Winter 2020

Instructor: Dr. Mike Davis                    Email: rmdavis@ucdavis.edu

Mike Davis earned his Ph.D. degree in Plant Pathology from University of California, Riverside and became a member of the Department of Plant Pathology, University of California, Davis, in 1986 as a Cooperative Extension Specialist, a position he held with a joint Professor title. He retired from UC Davis in 2015. Mike’s career focused on the study of diseases of citrus, vegetables, and field crops and practical applications of disease management measures. He always had an interest in mushrooms and taught courses in mushroom identification, cultivation, and phylogeny. In addition, he published a number of papers on mushrooms, including the classification of new species. He is lead author of Field Guide to Mushrooms of Western North America published in 2012.

Course Goals: The course introduces methods of growing edible mushrooms, including culture maintenance, basic mushroom substrate preparation, composting, spawn generation techniques, inoculation methods, harvesting, and pests and pest management. The history of mushroom production and recent trends in the diversification of edible mushrooms will be discussed.  The biology of individual edible mushrooms will be covered.

Outline of Topics:

1. History of mushroom production
2. Biology of edible mushrooms
3. Sterile technique and culture maintenance
4. Substrate preparation
5. Composting
6. Spawn generation techniques
7. Inoculation methods
8. Incubation and harvesting
9. Pests and pest management
10. Agaricusbisporus cultivation
11. Wood decomposers: Shiitake, oysters, mitake, and reishi cultivation
12. Collecting wild mushrooms

Class Lecture Schedule:

1. Introduction; History of Mushroom Production
2. Sterile Technique and Culture Maintenance
3. Fruiting Substrates
4. Substrate Preparation – Straw and Sawdust Blocks
5. Mushroom discussion: Enoki , Oyster, and Shimeji
6. Mushroom Biology and Fungal Genetics
7. Spawn Generation Techniques; Inoculation Methods
8. Mushroom discussion: Shiitake and Reishi
9. Agaricus Production: Phase I Composting
10. Incubation; Harvest; Ventilation
11. Mushroom discussion: Black Poplar and Button
12. Agaricus Production: Phase II
13. Cloning Mushrooms; Culture Collections
14. Mushroom discussion: Lion’s Mane and Maitake
15. Agaricus Production: Casing; Pinning; Harvest
16. Fruiting Containers; Evaluating Mushroom Strains
17. Other Cultivated Mushrooms (Straw, Wood Ear, Nameko, others)
18. Pest, Disease, and Weed Control
19. Troubleshooting: Small-Scale Commercialization of Edible Mushrooms
20. Mushroom Nutritional and Medicinal Value
21. Other EdibleFungi; Biological Efficiency
22. Collecting Wild Mushrooms

Grading: Grades will be determined by the results of two quizzes (10% each), two written assignments (20% each), and a comprehensive final examination (40% of total).

Readings:

Required: Lynch, T. (2018).  Mushroom Cultivation

Recommended: Stamets, P.  (1993).  Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms