INFINITE(ISH) MUShrooms

If you’ve come here via the QR code on our flyer, hi!

Here are some more detailed instructions about how propagate your own spawn on cardboard.

Cardboard is a good spawn media for a lot of species because it is inhospitable for many competitor moulds but is liked by a lot of wood decaying fungi. Due to a pretty unique feature of mushrooms we don’t necessarily need a culture of pure mycelium to do this - we can clone using fruit bodies, the actual mushrooms themselves.  Ever noticed white fuzz at the base of a mushroom you’ve left sitting in the fridge for too long? That’s often the fruit bodies turning back into exploratory mycelium. This means that for many species if you can get hold of a fruit body, either by foraging it or buying it from a shop, you can clone it’s mycelium and make your own spawn.

Species this technique works well with include: Almond Agaricus, Agaricus Augustus (The Prince), Pioppino (Poplar mushroom), Shaggy parasol, Parasol, Morels, Nameko, Oysters, Wine caps.

How to make a spawn ‘burrito’:

1) Find a relatively clean piece of brown corrugated cardboard about 10 x 20 cm in size and submerge it in boiled water for 15 minutes. Remove it and let it drain and cool. Clean your work surface and get all your materials ready: mushrooms with stems, chopping board, knife, hand sanitiser, sandwich bag and drained cardboard. 

2) Cut the stems off of mushrooms, trying to remove as much dirt or debris as possible. 

3) Dice the stem flesh into small cubes.

4) Lay your cardboard out corrugated side up. Sprinkle the mushroom flesh across your piece of cardboard, and cover with another piece, corrugated sides facing one another.

5) Roll up into a firm burrito.

6) Put your burrito in a clean sandwich bag and poke a few tiny holes in it for air exchange. 

7) Place the bag in the fridge to incubate for 3-6 weeks.

8) Once covered in mycelium, (see burrito covered in white in above image), your spawn is ready to be expanded onto more cardboard, woodchip or furniture dowels. 

Expanding cardboard spawn: 

Onto more cardboard:  Pasteurise cardboard in boiled water. Once cooled and drained, tear it up into small strips. Cut up your spawn burrito and mix it through the torn up cardboard in a clean plastic box or large tupperware. 

Onto dowels: Soak dowels in water for 3 days to fully hydrate. Drain well then put in a clean plastic box with torn up burrito spawn.