How To Run Mycelium: A Fungal Tissue Culture Workshop
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Date/Time
Date(s) - Sunday, December 2, 2018
3:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Location
Biotech Without Borders
Categories No Categories
Laboratory Workshop by Craig Trester, founder of MYC.NYC
Most people typically encounter mushrooms either for sale at the market or on the menus of their favorite restaurants, without ever having to search for and identify them in their natural habitats. Which leads the question, what techniques made it possible for humans to go beyond foraging in the woods and cultivate Fungi on demand? This workshop will offer the answer through an elementary introduction to the theory and practice of Laboratory Mycology. Working with mushrooms from both the grocery and forest, you’ll learn how to formulate agar media, culture fungal tissue samples on petri dishes, and understand the process of mycelial expansion that is essential to perform successful mushroom cultivation.
These more ‘scientific’ methods are used to propagate from cuttings, to isolate rare species, and to set up commercial production for medicinal use mushrooms such as Reishi. It’s also the best way to start mycelium (mushroom ‘root’) cultures as a prelude to creating bricks, furniture and artworks with mycelium grown through substrates.
In this workshop you will learn
-How to handle specimen in a home-made ‘clean chamber’ made from a gallon jug.
-How to successfully dissect a mushroom fromthe store or fromthe field to propagate it.
-How to make solid (petri dish) and liquid media to propagate fungi.
-How to amplify your cultures into production.
You’ll take homw your home made chamber and your specimens!
Craig M. Trester is a citizen scientist whose focus lies in the field of mycology, applying biomimicry and permaculture principles to develop regenerative solutions for a future which faces many challenges. By studying Fungi, he believes novel approaches towards alternative agriculture, pharmacology, and bioremediation can be realized. Outside of the lab Craig is the sole proprietor of MYC.NYC, an applied mycology educational resource based in New York City that teaches the benefits Fungi provide to our health, environment, and society to audiences on academic, research, community, and private levels.