There have been a lot of mushrooms popping up in the yard and flower beds this fall. I really like investigating them. While I was using the leaf blower, I wondered if blowing the mushrooms would help them spread their spores farther and wider. It seems that without wind most of the spores drop just below the cap. Helping them spread seems like it would help the mushrooms spread. Maybe this is a crazy idea, but I don't see any harm to it and it's fun for me.
I think it is an interesting experiment Eric- would be interesting to know how far your propagation-assist spreads things for next year. Many fungi use both sexual and non-sexual reproduction, and we don't necessarily know, for a given individual species, the relative dependency upon each mode. So the results could vary accordingly. :-)
I've always operated on the assumption that we do spread spores with home gardening devices. While it's clear that some fungi come from mycelium load on the preferred medium, say hardwood roots, we likely inoculate nearby tree roots. I was working on my sister's front yard suburban garden and found the hilariously named dog vomit slime mold, Fuligo septica , and my sister wanted to accuse the mulch distributor of selling contaminated product. I told her I was treating it as an experiment. She picked up the hose and squirted the mass into dark clouds of dust. Gotta love the naive. Anyhow, we had several patches of it in a few days. I guess I really am a guerilla gardener at heart. Good luck with the experiment, Eric, and keep us posted of any noteworthy developments.
I guess it works in reverse as well. If there were some type of damaging fungal infestation in my garden, I would be careful not to spread the spores. The mushroom I most want to promote in my yard is a beautiful fairy ring type that comes back each year.
