ORGANIC MUSHROOM FARMING AND MYCOREMEDIATION

I've been lucky enough to hear Tradd speak in person a few times, and his lectures are always visually appealing, intellectually revealing, and completely inspiring. His book is more of the same --- which is to say awesome! I've been particularly wanting more information on rafts, totems, and propagating mushrooms on cardboard, and this book form of the lectures I'd attended didn't disappoint. In addition to providing step-by-step directions (with great diagrams and photos) on those topics, the text provided additional home-scale experiments that I'm itching to try, including propagating shiitakes using stacked rounds, raising oyster mushrooms on old clothes and coffee grounds, and producing homegrown morel spawn/microbe slurry for outside inoculation. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, don't worry --- the beginning of the book has great information to bring beginners up to speed.) The last third of the book consists of species-by-species cultivation accounts, and I'll save that for more intensive reading later. For now, this book is one of the few titles --- about three to five per year --- that contains such a breadth and depth of information that it merits a permanent place on my bookshelf. For those of you new to mushrooms, this is probably the book I'd recommend reading first. It's like a combination of the inspiring accounts of Mycelium Running with the hands-on information of Stamets' older text, but with a more homestead-scale appeal. But I should warn you that you'll need to commit serious time to reading Tradd's chapters slowly and in order since my initial skim was a bit disappointing --- raising more questions than it answered. Only after I read every word did the true wonder of the book gel together into a beautiful whole. So even if you're an intermediate mushroom growing, start with chapter one and prepare to be inspired!

Quality of the book is very apparent! Words are not too small, it's easy to read. Have skimmed a few chapters already and I look forward to reading it. I love gathering info on topics that interest me. This book makes me want to learn about other aspects of mushroom growing I never considered. Will be a great gift for my hubs, too, who is also interested in mushroom growing. After some reading of reveiws, I purchased two books on the topic: Organic Mushroom Farming & Mycoremediation AND Growinf Gourmet & Medicinal Mushrooms. I would say the same about both books from what I've read so far. I have a background in Biology, science, and lots of experience in just learning new hobbies or needy things, etc. My husband does not. Both books are perfect for either background and easy to learn and incorporate into your own needs/experience. Glad I choose both.

I love this book. Tradd Cotter is informative as hell but also easily digestible to a total amateur like me. It's really oriented to someone who's looking to grow commercially, so it focuses much, much more on growing indoors rather than outdoors. If you don't have the money, equipment, and space to set up a sterile semi-lab, a lot of this stuff may be as irrelevant to you as it was to me, but still interesting and insightful. I appreciate that he never really forget to explain things in the simplest terms, though he maintains dedication to scientific detail throughout. My only complaints/confusions are that the title seemed to suggest that the book would be in large part dedicated to discussing mycoremediation techniques, but it devotes only one chapter to the subject and does not go into very much detail. Also, in section 4, it lists specifications and substrates for every kind of oyster mushroom BUT pearl oysters, which are pretty commonly cultivated, especially for mycoremediation. That really confused and surprised me, especially since I'm not growing any mushrooms but pearl oysters at the moment, and remediation is my main interest. Whoops! Still worth the purchase and the read, though.

A truly outstanding book that will teach everything needed to know with detailed color photos and hand drawn diagrams. Of course we all look forward to enjoying Shitakes, Oysters, Stropharias and Maitakes but let's face it... the one we really want to try our hand at is the Morel! The author devotes an entire chapter (21: Morel Cultivation and Research Update) to help navigate this complex subject which offers a great perspective complete with photos and diagrams for the best chance of success. Imagine being able to harvest fresh ingredients of extremely high culinary and monetary value sought after by chefs in upscale restaurants across the globe. The author does an excellent job of presenting the reader with many approaches to achieve the same goal for each mushroom variety, be it an inoculated log, stump or wood chips, compost, pasteurized media etc...

For someone learning about mycology this is a great starter book. While I'll agree that it doesn't go into a great deal of depth, for many peoples purposes it doesn't need to. It's very informative, gives a lot of good guidelines for mushroom cultivation and growing, and has beautiful images.

This book is excellent. I have been running a gourmet mushroom business for 4 years. The author goes through every detail of growing gourmet mushrooms. Following the ideas in this book will get you started, even if you have little equipment to grow mushrooms. It has a lot of information good for every skill level. I just started reading this book this Summer and found it very helpful in what I do. It helped me eliminate several common problems and has helped me become a better grower. I highly recommend this book!

this book is truly amazing. well written, full of useful informations and truly inspiring.

Excellent book

Brilliant book easy to understand, brilliant mind set from the author, many thanks to Tradd Cotter for sharing his knowledge.

With so much first-hand information. The author knows what he writes about. Very clear and concise book. I recommend it!

The definitive publication for those interested in mycology. So much useful information if you wish to get into cultivating mushrooms for personal or domestic use.