Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World

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 show more (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. show less

Previously I thought the author was just a mushroom geek. Now it's clear that he's also a serious scientist. In this book he explores quite a few topics you would never think of being associated with fungi, as well as presenting the research and references to support his discussion.

Good book to dip into, but feels a little like an encyclopedia with many many entries on exotic mushrooms that I suspect I may never encounter.

Haven't technically read the entire thing, but a lot of this is cultivation technique. It's half reference manual, and half non-fiction about the miracle and power of mycelium, fungus, and mushrooms. Everyone interested in gardening or the earth should read at least the first few chapters.

Haven't technically read the entire thing, but a lot of this is cultivation technique. It's half reference manual, and half non-fiction about the miracle and power of mycelium, fungus, and mushrooms. Everyone interested in gardening or the earth should read at least the first few chapters.

Overview

Four kinds of mushrooms:
*Saprophytic - decomposers [primary, secondary, tertiary]
*Parasitic - “blights of the forest or agents for habitat restoration?”
*Mycorrhizal - “fungus and plant partnerships”
*Endophytic - mutualistic, fungal partnerships

Mycorestoration:
*Mycofiltration - filtering out manure
*Mycoforestry - preventing parasitic fungi with other fungi
*Mycoremediation - restoring logging roads, digesting diesel fuel, collecting radiation and heavy metals
*Mycopesticides - ant-proofing your house

Growing Mycelia and Mushrooms:
*Inoculation Methods: Spores, Spawn, and Stem Butts
*Cultivating Mushrooms on Straw and Leached Cow Manure
*Cultivating Mushrooms on Logs and Stumps
*Gardening with Gourmet and Medicinal show more Mushrooms
*Nutritional Properties of Mushrooms
*Magnificent Mushrooms: The Cast of Species

Reception

I absolutely loved this book. It’s basically an overview of what a first grader should know about the fungal kingdom. Unfortunately, probably only about 1% of the US population have a rudimentary understanding of mushrooms.

For people who like science: this is your book. Genus and species. Scientific papers. This book is full of science.

For permaculturists: you should read this too. Restoration agriculture. Bioremediation. Ecology.

And for herbalists and healers: mushrooms are your allies! Mushrooms can cure pretty much anything.

Mushrooms are the Wild West right now. Compared to other sectors of the natural world, we know almost nothing about them. Join the pioneers and become a mycologist!

In summary, the subtitle of this book is right on; mushrooms could save the world. show less

Growing more mushrooms may be the best thing we can do to save the environment