|
Poison Drink


Registered: 11/15/10
Posts: 841
Loc: W-Europe
|
Hericium cirrhatum cultivation 2
#28436135 - 08/16/23 02:19 PM (5 months, 10 days ago) |
|
|
At the end of November 2020, I found a beautiful specimen of Hericium cirrhatum growing on a dead beech tree. This is a more meaty mushroom compared to other Hericium species, so cloning it is a lot easier. I didn't need to get tissue from the base where it attaches to the wood, as is often necessary for cloning H. erinaceus and H. coralloides. A thick enough piece of one of the lobes worked fine.

The tissue takes a long time (multiple weeks) to revert back to growing vegetative mycelium. I have cloned multiple H. cirrhatum specimens, and all of them first started growing teeth directly from the clone tissue before growing mycelium. This makes me wonder if I truly have a clone or if it propagated itself through spores instead. It also readily fruits on agar which is common for Hericium species. (likely not one and the same agar container in the old pictures below)

H. cirrhatum mycelium doesn't seem to like growing on just grains, or in an artificial environment in general. It colonizes extremely slowly and seems to stall out a lot. Below is a small grow from two years ago that I planned to post but decided against it because it was rather unimpressive and I was meaning to do a bigger grow 'shortly' thereafter. I think I grew that one on HWFP and grain.

So I was reviving this old agar culture from the mycology fridge over half a year ago and decided to try to grow it once more in a bigger glass jar on popcorn and beech woodchips. The sterilized jar was inoculated on the 7th of February. Like mentioned above, it colonized slowly and stalled out. I gave it a shake every few weeks, but it didn't seem to do a whole lot. I assumed it probably had a hidden contamination because the mycelium didn't really hold the substrate together, but I kept the jar hoping maybe seasonal changes would get it moving again.
A few months passed and I started preparing to move out, i.e. disassembling the gourmet mushroom fruiting chamber, cleaning out the containers with exhausted substrates, cleaning out contaminated jars etc. I came across the H. cirrhatum jar that I had inoculated several months ago and was about to throw it out. I opened the lid and gave it a sniff to see if my hidden contamination theory was valid, but to my surprise it didn't smell off. The popcorn and woodchips had a white shine to them, yet the mycelium did not hold them together.
So I decided to give it a fighting chance. I just cleaned out a lot of soup containers that I had used to fruit Hericium spp. out of, so I filled one up with the H. cirrhatum and taped the fruiting hole shut (it has a small hole in the lid as well, covered with MicroPore tape). It inexplicably started to slowly recover in the 1L soup container. It could be a seasonal thing or maybe the MP tape filter of the glass jar was a bit clogged up or..
I didn't have a FC running anymore so I decided to put it in a plastic box with a centimeter of water in the bottom and the lid cracked open. I taped a piece of flimsy plastic over the hole with an 'X' cut into it, so that it would maintain a higher humidity. I didn't keep a close eye on this improvised FC, but it took a few weeks to start fruiting. This was how it looked like on the 9th of July:

14th of July:

18th of July:

22nd of July:

26th of July:

1st of August:

We had a few weeks of grey, rainy and cold weather at the start of summer when my 1L container started fruiting, but nonetheless I feel like Hericium cirrhatum will fruit in a larger range of weather conditions. As a matter of fact, last week I found one growing in a known location (not the same spot as the one from this grow). It didn't have a lot of teeth yet so it was still a somewhat young specimen.
The small grow out of the glass jar from two years ago (pictured above) grew in the middle of summer, and I seem to remember I tried growing other Hericium spp. at the same time but none of those fruited because temperatures were probably too high.
I kept the cultivated H. cirrhatum for longer then necessary and it produced a whole lot of spores. The entire plastic bin was covered in a white dusty spore layer. I will keep it around to see if it'll go for a second flush.
Anyway, I'm happy this was my last grow before a likely extended hiatus, and maybe one day I will grow it outdoors on beech wood.
|
deadmandave
Slime


Registered: 02/16/10
Posts: 3,355
Loc:
Last seen: 4 hours, 3 minutes
|
Re: Hericium cirrhatum cultivation [Re: Poison Drink]
#28437089 - 08/17/23 12:03 PM (5 months, 9 days ago) |
|
|
Awesome grow and great write up.
Interesting mushroom and what a slow grower compared to h. erinaceous.
|
Just M
Cosmic Student


Registered: 08/06/23
Posts: 84
Loc: South Africa
Last seen: 4 months, 4 hours
|
Re: Hericium cirrhatum cultivation [Re: deadmandave]
#28437134 - 08/17/23 12:51 PM (5 months, 9 days ago) |
|
|
Great work
--------------------
APE x NSS cross I created
Cluster heaven.
|
Thereisnospoon42
Stranger



Registered: 07/15/23
Posts: 8
Loc: Midwest
Last seen: 19 days, 3 hours
|
Re: Hericium cirrhatum cultivation [Re: Just M]
#28437316 - 08/17/23 03:57 PM (5 months, 9 days ago) |
|
|
Nice writeup! Thanks for sharing.
I'm in the middle of my first go at growing Hericium off a culture from a fruiting body purchased at a local co-op. Hope to have some updates soon!
Keep us updated!
|
Poison Drink


