the jigsaw
This is a very good question. One that I hope to definitively answer in coming years.
We do get some small activity as it starts to heat back up from the peak of winter, but there is never the massive patches like those found during autumn.
I have asked some well respected mycologists about this and none of them can agree on one theory.
I proposed that the lack of activity is caused by the difference in the length of day light hours, humidity and temperature variations not being as optimal in early spring.
Late autumn is definitely the peak of Psilocybe Subaeruginosa season.
I will get to the bottom of this question eventually
from my understanding, the shroom is the fruit of the plant, and plants that fruit have fairly well structured phases of growth and reproduction and fruiting and hibernation etc. and that t are generally triggered by environmental conditions.
my guess is that as these shrooms are basically an autum fruiter, that the trigggers are length of day and temp.
i have often thought how the first fruits will not appear until the autumn equinox[22 march] and that they seem to not fruit much passed the solstice.
{22 june} . now this is generalisation. as some subs will still be picked untill the spring equinox,[22sept], but rarely after. it seems the main period is between the first eq and winter solstice.
now we know that air temp is a trigger, that you wont get subs untill under
15 degrees.
now, i am also guessing that median ground temp has a lot to do with it too.
from the autum equinox until the w/sols, ground temps are still warmish, and slowly cooling. after the solstice the ground gets a lot colder for another 3 months or so. it isnt until after the spring equinox that the ground temp starts to rise again. now, as the plant lives in the ground and the mulchy humus,
i would guess that this is a big factor.
the few shrooms that you do get into the spring are possibly in places were the ground has remained a little warmer for longer.
so why doesnt the plant start to fruit again?, because by this stage the days are getting longer and the ground is still too cold for the plant, and it has started to prepare for hibernation during the hotter months.
anyway, that is just my thinkings on this problem, but i feel i am possibly correct. it makes sense to me anyway.
so anyway, psilo, i reckon everything you said about the way the season starts and where it starts and when it starts there and why makes sense. ie, the water temperature in the gulf and bass strait etc efffecting why its starts in the eastern south states first by effecting night temps etcetc.
so, do you think then that this little bit that i have added may be the next piece in the puzzle. ie, does it fit with, can you work it into, your theories.
