# Harmonic Mycology

We are a small-scale mycological collective based outside of Cape Town, South Africa, striving to advance societal knowledge and use of fungi.

Our efforts are divided between cultivation, teaching and product development / sale.

The collective also serves as a vehicle for expanding our creativity and deepening our relationships with the fungi.

[Website link](https://harmonicmycology.com).
[Instagram link](https://www.instagram.com/harmonic_mycology/).

### Species

We currently have the following species under active cultivation:

- Cordyceps (_Cordyceps militaris_)
- King Oyster (_Pleurotus eryngii_)
- King Stropharia (_Stropharia rugosoannulata_)
- Lion's Mane (_Hericium erinaceus_)
- Reishi (_Ganoderma lucidum_)

Other species in our library include:

- Maitake (_Grifola fondosa_)
- Shiitake (_Lentinula edodes_)
- Shimeji (_Hypsizygus tesselatus_)

### Lab Setup

We operate out of a 5m x 5m room. This space serves as our lab, incubation and fruiting space (permaculture principle 'stacking functions'). We will only expand once we have outgrown our current space.

We have a dedicated table for clean work and use a still air box (SAB) for plate work and transfers.

Plastic storage tubs are used as incubators. We have used two heating approaches along the way: 1) reptile heating mat attached to outside of tub, 2) aquarium heater in water (nested tubs). Our current setup utilises the reptile heating mat approach and we run three incubators: two for plates and jars, and one larger incubator for bags.

We have a mini-greenhouse (metal shelves with plastic cover) setup on a large plastic folding-table. The plastic cover has been customised with a grid of small holes (~5mm in diameter) on the front and sides. These holes allow for fresh air exchange (FAE). A coolmist humidifier sits at the bottom on the greenhouse and runs on a timer; this requires refilling approximately once a week (5L capacity).

Ambient lighting illuminates the space from windows on two sides of the room. This is further complimented by two 9W T8 LED tubes (specifically for cordyceps). There are no additional environmental controls in place. That means no heating or cooling. We aim to work with the seasons and cultivate mycelium in a low-input and low-cost way.

### Cultivation Workflow

Agar -> liquid culture (LC) -> grain -> bulk substrate

We begin by culturing mycelium on agar media in glass petri dishes. This is the most reliable way to ensure the cultures are clean (not contaminated) and to identify and isolate vigorous strains.

Once a clean culture is established, we transfer a small amount of mycelium to glass canning jars with DIY injection-port lids. The jars contain a sterile sugar-water solution (usually 4% honey solution or a malt-dextrose solution). We have found liquid cultures to offer a highly effective means of generating large amounts of mycelium in short time and at low cost.

Once the liquid culture solution is sufficiently myceliated, a sterile syringe is used to transfer it to the next substrate container; this could be a glass canning jar containing sterilised grain (in the case of cordyceps) or an all-in-one plastic mycobag containing sterilised grain, hemp and coco coir (in the case of wood lovers). The bags are then placed into the mini-greenhouse for fruiting.

Spent substrate is used for vermicomposting on a neighbourhood permaculture farm.

### Products

In terms of products, our current focus is on the development and sale of dietary supplements. We currently have two product types in our range: powdered blends (capsules) and dual-extracts (liquid).

The blends are created with powders we import from a certified-organic supplier in the USA. The formulation of the blends, product design and encapsulation are all done by us.

We use mushrooms and mycelium to produce our range of dual-extracts, first by tincturing them and then by creating a hot-water extract. The final dual-extract is a combination of these two solutions. In most cases, the mushrooms and mycelium are grown by us in-house. In some cases, we use mushrooms we have foraged or which have been grown locally by friends. We use locally-produced, organic gin as the alcohol for our tinctures.