With spring around the corner I was thinking about some polycultures to try this year.
I'm specifically interested in polycultures that include mushrooms.
When it comes to thinking about mushroom-containing polycultures in a systematic way the following links were very useful.
http://www.uoguelph.ca/~gbarron/2008/hdiktlis.htm
http://www.uoguelph.ca/~gbarron/MISC2003/feb03.htm
http://www.timberhilloaksavanna.com/fungi/predatory-fungi/
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Polycultures w. Blewits:
"In forest soils nitrogen is a major limiting factor to sucessful exploitation of the massive amounts of carbohydrates available in the form of woody debris. Many of the forest fungi belonging to the Basidiomycota have developed a remarkable biological capability to seek out and destroy (lyse) soil bacteria, including nitrogen fixing bacteria, as a major nutrient source."
This immediately suggests that blewits should be paired with nitrogen fixing plants in polyculture.
Blewits + (hog peanut, groundnut, sweetfern, lupines, clovers....) would definitely be worth a try.
Also, artificially increasing the nitrogen levels of your mushroom patches (via diluted urine perhaps) might speed mushroom growth.
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Polyculture: Peach Trees (or other food plants vulnerable to nematodes) + Stropharia
"Acanthocytes (a cluster of stiff sharply pointed cells), produced on the vegetative hyphae of some Stropharia species, destroy NEMATODES"
So perhaps Stropharia might be planted near peach trees and other plants (together with marigolds) to kill nematodes which otherwise could attach certain peach rootstocks and cause early death of the tree.
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Polyculture: Peach Trees (or other food plants vulnerable to nematodes) + Oyster (Pleurotus)
Same idea as with Stropharia, except that oyster mushrooms kill nematodes through a chemical not a physical mechanism.
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Shaggy Mane (Coprinus Comatus) , a nice edible, also kills nematodes. It also used to be used to make writing ink.
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Any other ideas?