I got my strain of P.Azurescens in January 1999 from TEONANACATL in Vienna, Austria. Two months earlier I ordered a sporeprint from him, but wasn't able to germinate any spores. Since he sent me a tiny piece of mycelium on wood shavings along with the first order, I asked him, if he could send me a little bit more. So he sent me a handful of mycelium. I propagated it on dry hardwood shavings, which I presoaked, strained and sterilized for am hour in a pressure cooker. It grew quite slow, but till the end of march I had 3/4 liter (3 cups) full of spawn. The location of the patch is in south Austria. In the first week of April 1999 freshly cut hazelnut branches were shredded with a garden shredder. I choose hazelnut without a particular reason, simply because it was the only available non-conifer wood. The wood chips (some 30 l/15 kg) were laid out under a dense shrub. I had several reasons for this: · I don't have a garden so this was kind of guerilla farming. The shrub is so dense, you can't see to the base of it. · It doesn't allow much rain to come through so I can control the watering · It makes quite a dense shadow. I simply put the chips on the soil and plants(you can see on photos), which already grew there. First I put 1 inches(2,5 cm) of chips, then I spawned it with 1,5 cup of spawn(I know, not very much), than again 4 inches(10 cm). So the initial height of the bed was 5 in(12 cm). During the colonization it settled to 3,5 in (8 cm) Then I watered it on three subsequent days with a 2 liter of tub water. I have to mention, that the water in my area is very clean and not chlorinated. I watered the wood chips only slightly during the year (2 liters every other week). I noticed slugs eating the mycelium so I put some slug bait around the patch. In the beginning of October I watered it with 5 or 6 liters and then 2 weeks later with 2 liters -a bit too much I assume, because there are some abhorts in the middle of the patch and the mushrooms only grow on the outside. I have another patch, which I didn't water as much and they are growing in the middle of the patch, they are just some 10 days behind. First primordia appeared in the last week of October. The weather conditions at fruiting were rainy, humid, little windy, temp 5-10°C in the night,10-15° on day. It took app.14 days for primordia to develop to the stage you see on the pictures.
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