Appalachiangold fungi

Isaria cicadae coming along nice and weird

Akanthomyces is one of the few entomopathogenic species found commonly in winter and it was number 1 on my list of hopeful finds on my birthday walk. This species infects adult lepidoptera... moths. A week or so ago this area was covered in snow and ice and today and just hours after I found this on Friday, the entire region is back under a foot of snow. There have been no moths here for months. This was probably infected in the spring and summer months and by its placement on a twig below a tree, right on the trail, I suspect it probably fell from higher up in some recent wind storms. The first 2 I ever found were also in winter. The first one was partially frozen in a little ice puddle. I knew with that one it must fall down from higher branches occasionally. Sometimes you'll find them on the ground but most often the moths die on some sort of perch in trees or shrubs. The first signs of fungal growth emerge from the bottom of the host, where it tends to attach its victim to its final resting place. It grows painfully slow in cultivation and in nature as well, often not looking mature well into the winter months and beyond. Possibly waiting until the next spring when new moths emerge. Keep your eyes open on those warm winter day hikes for these little surprises.

New lineage of ascospore isolate pairings are some of the best I've seen. These are from spores collected off the DS #7×Highfive46 #4 I made up from one of my favorite wild collections in some time. That was the piebald strain that showed some partial leucistic fruiting bodies in the first grow. The original is pinning nicely again in some new jars, too, and I sent some syringes of that out in orders the last week or so. I have another third batch that will be going out next week too. The first and last photos show the best looking of the first round of ascospore isolate pairings, Piebald #7×Highfive46 #4. She looks so good I decided to send her to bulk this week, before I even let the first one grow out. Those fat clean pins coming out in big clusters shouldn't let me down. I might need to get this in syringes for a few friends too. Lots of new stuff coming soon and some going out now. Catching up on everything else this week, but I'm really happy this unexpected project appears to be time well spent.

Second grow of DS3 #13×Hades4212 #1 looking great

This shirt was inoculated a different way. I could have waited another month and let the blues come out a little more but I was pretty sure the holes in the last shirt were caused by contamination and not the Chlorociboria. So I pulled this one out and washed it. This shirt has no damage and with the adjustments I made on the new shirts, they're starting to turn blue in a matter of weeks as opposed to months. In short I think the cordy ate the shirt. I'm going to watch these next ones play out and I'll give more detailed information when I get it all dialed in correctly.

Photo 1 is after hand washing. Photo 2 is after a machine wash. There was a little damage to the material at the bottom where the mycelium was thicker but I think I can control that with some minor adjustments.

This is my first attempt at spalting fabric and it turned out much better than I'd expected. This started out as a plain white t-shirt in late July. The color is from the colonization of Chlorociboria fungus. This species stains wood in nature and I had a feeling it would take to cotton and other textiles if given the chance. Next up I'm planning to adjust some variables and play with a few different methods I've tried over the past few months to speed up the process a bit. I let it dry out overnight and I'll clean off the surface mycelium before giving it a wash later today and see how the color holds.

I'm trying something new with Chlorociboria. It's easy to get sidetracked when they're so damn beautiful. I wish I had the facilities to extract pure xylindein, which is where the pigmentation comes from. For now, it's fun to see if there are other ways to use this fascinating critter.

Penicillium, I think

Flammulina velutipes is out in full force now. It's one of the finest winter edibles in my opinion and they're easy to spot because they stand out with the lack of color out there now.

Some new stuff

OK so some early results are in... rye (2 jars on the left in photo 1) caught up in the end and looks fantastic. Just a couple of grams under the fresh weight of the rice substrate but they look extremely healthy. This is only my second grow from this new hades4212 #1×2 but I believe it's an early finishing strain. The growth on the rice jars mostly stopped around day 50 to 55. Now by day 60 and above, a couple fruiting bodies are showing some stress from aging. It looks like the rye could continue to mature for a bit and I plan to let a few go on. After drying the rye yield was just around 8g and the rice was at 9g. All the results were better than average so I'm happy to say this new hades4 strain is on the way for a commercial release in a week or 2 along with a couple others from the line that were interesting.
Rye is a great substitute for rice in cordyceps cultivation. It's a fraction of the price here at the feed stores and since it's not food grade, there are occasionally some bugs mixed for added cordy snacks. I chose rye because I heard good things about it from other growers but it's also a grain that can be sourced here locally for me.
There are other great options for alternative grains in cordyceps cultivation, so it may be worth trying whatever you have available in your area of the world.