It is not necessary to go to the forest for mushrooms - they can be successfully grown at home. In this case, honey mushrooms are attractive - they are tasty and quite unpretentious. You can grow them in different ways, each of which differs in its own characteristics.
Types of honey mushrooms for self-cultivation
Under natural conditions, several species of honey mushrooms grow, but for home cultivation, only two of them are important - summer and winter (flammulin).
The winter variety of these mushrooms is attractive due to their good taste. They are consumed mainly in freshly prepared or dried form, and both hats and legs are suitable for food. Winter mushrooms hats have a rusty-yellow color, and in diameter can reach 9 cm. The pulp has a yellowish color and a pleasant taste.
Hollows and stumps are a natural place for winter mushrooms to grow. They are usually found from October to December, but with thaws, mushrooms can be found even in February.
Winter mushrooms contain toxic substances (weak effect). They are present in the raw product, but are completely destroyed after 20 minutes of cooking.
Summer mushrooms are smaller in size - up to 6 cm in diameter. They have a watery pulp with a mild flavor. This kind of mushroom can be consumed even fresh.
In nature, summer honey agarics prefer rotten wood and grow in colonies. In a mild climate, these mushrooms are found year-round.
One of the rare species is poplar mushrooms. They are attractive with a crispy structure and nutty flavor, but there is a significant drawback - this mushroom is stored for less than a day, and frozen for no longer than a week. Despite the name of the honey agaric, it can be grown not only on poplar, but also on maple logs.
Another rare type of mushroom is marble. Such mushrooms are considered delicious. They crunch a little, have a nutty flavor and a sweet aroma. Raw mushrooms can be stored in the cold for 1.5 weeks.
Marble mushrooms are not soaked in water, as they absorb it and become brittle. This species is valued for its complete lack of fat and high nutrient content.
Necessary conditions for growing
To grow mushrooms yourself, you must provide them with certain conditions. They depend on the chosen method of cultivation.
General recommendations are as follows:
- maintain optimal temperature within 10-15 degrees;
- provide high humidity, which should be at least 70%;
- maintain the lighting necessary for mushrooms;
- provide good ventilation;
- to prevent diseases and pests.
Methods and Technologies
In artificially created conditions, honey mushrooms are grown in various ways. To do this, use stumps, greenhouses and even banks. Each option implies certain features that must be considered to obtain a good harvest and a quality product.
Mushrooms on the stumps
This method attracts many people with minimal costs and maximum proximity to natural conditions. It is better to choose stumps from birches or firs, but an apple tree, pear, aspen or poplar are also suitable. Summer mushrooms prefer hardwood.
Stumps must meet the following requirements:
- sufficient density of wood;
- the absence of rotten and spoiled bark beetles plots;
- sufficient humidity;
- diameter not less than 15 cm.
The stump should be moistened not only outside but also inside to the core. It can be moistened by yourself, abundantly watered for 1-2 days. Water can be poured in a bucket or in batches from a hose.
A sufficient level of humidity is evidenced by a saturated dark color on the cut. If you chop off a small piece, then liquid will ooze out of it.
Growing from a mushroom talker (spore)
Mushrooms can be planted from May to the end of summer. It is necessary to act according to the following algorithm:
- Select overripe hats with a dark brown underside.
- Pour selected hats with natural water. There should not be chlorine in it, because they do not use water supply for these purposes.
- Raw materials should be soaked in water for a day.
- After the set time, the hats must be kneaded with hands directly in the water.
- Pass the resulting mass several times through cheesecloth, folded in several layers.
- Received spore talker watered the prepared stump. This is convenient to do with a syringe.
- On the vertical parts of the stump, grooves are made, which are also filled with a talker. After they need to be covered with forest moss or moist wood sawdust.
For one hemp of medium size, you need to use about a liter of talker.
Mushrooms planted in this way hatch for a long time. You can only enjoy the fruits of your labors in a year and a half.
On one stump, honey mushrooms bear fruit for about 5 years. During this time, it collapses, and mushrooms can move to the ground. If there are trees nearby, then they will attach to large roots.
Mycelium growing
To grow mushrooms on a stump, you can use not only a talker, but also particles of mycelium. This method attracts with the faster appearance of the first crop.
The mushroom picker is better to take from an almost rotten stump. You should choose a site where there are a lot of light cream threads, and the mushroom aroma is strong.
It is necessary to act according to the following algorithm:
- Separate part of the mycelium and divide it into pieces 1-2 cm in size.
- Make recesses in the prepared stump. On the vertical sides, you can make 5-7 recesses, at the ends of 2.
- Place pieces of mycelium in the grooves made, covering with moss or sawdust.
- Close the butt end of the stump with polyethylene, crushing it with a heavy load. This is necessary to maintain humidity.
- For winter, cover the stump with fir spruce branches. In spring, snow must be removed from it so that meltwater does not get inside. Otherwise, the crop will appear later.
- You need to remove the spruce branches in early summer.
