Thanks to everyone who came out for our workshop in Sierra Vista this past Wednesday! We've traveled with this workshop all across the state over the last couple of years, and it's still a great pleasure to meet and interact with people who are excited about growing mushrooms.
Along with the lecture portion of the workshop, we successfully bulk-inoculated 32 grow bags with Pearl Oyster spawn, which participants took home to fruit out for themselves. Everyone at the workshop also performed a culture transfer of Blue Oyster mycelium and left with their own petri dish of culture. We hope that the workshop has inspired people to get started growing mushrooms! Keep in mind that the AZMGA is here to help in any way that we can—whether its providing grow bags and spawn or informational resources to guide you through the grow process. You can also always contact us with specific questions, photos of your grow operation, or just anecdotes about successes and not-exactly-successes that you've experienced cultivating mushrooms. We look forward to hearing from you!
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It's a well-known fact that when mushrooms are exposed to sunlight their Vitamin D content increases. In fact, after six hours in sunlight shiitake mushrooms have 400 times more Vitamin D than shiitakes not exposed to the sun (source here). Even without exposure to the sun, mushrooms have a range of incredible health benefits. They contain B vitamins like riboflavin and niacin, have high levels of ergothionine (an antioxidant found in beans, bran, and liver), and conjugated linoleic acid (an anti-cholesterol compound), among other things.
Given these qualities, what effects might other types of light have on the nutritional compounds that already exist in mushrooms? The AZMGA's partners at the University of Arizona are examining this question. In the photo above Pearl Oyster mushrooms are growing in a wash of blue, white, or red LED lights. The Pryor and Kacira Labs at the U of A are growing under these unique conditions to determine the effects on the content of ergothianine, beta glucan, and protein in the mushrooms. As with all of the research done by our University partners, at the conclusion of the experiment the AZMGA will share the results with our members. As interest in functional mushrooms and their nutritional properties increases, being able to naturally and easily increase the amounts of their desirable compounds would give Arizona mushrooms a competitive edge! Stay tuned for the findings of this ongoing experiment. And don't forget to check out the research page here at the AZMGA website for the findings of the Pryor Lab's previous research into substrates, spawn and fruiting environments. We're excited to announce a new four-hour cultivation workshop! Substrates to Sales: Advanced Mushroom Cultivation builds upon our previous workshop and further equips growers for success in their growing operations. We'll be presenting findings from new research done at the University of Arizona that will help growers dial in their substrates and fruiting environments.
While this workshop builds on our previous one, it is not a prerequisite to have attended Fundamentals--the workshop will still be accessible to beginners. Space is limited to 30 spots, so register today! Just fill out the registration form and you're set to go. Hope to see you there! Sierra Vista has been scheduled as our latest venue for the Fundamentals of Small-Scale Mushroom Production workshop! We'll be driving the mobile mushroom shed to Southeastern AZ for four hours (1pm - 5pm) of fungi-philic fun.
Your $20 registration fee gets you insights into all of the basics of mushroom production as well as some basic mycology, and you'll leave with a culture of your own and an inoculated grow bag to fruit out at home. Registration is limited to thirty participants, so sign up now! You can register here. And don't forget about the workshop to be held in Kingman on April 11th—you can register for that one here. Thanks to everyone who attended our workshop this week! It was a great pleasure seeing so many people enthusiastic about growing mushrooms in Arizona. We hope all of our attendees will keep in contact with the AZMGA and draw upon us for spawn, cultures, and informational resources.
A reminder that the slides from the presentation are available under the "Cultivating" tab on the menu above. And don't forget to click the "Join" tab and register as an official member of the AZMGA if you have not done so already. Good luck in all your cultivation efforts! The AZMGA is packing up for the road, heading out for our first-scheduled workshop in Kingman. We'll be presenting our four-hour introductory workshop for people interested in starting up a mushroom cultivation operation or incorporating one into a diversified farming system. Space is limited to thirty participants, so sign up now!
Fundamentals of Small-Scale Mushroom Production 11 April 2018 1pm - 5pm Mohave County Cooperative Extension Office 101 E Beale St. Kingman AZ Registration Fee: $20 Click here to register. The AZMGA is excited to announce that we are holding our first workshop of 2018 in Tucson! This workshop will be a refresher on the content of our workshops held in 2016. It'll delve into how to go about starting a cultivation operation from scratch and provide a primer on mushroom biology and a market outlook for growers looking to potentially turn a profit.
Participants will also go home with an inoculated grow-bag to cultivate at home and a Blue Oyster mushroom culture. The registration fee is $20, and the workshop will run from 1pm - 5pm. Register here. Click the "Contact" tab on the website front page to have any questions about the workshop answered. Also, stay tuned for details about our upcoming workshops. Later this year we'll be delivering presentations on more advanced cultivation techniques and specifically addressing substrates and pasteurization. We'll post the dates and locations of that workshop up here when we finalize the schedule. In an effort to stay better connected with all of you fine growers across the state, the AZMGA has thrown its hat into the social media ring.
We've been posting AZMGA news as well as other fungi-related content—inspiration from other growers and useful resources from around the internet. Find us on Facebook: @AZMushroomgrowers as well as on Instagram: @azmga Share your comments and what you'd like to see in our 2018 workshops. Hope to hear from all of you soon! The AZMGA is excited to announce that we've received a renewal of our grant from the Arizona Department of Agriculture (ADA)! This grant will carry us through Fall of 2018 and will allow us to continue our activities to support growers across the state.
We've been fairly quiet and inactive for a while, but with this renewal we'll be able to begin once again delivering workshops with brand-new content to locations all over Arizona. If you are a grower or otherwise interested party who would like to suggest content or topics to be addressed at the workshop, please email them to tplasse@email.arizona.edu . Stay current by visiting the website—we'll be posting dates and locations of the upcoming workshops as we schedule them. Hope to see you there, and here's to a productive year with the AZMGA! The AZMGA is now offering grain spawn and grow bags to its members. We're selling them at especially low prices, so if you've been thinking about getting started with your cultivation operation hopefully this incentive will give you the push that you've needed. Head over to the Spawn and Grow Bags page. You'll find there all of the info that you'll need to purchase your growing materials.
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Arizona Mushrooms Growers AssociationEncouraging the spread of mycelium in Arizona. Archives
November 2021
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