Glib: How do you inoculate? Where do you buy your inoculum from? Here is a link to young destroying angels (you only need one of these). Compare it with the link the OP provided, and see if you want to grow button mushrooms in a manure bed outside. I agree 100%. Too many dangerous agarics that look too similar to each other. Boletes, true puffballs, and shelf fungi are much safer. They tend to be more distinctive, and I've never read of a deadly bolete or shelf fungus. There are some poisonous boletes, of course, but they generally won't kill you (they'll just make you vomit and cramp for a long time). And most (not all) of the poisonous boletes can have the toxins cooked our or lost in a change of water. And they tend to have a red pore surface and/or near instant blueing when cut, making them easier to recognize. As for the puffballs, cut them in half to make sure they're not young amanitas and not earthballs, and there's not much risk either. Of course, you always want to identify... Amanita virosa (destroying angel) is a really nasty mushroom. Looks so innocent, but contains alpha amantin. It's a mere 8 amino acids long, and is really insidious. It takes half a day to a day before you have any serious side effects, and by then, it's too late to pump your stomach -- if you ate enough, the only way to save your life may be a liver transplant. Oh, and I just remembered: has anyone ever seen this before? http://www2.lifl.fr/~decomite/private/datamining/data/mushroom.arff This guy built a database of all of the mushrooms in the Audubon guide for North America (thousands), and then trained a neural net on it to figure out rules for determining whether a mushroom is poisonous or safe to eat. It came up with: odor=NOT(almond.OR.anise.OR.none): Poisonous or unknown. 120 poisonous cases missed, 98.52% accuracy spore-print-color=green: Poisonous or unknown. 48 cases missed, 99.41% accuracy odor=none.AND.stalk-surface-below-ring=scaly.AND. (stalk-color-above-ring=NOT.brown): Poisonous or unknown. 8 cases missed, 99.90% accuracy habitat=leaves.AND.cap-color=white: Poisonous or unknown. 100% accuracy population=clustered.AND.cap_color=white: Poisonous or unknown. 100% accuracy odor=(almond.OR.anise.OR.none).AND.spore-print-color=NOT.green: Edible. 48 errors, or 99.41% accuracy. (the odor options are almond, anise, creosote, fishy, foul, musty, none, pungent, and spicy) Again, though, always identify ;)

another picture

I will go get my mushroom ID book tomorrow. The3re is a great mushroom ID book out it covers everything from the deadly stuff to little brown mushrooms. I do know the tree fungus is commonly referred to as a turkey tail. I will get its latin name tomorrow as well. The two most important things when determining mushrooms is where is it growing? Many mychorrzial strains are habitat specific. IE - some mushrooms only like oak trees etc.

Hi Interesting ?? Have never tried to grow any on purpose but they pop up on all kings of wood that I save to grow Epiphytes. Red ones ,orange white and even a bright pink very decorative but have a short lifespan and I'm stuck trying to identify "mosses" can't imagine what a nightmare Fungi must be.lol Someone asked about growing "Truffles" and I was surpised to learn that these actually are grown commercially but not in florida as far as I can tell. At 500 bucks a pound would seem some entrepeneur would be doing it lol. As for your logs you can use them to grow epiphytes until they rot away lol. gary