones off the plates.  Not sure how much I have, but I salvaged the stones before tossing the plates.  Stones are drying right now

And finally, the big news.  A wild Cintulus FOUND ME.

About a week and a half ago, I found wild cintulus in my compost pile.  They followed in a progression of mushrooms:  Parasol sp. first, a coprinus species next (I suspect c. atramentaria, but didn't run a full ID), and then finally, the Pan. Cintulus showed up.  It was larger and slightly different than the Pan. Foescnii I'd been finding for weeks before.  It was a 100% ID as cintulus, including as the final step a 1.1g cracker-dry bio assay which came back positive.  That was a great afternoon.  I'd been planning to spend that evening indoors gaming, and after launching the bio-assay, I inexplicably decided to hang out in the back yard, throw some headphones on, do some writing and stare up at the sky, instead.  Had low to no nausea, and experience was a fun blend of awe and contentment.

So, for my first experience with an active species beyond a microdose, it was a heck of a good time.  (I like this species.  Even more so, given that it found me!)


I got five good prints off those wild cints, and I have a straggler that I harvested today printing now (no idea if this one will work, looks a little beat up). 

So today I cleaned up the SAB, got rid of contaminated plates, and I'm getting ready to launch again with my local species and attempt 2 at the Warrens. 

Haven't given the new variety a name just yet.  Still thinking about it. What kind of name really captures the complete serendipity of having a mushroom I've hunted for months show up on my doorstep?! 

---

1WithU said:

@ MacMerdin @ Asura @ enyone with pan cyan experience.

I am getting into pans now, but am still new to this species, cint and cyan, so am asking you guys for your opinions.  It's a two-part question...

Part 1. So, having tried multiple pan cyan varieties, besides physical appearance differences, are the effects of pan cyans pretty much the same across varieties?  Is it worth growing different kinds (such as Jamaican, Hawaiian, Thai, etc) for different experiences consuming them, or would it be like "once you've tried one, you've tried them all" kinda thing?  Are there noticeable differences between the strains to make it worth growing more than one kind?  FWIW there seems to be two camps on the "a cube is a cube" debate, and before I posted a similar question about pan cyans but didn't get a satisfying answer.

Part 2.  Seems that cincts haven't been cultivated much, likely due to the apparent blue "funky contams" that develop.  If cincts pearls and fruits are good (I've never tried them to know) then this thread might precipitate more interest in cultivation of it. So now I wonder for Part 2 question, following the logic of part 1, is a cinct a Cinct, or is it worth collecting a few varieties, such as "Warren's" "SaraLoves" and "Eigholt".  Subfinder did state a while back that he considers his Warrens the best he ever found in many years of finding, in terms of fruit size and potency.  I guess that implies that there could be variations between strains.

A third part, no longer aimed at anyone in particular, would be to put forth the idea that strains could be isolated with particular desirable characteristics.  One obvious project would be to clone largest stones and fruiting them to select for large stone traits.  If the pearls turn out to be yummy then that might be worthwhile working towards then sharing spores in the community to spread such genetics.

Interested to hear thoughts about the above topics.  Thanks in advance to anyone who replies.

Part

---

1WithU said:

Subfinder said:

Here's some photo's of the wild sclerotia I found today. They are concentrated directly on the pine shavings. I was able to easily pull a small pile together.

---

Subfinder, what an outstanding post! Thank you for sharing these pics. I have scoured the internet for cintulus stone information, and I believe you have made a cool and significant contribution to the online knowledge base of this species with your pics, among other things.  How cool to see them "in-the-wild".

Considering ya pulled them from dung I won't ask you to eat some, but looks like you've gathered enough to dose. 

COOL IDEA
I wonder... sometimes people who are looking for cints for starting their own blue pearls jars go looking for mushrooms but there are none popped up due to environmental conditions.  But couldn't one simply poke around a horse dung pile ANYTIME seeking sapphires?  A single blue pearl could be cloned.

ANOTHER THOUGHT
Pine shavings huh? You mean they grew clustered to them.  As in, worth adding wood to our jars to see if they grow around them more than randomly in substrate?

---