Registered: 11/15/10
Posts: 841
Loc: W-Europe
|
|
The Hericium cirrhatum is going for a second flush. I almost forgot about this little grow, so today was the first time I thought about taking a look at the simple fruiting chamber it's growing in. I believe the lid was closed but it doesn't seal hermetically, so it looks a bit starved for oxygen.
I dried the first flush in an oven at 50°C and the last 15 minutes I increased the temperature to 70°C. I decided to eat it like that and it was quite tasty.
|
Poison Drink


Registered: 11/15/10
Posts: 841
Loc: W-Europe
|
Re: Hericium cirrhatum cultivation [Re: Poison Drink]
#28480525 - 09/24/23 12:31 AM (4 months, 2 days ago) |
|
|
And a picture from the day before yesterday.
|
Mycolorado
Hobbyist


Registered: 07/23/16
Posts: 8,529
Loc: Interdimensional Bootcamp
|
Re: Hericium cirrhatum cultivation [Re: Poison Drink]
#28480780 - 09/24/23 10:09 AM (4 months, 2 days ago) |
|
|
Awesome!
|
deadmandave
Slime


Registered: 02/16/10
Posts: 3,355
Loc:
Last seen: 4 hours, 3 minutes
|
Re: Hericium cirrhatum cultivation [Re: Mycolorado]
#28481211 - 09/24/23 04:12 PM (4 months, 2 days ago) |
|
|
Yes, very cool.
|
durian_2008
Cornucopian Eating an Elephant



Registered: 04/02/08
Posts: 16,685
Loc: Raccoon City
|
Re: Hericium cirrhatum cultivation [Re: Poison Drink]
#28485867 - 09/28/23 02:45 PM (3 months, 29 days ago) |
|
|
I have suggested that people preserve what is rare in nature, and was redirected here from a news article: https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/28485439#28485805
Does Hericium cirrhatum actually taste like a lobster?
|
Poison Drink


Registered: 11/15/10
Posts: 841
Loc: W-Europe
|
Re: Hericium cirrhatum cultivation [Re: durian_2008] 1
#28486867 - 09/29/23 04:03 PM (3 months, 28 days ago) |
|
|
Quote:
durian_2008 said: Does Hericium cirrhatum actually taste like a lobster?
I have never harvested a wild specimen for consumption, because they're quite rare. Even though in this part of the world, based on observations, it seems like H. cirrhatum could be the most common species of the Hericium genus. The thick lobes make it easy to get clean inner tissue, so I only need a small piece for cloning and try to keep the wild specimen as undisturbed as possible.
So I never ate a wild one, which supposedly tastes a lot more like lobster compared to a cultivated one (at least for other Hericium spp.). The cultivated one from this grow log tastes similar to other cultivated Hericium species.
The 1L soup container had a green mold contamination, so that's the end of this grow. Sadly my life got turned upside down recently. I won't be doing any mycology work in the foreseeable future. I'll already be happy if the dedicated mycology fridge will be saved until I get back on my feet. I did collect a number of clones of different H. cirrhatum specimens, so maybe one day I'll try them all out.
To be continued.. (maybe)
|
durian_2008
Cornucopian Eating an Elephant



Registered: 04/02/08
Posts: 16,685
Loc: Raccoon City
|
Re: Hericium cirrhatum cultivation [Re: Poison Drink]
#28487897 - 09/30/23 03:36 PM (3 months, 27 days ago) |
|
|
Quote:
Chloe Newcomb Hodgetts said: I walked past this beautiful fallen beach log
Have you observed the mushroom to grow on any tree specie, in particular? Or, what do you feel is the natural substrate?
|
Poison Drink


Registered: 11/15/10
Posts: 841
Loc: W-Europe
|
Re: Hericium cirrhatum cultivation [Re: durian_2008] 1
#28488589 - 10/01/23 08:42 AM (3 months, 26 days ago) |
|
|
Quote:
durian_2008 said: Have you observed the mushroom to grow on any tree specie, in particular? Or, what do you feel is the natural substrate?
I believe I found most if not all of them on rather large (old) fallen beech trees. I used small beech woodchips for this grow as well.
|
durian_2008
Cornucopian Eating an Elephant



Registered: 04/02/08
Posts: 16,685
Loc: Raccoon City
|
Re: Hericium cirrhatum cultivation [Re: Poison Drink]
#28488696 - 10/01/23 10:34 AM (3 months, 26 days ago) |
|
|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terroir
Beech sends up many root suckers, is grown in such quantity that it can be farmed for firewood, and I see there are mosses.
My philosophy with these things valued as natural treasures, is they should be plentiful.
|
veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
|
Re: Hericium cirrhatum cultivation [Re: Poison Drink] 1
#28490175 - 10/02/23 05:53 PM (3 months, 24 days ago) |
|
|
Excellent grow log of a very rare species. 
Quote:
Poison Drink said: Sadly my life got turned upside down recently. I won't be doing any mycology work in the foreseeable future.
I hope your life gets turned back around. Wish you well.
|
|