Subject: cloning from storebought

From: [email-masked] (Paul Stewart)
Date: 7 Feb 1995 15:30:33 -0400

Has anyone successfully established mycelia from grocery store shiitakes 
or oysters?  Nobody on PEI seems to have mycelia in culture (if I'm wrong 
please contact me), and so far I'm too cheap to buy spawn commercially. 
Also, I'm trying to keep it simple so as to eventually sell kits for home 
kitchens using local waste material.  I have managed to start yellow morel 
and chanterelle mycelia from spores, but don't expect to fruit them this 
century :-} . I have just put some oyster stipe inner tissue into malt yeast 
agar with poplar sawdust added...about 50 slants.  So while I'm crossing 
fingers against contamination, please let me know if anybody has tried this.

Seeking not to reinvent the wheel, just grease it...Paul

ABIOGEN c/o Paul Stewart   <[email-masked]>
RR #2 Vernon Bridge
Prince Edward Island
CANADA   C0A 2E0
(902) 651-3163

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From: [email-masked]
Date: 9 Feb 1995 20:37:26 -0800

Paul- It certainly is possible to clone from storebought! My first Shitake
cultures were from the grocery and fruited just fine on sawdust substrate.
Shitakes keep well so I think your chances are better with them than Oysters.
The Oysters I find in the stores are usually slimy and ugh.  Although
obtaining cultures this way is fine you may determine later that you want to
know more about the fruiting characteristics prior to innoculating lots of
logs. Multiyear or commercial efforts are worth the few dollars it would cost
for spawn and the companies out there do all the research for you for very
little money considering.  I suppose legally the storebought can be expanded
for sale but you might need to check with a lawyer on that.  If you are just
fooling around with a few bags of sawdust-go for it!!  Mike Ziegler