mushroom introduction into my pepper beds.

[Rairdog]

Having been a long time mushroom nerd, I can tell you that those mushrooms are inky cap mushrooms which are saprobic. That means they do break down wood, grass, etc into more usable organic matter. For your best shot at cultivating beneficial mushrooms in your garden, look up the "liquid culture" method. Spray the resulting live mycelial culture directly on the wood chips, mulch, grass clippings, manure, etc.

I know they are ink caps and I'm not interested in trying to grow edibles in my garden.  I have way too much mushroom territory and hot spots for hunting which gives me exercise and motivation.  Truthfully.....any shroom is a great sign of breaking things down and your in the zone.  I'm too scared to venture out of the normal Morel zone.  Too many false.

 

[pepper_rancher]

I know they are ink caps and I'm not interested in trying to grow edibles in my garden.  I have way too much mushroom territory and hot spots for hunting which gives me exercise and motivation.  Truthfully.....any shroom is a great sign of breaking things down and your in the zone.  I'm too scared to venture out of the normal Morel zone.  Too many false.

 
I would have to say... the chances of a 'false' mushroom which also looks almost exactly like the mushroom you are purposely trying to cultivate in your bed... is slim at best.

 

[Rairdog]

 
I would have to say... the chances of a 'false' mushroom which also looks almost exactly like the mushroom you are purposely trying to cultivate in your bed... is slim at best.

Good point!  I am always stuck with mushroom's I didn't expect without ever trying to purposely grow one.  Could a dominate ink cap could come up and die on my purposely cultivated one leaving poison spores?  Or do they dominate and not share the turf?  

 

[pepper_rancher]

Good point!  I am always stuck with mushroom's I didn't expect without ever trying to purposely grow one.  Could a dominate ink cap could come up and die on my purposely cultivated one leaving poison spores?  Or do they dominate and not share the turf?  

 
Someone more experienced than me would need to verify this but... if I had to guess I would say spores aren't the 'toxic' part of mushrooms, so it wouldn't matter.
ex. Following that same logic, you couldn't eat anything out of your garden... because poison spores might have also contaminated your peppers/ tomatoes etc.

 

[suchen]

Spores are not toxic to other mushrooms, however the mycelium of some species can and will dominate over others. That is why spraying liquid cultures gives the ones you DO want such a distinct advantage. You are literally spraying actively growing mycelium looking for new foods to digest.

I should mention that mushrooms are indeed cloned using tissue from inside the stem (to prevent contamination) using sterilized equipment. The piece of stem is added to an agar-type growth medium in a Petri dish. Mycelium begins to grow, and is continuously isolated until a pure culture is obtained. This mycelium is then added to a liquid growth medium to multiply exponentially, or straight to a grow jar under someone's dorm bed.