Tradd Cotter

For our February presentation, we will be hearing from Tradd Cotter, a microbiologist, professional mycologist, and organic gardener, who has been tissue culturing, collecting native fungi in the Southeast, and cultivating both commercially and experimentally for more than twenty-two years.

In 1996, he founded Mushroom Mountain, which he owns and operates with Olga Katic, to explore applications for mushrooms in various industries and currently maintains over 300 species of fungi for food production, mycoremediation of environmental pollutants, and natural alternatives to chemical pesticides.

In 2014, Tradd completed and published the best-selling book Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation (2014). It is one of the top ten releases with the publisher, Chelsea Green. Tradd has won numerous awards for his work including the prestigious Clemson University Entrepreneur of the Year Award (2013), the EPA GRO-U Fellowship Award (2011), and an expert lecturer on all topics related to fungi in agriculture and medicine.

His primary interest is in low-tech and no-tech cultivation strategies so that anyone can grow mushrooms on just about anything, anywhere in the world. Mushroom Mountain is currently expanding to 42,000 square feet of laboratory and research space near Greenville, South Carolina, to accommodate research for commercial production of new and experimental species, as well as mycoremediation projects. In 2018 Mushroom Mountain started a daughter company, MYCOMATRIX, that develops novel medicinal extracts for consumers and cobranding into consumer products. In 2019 Mushroom Mountain opened THE BLUE PORTAL, a psilocybin research and mediated session center, that is available in Jamaica and soon Costa Rica. Tradd’s current research projects include bacterial interactions with fungi and novel antibiotic discovery.

His presentation is titled, “Mushrooms, Molds, and Mycorrhizae: The Amazing Applications of Fungi in Agriculture”.  The second largest Kingdom on the planet holds some amazing applications in nature such as soil creation, disease resistance for plants, nutrient cycling and bioavailability, and insect control. Understanding how these fungi operate in these systems is key to maximizing their effectiveness in organic agriculture and soil building.  Partnering with mushrooms, molds, and mycorrhizae is critical in human civilization as the world struggles to find solutions and the damage to the environment continues. Come and be a part of the solution and add the skill-set of mushrooms to your life!