Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation
Simple to Advanced and Experimental Techniques for Indoor and Outdoor Cultivation
by Tradd Cotter
With innovative new methods for urban and off grid growing, making mushroom infused beers, morel cultivation, and more.
What would it take to grow mushrooms in space? How can mushroom cultivation help us manage, or at least make use of, invasive species such as kudzu and water hyacinth and thereby reduce dependence on herbicides? Is it possible to develop a low cost and easy to implement mushroom growing kit that would provide high quality edible protein and bioremediation in the wake of a natural disaster?
How can we advance our understanding of morel cultivation so that growers stand a better chance of success?
“This book is much more than a cultivation guide. It is about healing the people and the planet, one mushroom and one cultivator at a time, reversing destructive cycles into creative forces.” ~Tradd Cotter
For more than twenty years, mycologist Tradd Cotter has been pondering these questions and conducting trials in search of the answers. In Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation, Cotter offers readers an indepth exploration of best organic mushroom cultivation practices, shares the results of his groundbreaking research, and offers creative ways to apply cultivation skills—whether the goal is to help a community clean up industrial pollution or simply to settle down at the end of the day with a cold Reishi infused homebrew ale.
The book guides readers through both indoor and outdoor cultivation.
Covered skills include:
- Integrating woodchip beds spawned with king stropharia into your garden;
- Building a “trenched raft” of hardwood logs plugged with shiitake spawn; and,
- Producing oysters indoors on spent coffee grounds in a 4by4 space or on pasteurized sawdust in vertical plastic columns.
- For those who aspire to the self sufficiency gained by generating and expanding spawn rather than purchasing it, Cotter covers lab techniques, including low cost alternatives that make use of existing infrastructure and materials.
Cotter also provides readers with insight into his groundbreaking research cultivating morels both indoors and out, “training” mycelium to respond to specific contaminants, and perpetuating spawn on cardboard without the use of electricity. Readers will discover information on making tinctures, powders, and mushroom infused honey; making an antibacterial mushroom cutting board; and growing mushrooms on your old denim jeans.
“If we think with an opportunistic yet minimalistic approach, much like a mushroom, taking what it needs to survive and then returning resources to its ecosystem so they can be used by others, the future looks like somewhere I want to be.”
Geared toward readers who want to grow mushrooms without the use of pesticides, Cotter takes “organic” one step further by introducing an entirely new way of thinking—one that looks at the potential to grow mushrooms on just about anything, just about anywhere, and by anyone.
