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As a rule, only those who are already adept at breeding other, easier-to-cultivate mushrooms try to grow mushrooms at home or in the country. For beginners, it is proposed to first master the method of breeding champignons or oyster mushrooms. If you have at least the slightest experience in mushroom growing and now intend to master the method of growing mushrooms, first decide which variety to choose for these purposes.
Among the edible and suitable for cultivation, two types are distinguished: summer and winter.
You will learn about the basic methods of how to grow mushrooms at home and in the garden by reading this article.
What do summer mushrooms look like
This mushroom is quite widespread, and mushroom pickers collect it in almost all forests. Mushrooms grow on dead wood, as a rule, in numerous groups. Walking through the forest, you can often see a yellowish-golden cap formed by many individual mushrooms on fallen deciduous trees or stumps. This pattern is observed from June to September.
It is a small mushroom in size, the cap diameter usually ranges from 20-60 mm, the shape is flat-convex, the edges are omitted. In the center of the cap there is a characteristic tubercle. The color of the surface of the honey agaric is yellow-brown with specific watery lighter circles. The flesh is quite thin, tender, white in color. Leg length – 35-50 mm, thickness – 4 mm. The stem is provided with a ring of the same color as the cap, which can quickly disappear, although a clear trace will still remain.
Close attention must be paid to the plates, which in edible honey agarics are creamy at first, and brown during ripening, which distinguishes them from poisonous false honey agarics. The plates of the latter are first gray-yellow, and then dark, greenish or olive-brown.
These photos show what summer mushrooms look like:
The taste of the mushroom is very high. The smell is strong and pleasant. Hats can be stored after drying.
Legs, as a rule, are not eaten because of their rigidity. On an industrial scale, mushrooms are not bred, because the mushroom is perishable, requiring quick processing, and besides, it cannot be transported. But lone mushroom growers appreciate honey agarics in Our Country, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, etc. and willingly cultivate it.
The following describes how mushrooms can be grown in the backyard.
How can you grow summer mushrooms on a plot on stumps
Dead wood is used as a substrate for growing summer mushrooms, and mycelium is usually purchased as a paste in tubes. Although you can also use your own planting material – an infusion of mature mushroom caps or pieces of wood infected with a fungus.
Before growing mushrooms in the country, you need to prepare the mycelium. The infusion is made from hats with dark brown plates, which must be crushed and placed in a container of water (it is recommended to use rainwater) for 12-24 hours. Then the resulting mixture is filtered through gauze and the wood is abundantly moistened with it, having previously made cuts on the ends and sides.
In addition to the infusion on wood, mature caps can be laid out with plates down, removing them after a day or two. With this method of growing mushrooms, the mycelium grows for a long time and the first harvest can be expected to be obtained only at the end of the next season.
To make the process go faster, you should use pieces of wood with sprouted mycelium, which can be found in the forest starting in June. Look out for stumps or fallen tree trunks. Pieces should be taken from areas of intensive growth of the mycelium, i.e. from where there are most white and cream threads (hyphae), and also exudes a characteristic strong mushroom aroma.
Pieces of wood infected with the fungus of different sizes are inserted into holes cut on the prepared piece of wood. Then these places are covered with moss, bark, etc. So that when growing summer mushrooms, the mycelium more reliably moves to the main wood, the pieces can be nailed and covered with a film. Then the first mushrooms are formed already at the beginning of next summer.
Regardless of the method of infection, wood of any hardwood is suitable for growing mushrooms on stumps. The length of the segments is 300-350 mm, the diameter is also any. In this capacity, the stumps of fruit trees can also act, which do not need to be uprooted, because in 4-6 years they will fall apart anyway, being completely destroyed by the fungus.
On freshly cut wood and stumps, infestation can be carried out without special preparation. If the wood has been stored for some time and has had time to dry, then the pieces are kept in water for 1-2 days, and the stumps are poured over with it. Infection for growing mushrooms in the country can be done at any time throughout the growing season. The only obstacle to this is too hot dry weather. However, be that as it may, the optimal time for infection is spring or early autumn.
