I’m in the central interior of BC, Canada. I gave up trying to ID Russulas a long time ago but I always love to see them out in full force. If I had found this just a week later it definitely would have been sent in for sequencing for MycoMapBC

Here are my notes from iNat: Coniferous habitat; scent not distinct; taste mild, very slight tingle; cap surface a deep wine-purple, slightly frosted look to it; cap peeling half-way to two-thirds of the way to centre

I would maybe start saying ‘agarics’ instead to prevent confusion.

If you are using an app that gives you a little AI blurb the language/tone it uses makes it sound like there can be no mistake. For some people that’s all they need. Last week I saw someone post about how grok had “definitively” ID’d this person’s mushroom as Pluteus cervinus from one photo. It was very clearly Hypholoma fasciculare.

Yeah, I can do all that but I draw the line at larvae, as dumb as that sounds. Irrational fear, but I’m getting better haha

Definitely worth the risk for me, I can’t improve my skills let alone ID a mushroom if I don’t pick it up and get a good look. If you aren’t comfortable with it that’s fine but telling people to just not touch mushrooms doesn’t help anyone because no one has ever died or become sick from touching a mushroom.

I saw a post from a vet today on one of the ID forums, a dog had eaten a mushroom and was very ill. Preliminary ID was A. phalloides. Absolutely heartbreaking, I’d never get over that.

All mushrooms are safe to handle with bare hands. Sure, if you’ve spent the whole day groping death caps you might want to rinse off but you really don’t need to wash after touching a mushroom. You actually have to ingest to be poisoned. As far as I know, spores are only harmful if the get into the lungs regularly over a prolonged period and that goes for all spores, not just ones from toxic mushrooms.

I love this, they seem to be very happy! I would be slightly worried about air quality due to the thick layer of spores that are produced on the surface of the cap. Turned the inside of my tent brown when I wasn’t watching.

A ready-made block should be fine in the kitchen, garage too if it not too cold for the species you’re trying to grow and has a light you can keep on for at least 8hrs. Balancing the humidity and fresh air levels is the trickiest part for a counter-top grow but you sort of get a feel for it after some trial and error.

I use oats for spawn and hardwood/soybean hulls for substrate. I don’t think a monotub would have enough FAE but I don’t have much experience with them.

100% - I gave my parents in law a 5 gal bucket to grow their own at home, and it flushed 5 or 6 times before they emptied it into the compost. Masters mix with boiled water poured over top, I thought it would contaminate because it wasn’t properly sterilized, but had no issues colonizing.

Mostly smells like mushrooms/mycelium. I use a mix of soybean hulls and hardwood fuel pellets so no manure or anything stinky.

Neat, I imagine one with slits in the side would be similar to fruiting in a 5gal bucket where you tape off the holes to keep moisture in. I recently read an article on growing mushrooms in large columns of substrate with egg carton material wrapped around the outside, it wasn’t very descriptive but I thought the idea was cool.

There are cheaper options than a tent setup, you can find lots of little tutorials online. For a couple of years I used a ‘shotgun fruiting chamber’, it’s a tote with lots of tiny holes drilled in it, and some damp perlite in the bottom. You mist the inside and occasionally lift the lid to introduce fresh air.

I typically set mine for 95% RH to initiate pin formation, I bump that down to 80-85% while the fruit grows out. It gets tricky when you are trying to get juggle getting new pins on some blocks and growing out mushrooms on others, then I just play it by ear.

Yeah, they’re pretty easy. If I had to do it over again I would start with pink oysters. They aren’t as oxygen-hungry as blue oysters and they fruit just as reliably, if not more.

I would definitely try a grow block and see how you like it, it can be a little tricky to get the fresh air and humidity right if you’re fruiting on a counter top but I wouldn’t let that discourage me.

Yeah, they are but my spare bedroom gets extremely hot in the summer and I don’t want to be doing any work in there haha.

What kind of substrate/pasteurization are you using for the bucket?

I’m curious about the ceramics, what do you use? Like a big sauerkraut pot? I use the plastic because it’s easiest to work with and with jars I feel like the substrate weight to yield ratio isn’t as efficient.

No, I make these up myself and they are not compostable.