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What Type of Hericium?


Kevin Hoover

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The photos are a bit blurry. But I think I can say with confidence this is not Hericium erinaceus. As you say, this species feature fairly long rather parallel spines. 

Is it a Hericium? One species that may be mistaken for Hericium is Postia ptychogaster  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postia_ptychogaster

If this is a Hericium, then I'd say it's H. corrolloides https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hericium_coralloides . 

A bit difficult to determine form the photos, but if I needed to make a guess then I'd say P. ptychogaster... well, assuming that I could actually say this species name :-) Was this growing in a ball/clump on conifer wood? 

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There appears to currently be some sort of problem with this website. When I attempted to reply to the last comment, my previous comment appeared. I clicked on a button to "clear content" and the previous comment completely disappeared... can't find it now.

Anyway, the comment was that cultivated fungi sometimes have appearance that is different from the wild versions of the same species. Awhile back a friend gave me some dried "Pom Pom Mushrooms" that he purchased in an Asian import grocery store. Looked like probably some type of Hericium. They were pretty good. I broke off chunks/pieces and added to Miso soup. I checked the internet to try to determine the species and it seems the Pom Pom Mushrooms were H. erinaceus. Didn't really look like the H. erinaceus I sometimes find in the woods. Looked through the internet again and the Pom Pom --aka. Monkey Head Mushroom-- is apparently H. erinaceus. Some photos I found look like the ones seen here. 

My guess is that the cultivated version of H. erinaceus (at least some times) looks quite a bit different than the wild version (at least the wild version found in my region). 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I’ve talked to North Spore and confirmed that the grain spawn was definitely H. erinacus. They suggested that the problem might be CO2 buildup.  Will try to fix that on the next batch. 
 

I did discover yesterday that I have two grow bags that have mushrooms that are developing straight spines like you would expect.  But the other form is also growing on those bags. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi Kevin, I recently grew H. Erniacus from a grow kit and got the exact same result as you.  I contacted the vendor and they confirmed that it was in fact the correct species.  They told me that it requires pretty good airflow and hydration to have that typical look you'd find in nature.

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Same thing here.  Put my north spore spawn in totems and covered mostly with loose plastic with main vent hole.  Had some airflow but not a ton.  My results were the same as yours.

I've since removed the plastic and waiting to see what they do.  My assumption is they will fruit normally now.  

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