The most commonly used wood for infection with honey agaric in central Our Country is birch, in which a lot of moisture remains after felling, and a reliable shell in the form of birch bark protects the wood from drying out. In addition to birch, alder, aspen, poplar, etc. are used, but on coniferous wood, summer honey agaric grows worse.
Before growing mushrooms, watch this video:
Segments of infected wood are installed in a vertical position in pre-dug holes with a distance of 500 mm between them. Part of the wood from the ground should peek out by about 150 mm.
To grow mushrooms on stumps correctly, the earth must be watered abundantly with water and sprinkled with a layer of sawdust in order to prevent moisture from evaporating. For such areas, it is necessary to choose shaded places under trees or specially designed shelters.
Optimum results can be obtained by placing infested wood in the ground in greenhouses or greenhouses where moisture levels can be controlled. Under such conditions, it takes 7 months for the formation of fruiting bodies again, although if the weather is unfavorable, they may develop in the second year.
If you grew mushrooms in the country as the correct technology suggests, mushrooms will bear fruit twice a year (at the beginning of summer and autumn) for 5-7 years (if pieces of wood with a diameter of 200-300 mm were used, if the diameter is larger, then fruiting can continue longer).
The yield of the fungus is determined by the quality of wood, weather conditions, and the degree of growth of the mycelium. Yields can vary greatly. So, from one segment you can get both 300 g per year and 6 kg per summer. As a rule, the first fruiting is not too rich, but the following fees are 3-4 times more.
It is possible to grow summer mushrooms on the site on forestry waste (small trunks, branches, etc.), from which bunches with a diameter of 100-250 mm are formed, infected with mycelium by one of the methods described and buried in the ground to a depth of 200-250 mm, covering the top with turf. The working area is protected from wind and sun.
Since honey agaric does not belong to mycorrhizal fungi and grows only on dead wood, its cultivation can be carried out without fear of harming living trees.
Details about growing honey mushrooms are described in this video:
Honey agaric is as tasty a mushroom as it is undeservedly ignored by mushroom growers. The cultivation technology described in general terms must be refined on a case-by-case basis, so that amateur mushroom growers have great opportunities to be creative in experimentation.
The following describes the technology of growing mushrooms at home for beginners.
Technology for growing winter mushrooms at home
The hat of the winter honey agaric (velvety-legged flammulina) is flat, covered with mucus, small in size – only 20-50 mm in diameter, sometimes grows up to 100 mm. The color of the cap is yellowish or cream, in the center it may be brownish. The cream-colored plates are wide and few in number. The flesh is yellowish. The leg is 50-80 mm long and 5-8 mm thick, strong, springy, light yellowish above, and brown below, possibly black-brown (by this feature it is easy to distinguish this type of honey agaric from others). The base of the stem is hairy-velvety.
The winter fungus in natural conditions is widely distributed in Europe, Asia, North America, Australia and Africa. This wood-destroying mushroom grows in large groups, mainly on stumps and fallen trunks of deciduous trees or on weakened living trees (as a rule, on aspens, poplars, willows). In central Our Country, it is most likely to be found in September – November, and in the southern regions even in December.
Artificial cultivation of this variety of mushrooms began in Japan several centuries ago and was called “endokitake”. However, both the quality and the volume of the harvest when growing winter mushrooms on wooden chocks were very low. In the mid 50s. in Japan, they patented the cultivation method of the same name on woodworking waste, after which the cultivation of flammulina became more and more popular. Currently, winter honey agaric is in third place in the world in terms of production. Above only champignon (1st place) and oyster mushroom (2nd place).
Winter mushroom has undeniable advantages (winter harvest in the absence of wild competitors on the markets, ease of manufacture and low cost of the substrate, a short growing cycle (2,5 months), disease resistance). But there are also disadvantages (high sensitivity to climatic conditions, in particular to temperature and the presence of fresh air, a limited choice of cultivation methods and techniques, the need for sterile conditions). And all this must be taken into account before growing mushroom mycelium.
Although honey agaric occupies the third place in industrial production, it is relatively little known among amateur mushroom growers, however, as well as among mushroom pickers.
Since flammulina belongs to mycorrhizal fungi, i.e. is capable of parasitizing on living trees, it should be cultivated exclusively indoors.
