Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World

PAUL STAMETS, founder of Fungi Perfecti (fungi.com), has been a dedicated mycologist for more than thirty years. He is the 1998 recipient of the Collective Heritage Institute s Bioneers Award and the 1999 recipient of the Founder of a New Northwest Award from the Pacific Rim Association of Resource Conservation and Development Councils. Stamets has written five books on mushroom cultivation, use, and identification and numerous articles and scholarly papers on medicinal, culinary, and psycho-active mushrooms. His books Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms and The Mushroom Cultivator (co-author) have long been hailed as the definitive texts on mushroom cultivation.

Mycelium Running is a manual for the mycological rescue of the planet. That s right: growing more mushrooms may be the best thing we can do to save the environment, and in this groundbreaking text from mushroom expert Paul Stamets, you ll find out how.
 
The basic science goes like this: Microscopic cells called mycelium --the fruit of which are mushrooms--recycle carbon, nitrogen, and other essential elements as they break down plant and animal debris in the creation of rich new soil. What Stamets has discovered is that we can capitalize on mycelium s digestive power and target it to decompose toxic wastes and pollutants (mycoremediation), catch and reduce silt from streambeds and pathogens from agricultural watersheds (mycofiltration), control insect populations (mycopesticides), and generally enhance the health of our forests and gardens (mycoforestry and myco-gardening).
 
In this comprehensive guide, you ll find chapters detailing each of these four exciting branches of what Stamets has coined mycorestoration, as well as chapters on the medicinal and nutritional properties of mushrooms, inoculation methods, log and stump culture, and species selection for various environmental purposes. Heavily referenced and beautifully illustrated, this book is destined to be a classic reference for bemushroomed generations to come.

Contents
 
Foreword . . . . . viii
Preface . . . . . x
Acknowledgments . . . . . xi
 
PART I  THE MYCELIAL MIND . . . . . 1
   1   Mycelium as Nature s Internet . . . . . 2
   2   The Mushroom Life Cycle . . . . . 12
   3   Mushrooms in Their Natural Habitats . . . . . 19
   4   The Medicinal Mushroom Forest . . . . . 35
 
PART II  MYCORESTORATION . . . . . 55
   5    Mycofiltration . . . . . 58
   6    Mycoforestry . . . . . 69
   7    Mycoremediation . . . . . 86
   8    Mycopesticides . . . . . 114
 
PART III  GROWING MYCELIA AND MUSHROOMS . . . . . 125
   9    Inoculation Methods: Spores, Spawn, and Stem Butts . . . . . 126
   10    Cultivating Mushrooms on Straw and Leached Cow Manure . . . . . 161
   11    Cultivating Mushrooms on Logs and Stumps . . . . . 172
   12   Gardening with Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms . . . . . 187
   13    Nutritional Properties of Mushrooms . . . . . 201
   14    Magnificent Mushrooms: The Cast of Species . . . . . 210
 
Glossary . . . . . 305
Resources . . . . . 309
Bibliography . . . . . 311
Photography and Artwork Credits . . . . . 329
Index . . . . . 330