Commercial Spawn Services

An intricate process with lots of moving parts, mushroom cultivation is a time-consuming endeavor. While few other pursuits are better suited to a diehard DIY ethic, many budding mushroom farmers quickly find themselves overwhelmed with complexity. As you dance deeper into chaos fungorum, you'll no doubt find that it most rewards a focused approach. This is why commercial gourmet mushroom cultivators often find it more pragmatic, convenient and affordable to partner with a spawn producer. This allows them to forgo the expense, specialized equipment, steep learning curve and endless labor of managing a sterile culture laboratory, and focus on the equally formidable task of growing consistent, beautiful gourmet mushrooms, getting them into the hands of chefs and foodies, and managing the many challenges of running a small food-related business. With competitive pricing, timely fulfillment, unmatched client support and a loving, personal touch, Fungaia is dedicated to serving your custom spawn needs. We collaborate closely with our clients to develop a dynamic cultivation plan, iron out a production schedule and gracefully negotiate logistics.

Consultation

Mushroom cultivation is largely a process of trial-and-error, and we know firsthand how many consecutive failures lie in the wake of every achievement. With each new step along the endless path of perfecting processes and refining our techniques, we often find ourselves saying, "I wish someone had told me this a long time ago." There has never before been so much literature and accessible information about mushroom cultivation, but even with the world's library at our fingertips there is nothing that compares with some good ol' one-on-one coaching. In addition to providing unparalleled customer support with all of our products, we also offer hourly consultation on a sliding scale. We are not expert mycologists, but we've been at it long enough to figure out some things along the way. We would be delighted to share these lessons with you. Like everything we offer, this service is by donation. Hopefully we can provide information and advice that will save you lots of time, money and headaches, but we leave it to you to decide what that's worth. Grown from humble roots by slender means, Fungaia is simpathetic to the plight of the cash-poor but can-do. Our specialty is doing more with less, and we love divulging trade secrets. We believe that a high tide raises all ships, and are proud to do our part to help liberate a few more spores. True, we always need a little cash, but there are many forms of equitable exchange that do not involve money.

Education

Education is the heart of Fungaia's purpose and vision, and fungi are the finest teachers. Not only do the principles of mycology apply, in both theory and practice, to a much broader understanding of all living systems, fungi themselves furnish profound metaphors and simple, memorable lessons in the true sprit of collaboration, adaptivity and symbiosis. The singular experience of intertwining, even briefly, with the fungal life cycle, working directly with mycelia, and seeing their wild prowess in action stokes the imaginations of the young and young-at-heart alike. We cherish nothing more than the opportunity to share our passion with fellow inquisitive minds, and are available on a sliding-scale basis for conferences, convergences, festival workshops, classroom visits, afterschool programs, staff trainings and teambuilding workshops with a mycological twist. We carefully tailor workshops and lectures to our audience, from gradeschool kids to professional permaculturists. We incorporate creative, hands-on components into all of our speaking engagements, focus on relevant themes and tie in multidisciplinary angles. We customize each syllabus to suit the occasion, and always try to send off each attendee with a head full of new ideas and a tactile takeaway, to follow through on the experience with a mycological experiment of their own. We also provide a variety of pedagogical resources such as mushroom kits, spawn products and literature, to make it as easy and rewarding as possible for teachers, homeschoolers and autodidacts to incorporate the myco-logos into existing curricula. We offer deep discounts for educators, bulk ordering, and an ever-evolving line of simple, self-contained, DIY mushroom cultivation kits to suit every budget, timeline and level of experience. Give us a call to discuss the many ways a partnership with Fungaia can further your educational goals.

Laboratory Services

A sterile tissue culture laboratory is a useful resource. The Fungaia mushroom studio is at your service for a variety of processes tailored to specific needs: Cloning Service We want your fungus! If you encounter a desirable wild specimen on your property or foraging expeditions, we can help you clone, preserve and propagate it. We are always on the hunt for new genetics, and are proud to be one of the only companies to offer a basic cloning service free of charge. We are happy to review and discuss finds, but generally we limit this service to genera and species which are most readily identified, ecologically beneficial and likely to survive transit intact (see the list below). If you are interested in this unique opportunity, we ask that you first take the time to photograph and identify your specimen before contacting us. Two great resources for identification are David Aurora's Mushrooms Demystified and Michael Kuo's MushroomExpert.com. Ideally, leave the specimen undisturbed until further notice. Next, send us an email with photos and any field notes you have. Where applicable, photograph the underside as well as the top of your specimen. We will review the information you send us as quickly as possible, and if we believe you have a good candidate we will promptly send instructions for preparing and mailing a sample. For a small donation, we can also send you a packaging kit with prepaid postage to streamline this process. Once we receive the sample, we will use a variety of techniques to isolate, verify, invigorate, preserve and expand the culture. This process can take anywhere from 3 to 12 weeks, and there is no guarantee of success. As soon as we have a pure, stable, viable culture, we will reach out to you about next steps. For the complimentary service, we will send you any 2 agar plates, culture slants and/or aqueous backups. We can also prepare and ship a liquid culture or custom spawn order at a discount, and if requested can grow the culture to fruition in the lab, experiment to evaluate its commercial and remedial potential and consult with you to develop a detailed cultivation plan. We will maintain the culture in our library indefinitely, and can retrieve additional clones for you at any time in the future. The following genera and species are prime candidates for this service:

• Ganoderma spp., esp. G. applanatum, G. curtisii, G. lucidum, G. oregonense, G. polychromum, G. sessile, G. tsugae & allies
• Hericium spp., esp. H. americana, H. coralloides & H. erinaceus
• Morchella spp., esp. M. augusticeps, M. importuna, M. esculenta, M. rufobrunnea & allies
• Pleurotus spp., esp. P. eryngii, P. ostreatus, P. pulmonarius & allies
• Stropharia rugosoannulata
• Trametes spp., esp. T. versicolor

Breeding Services Fungi are highly adaptable and can be "trained" for a variety of specific purposes, including soil remediation, targeted waste management, wastewater filtration and production of particular medicinal metabolic compounds. In all of these cases, a focused, well-informed breeding and cultivation strategy will yield the most valuable, consistent results. These processes can be quick and simple, or they can entail extensive complexity, highly specialized techniques and a lengthy timeline. Either way, we are prepared to enthusiastically embark with you on a journey of research and discovery, evaluate and meet the unique demands of your specific application, and collaborate closely with you each step of the way. Contact us today to begin the conversation, discuss your goals, and see what fungi, and Fungaia, can do for you.