1776's avatar
1776 4 days ago
I went and prepped the site of my guerrilla gardening experiment tonight and saw one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen in my soil nerd life. As I levelled off a 15x12” area where I plan to plant and basically abandon 50-60 seed potatoes and onions in these 5-6 year old composted chip piles, I realized that at a depth of about 6”, the entire 50x20yd collection of scores of chip piles were host to one gigantic mycelium network. Everywhere I dug, the same mesh of white mycelial fibres, from one end of the stockpile to the other. If you look at the closeups, it was the same mesh everywhere. All connected. All one giant organism. Man nature is amazing. #permaculture

Replies (21)

1776's avatar
1776 4 days ago
15’x12’ not 12”
That sure is neat. I just heard a podcaster say the largest organism in the world is a mushroom. That challenged what I through. Because I previously learned Pando (aspen grove) was the largest organism.
Incredibly cool find... Being a proponent of all things mushy 🍄, I cannot wait until we start making use of fungi-based materials. I wish Stamets wasn't so offputting, dude is holding back mushroom mat-sci single handedly. 😂
Eh, I was half kidding. I've learned a lot from Stamets and hold him in high regard. I first learned about using psychedelics from him (which went on to help save my life) and his research in mushrooms material science is literally groundbreaking. I believe that when we free ourselves of the shackles of Big Oil, mushroom-based materials will replace a large number of plastic products thanks to his studies. That said, he's a really polarizing guy. He's quite self-important, and he also has a cult following (which ironically doesn't help his ego). I just think if he was a bit more of a team player, the industry would be further along.
David II's avatar
David II 4 days ago
He has a lot of government contracts. So I am guessing consequentialism has played a part in his thinking.
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David II 4 days ago
Awesome. I Hope the experiment is productive.
David II's avatar
David II 2 days ago
I just took a break and started over. 😂🤷🏻‍♂️
David II's avatar
David II 2 days ago
I am. I do some of it, more in spirit than actual practice. I am not very good at following directions.