When growing honey mushrooms, there is a risk of infection of crops growing nearby: placing the mycelium on a living tree causes its death. To avoid such a nuisance, trenches should be arranged around the stumps with a depth of 0.3 m and a width of 0.1 m.
Until the mycelium germinates, infected stumps or logs can be kept in the basement. At this time they should be covered with straw. The basement walls and floor are recommended to be cleaned daily. This measure is necessary to maintain an optimum level of humidity.
Honey mushrooms in the greenhouse
This method of cultivation is attractive for obtaining large yields by creating the optimal level of humidity. For the cultivation, a controversial talker is used, which is prepared in the same way as for infection of stumps.
Further actions are performed according to the following algorithm:
- Determine the angle in the greenhouse for growing mushrooms and put there half-rotten logs. If they are not, then you can use trim from the logs, placing them in bags.
- Spill the prepared wood with a chatterbox.
- For irrigation use rainwater. It is better to carry out such a procedure from 12 to 17 hours. During this period, it is better to irrigate the logs every hour, but only 5 minutes.
When grown in greenhouses, crops can be harvested in mid-June. Harvesting usually continues until the fall.
Growing honey mushrooms in jars
In the absence of their own land, honey agarics can be grown even in an ordinary apartment. To do this, use banks that are placed on the windows. This method is only suitable for winter mushrooms.
Banks should choose a volume of at least 1 liter. Instead, you can use plastic bags.
For growing honey mushrooms it is better to choose windows on the north side, since they need a shadow, and direct sunlight is destructive.
To grow mushrooms in banks, you need to use a substrate. To do this, mix one part of bran with 3 parts of wood sawdust (preferably from hardwood). Additionally, you can use the ears of corn (chopped), buckwheat husks, husks of sunflower.
To grow mushrooms in banks, mycelium is used, which can be purchased at a specialized store or from a private trader. It is necessary to act according to the following algorithm:
- Pour the prepared substrate with water and leave for a day. Then squeeze it out and place in jars, leaving them half empty.
- Take a stick with a diameter of 15-20 mm and make holes in the substrate to the bottom of the dishes.
- Pasteurize cans. This procedure is necessary to eliminate pathogenic microflora and the prevention of mold. For pasteurization, cans are placed in a large container with hot water and boiled for one hour over low heat. The next day, you need to repeat the manipulation.
- After cooling the cans to 25 degrees, close them with perforated lids (plastic). The diameter of the holes should be no more than 2 mm.
- Insert through the holes in the lid of the mycelium. It is better to do this with a syringe. The volume of mycelium should be approximately 5% of the volume of the substrate.
- Place the jars in a warm place for a month. The ambient temperature should be 23-24 degrees.
- When the mushrooms begin to hatch, cans can be moved to the windowsills. In winter, they can be placed on the balcony, if the temperature on it is not lower than 13 degrees.
- Over time, the grown mushrooms will reach the neck of the cans. In this case, the lids must be removed and a funnel made of cardboard so that the mushrooms growing further do not go beyond it.
- Mushroom caps should be periodically moistened to maintain a moisture level of about 90%.
At the preparatory stage, the substrate can be fed. To do this, mix 25 g of corn and oat flour and 8 g of starch. This volume is designed for 1 kg of substrate.
The first crop is harvested already half a month after the mycelium sprouts. From the moment of infection with mycelium, an average of 45 days passes. Subject to technology, one three-liter jar can provide up to 1.5 kg of mushrooms.
Instead of pasteurizing the cans with the substrate, you can boil the prepared mixture. To do this, fill it with water for 10 minutes to swell. Then the composition is cooked for 45 minutes over low heat, periodically adding water so that the mass does not burn. At the end, the excess water must be drained and the excess liquid evaporated. The substrate should be moist, but not wet. Then they act according to the standard scheme.
The mycelium can be placed not only in the prepared holes, but also mixed with the substrate. This can only be done after the mixture has cooled to 25 degrees. To mix the mycelium with the substrate using a wooden spatula, which must first be sterilized. The resulting mixture is placed in jars.
Holes in the cover must be made without fail. This is necessary for the excretion of gases emitted by fungal spores. Instead of a perforated lid, fluffy cotton can be used.
To receive mushrooms regularly, it is necessary to prepare jars with an interval of 1-1.5 weeks.
See an experiment on growing mushrooms in a jar and its result:
Possible difficulties
One of the most common difficulties when growing mushrooms at home is the rapid spread of spores and their infection of healthy wood. In street conditions, this problem is solved by the organization of the trench. If cultivation is carried out indoors, then a special place should be allocated for mushrooms.
If it is planned to breed honey mushrooms on a large scale, then a separate room (plot, greenhouse) should be allocated for them. With the proper organization of the necessary conditions, growing mushrooms can be a good business.
The difficulty in growing honey agarics is also the need to maintain a certain temperature and humidity. The easiest way to arrange such conditions in greenhouses. In an apartment, the need for technology can cause some difficulties.
Honey mushrooms are appreciated for their taste. The unpretentiousness of these mushrooms allows you to grow them at home. To get a good harvest, you must follow the rules of cultivation.