Growing winter mushrooms at home can be done both by the extensive method (i.e., using pieces of wood) and intensive (breeding in a nutrient medium, which is based on hardwood sawdust with a variety of additives: straw, sunflower husk, brewer’s grains, corn, buckwheat husks , bran, cake). The type of additive used depends on the availability of relevant waste on the farm.
The proportions of the necessary ingredients for growing mushrooms at home can be different, taking into account the specifics of the nutrient medium. Sawdust with bran, which is a rich organic additive, is mixed in a ratio of 3:1, sawdust with brewer’s grains – 5:1, when mixing sunflower husks and buckwheat husks, the same ratio is used. Straw, corn, sunflower husks, buckwheat husks are mixed with sawdust in a ratio of 1:1.
As practice shows, these are quite effective mixtures, which showed good results in the field. If you do not use additives, then the yields on empty sawdust will be small, and the development of mycelium and fruiting will slow down significantly. In addition, straw, corn, sunflower husks, if desired, can also be used as the main nutrient medium, where sawdust or other substrates are not needed.
It is recommended to add 1% gypsum and 1% superphosphate to the nutrient medium for growing domestic mushrooms. The humidity of the resulting mixture should be 60-70%. Of course, you should not use ingredients if they are of dubious quality or with traces of mold.
After the substrate is ready, it is subjected to heat treatment. This can be sterilization, steam or boiling water treatment, pasteurization, etc. To grow mushrooms, sterilization is performed by placing a nutrient medium in plastic bags or glass jars with a capacity of 0,5-3 liters.
The process of heat treatment of cans is similar to conventional home canning. Sometimes heat treatment is carried out before the substrate is placed in the jars, but in this case the containers themselves must also be heat treated, then the protection of the nutrient medium from mold is more reliable.
If the substrate is planned to be placed in boxes, then heat treatment is carried out in advance. The compost placed in boxes is lightly tamped.
If we talk about the key conditions for growing domestic mushrooms (temperature, humidity, care), then it is necessary to strictly adhere to certain rules, on which the success of the entire event will largely depend.
Thermally treated containers with a nutrient medium are cooled to 24-25 ° C, after which the substrate is sown with grain mycelium, the weight of which is 5-7% of the compost weight. In the center of the jar or bag, holes are made in advance (even before heat treatment) through the entire thickness of the nutrient medium using a wooden or iron stick with a diameter of 15-20 mm. Then the mycelium will quickly spread throughout the substrate. After making the mycelium, the jars or bags are covered with paper.
For growing mushrooms, you need to create optimal conditions. The mycelium germinates in the substrate at a temperature of 24-25 ° C and spends 15-20 days on this (the characteristics of the container, the substrate and the variety of honey agaric are of decisive importance for this). At this stage, the fungus does not need light, but it is necessary to ensure that the nutrient medium does not dry out, i.e. humidity in the room should be approximately 90%. Containers with a substrate are covered with burlap or paper, which are periodically moistened (however, it is absolutely impossible to allow them to become abundantly wet).
When the mycelium germinates in the substrate, the coating from the containers is removed and they are moved to a lighted room with a temperature of 10-15 ° C, at which you can get the maximum yield. After 10-15 days from the moment the cans were moved to a lighted room (25-35 days from the moment the mycelium was sown), a bunch of thin legs with small caps begins to appear from the containers – these are the beginnings of the fruiting bodies of the fungus. As a rule, the harvest is removed after another 10 days.
The bunches of mushrooms are carefully cut off at the base of the legs, and the stub remaining in the substrate is removed from the nutrient medium, best of all, with the help of wooden tweezers. Then the surface of the substrate does not interfere with a little moisture from the sprayer. The next crop can be harvested in two weeks. Thus, the moment of introduction of the mycelium before the first harvest will take 40-45 days.
The intensity of the appearance of fungi and their quality depend on the composition of the nutrient medium, the heat treatment technology, the type of container used and other growing conditions. For 2-3 waves of fruiting (60-65 days), 1 g of mushrooms can be obtained from 500 kg of substrate. Under favorable conditions – 1,5 kg of mushrooms from a 3-liter jar. If you are not at all lucky, then 200 g of mushrooms are collected from a three-liter jar.
Watch a video about growing mushrooms at home to better understand the process technology:
