How to properly grow mushrooms in a summer cottage

Everyone likes the gifts of the forest, it is a pity that it is possible to taste fresh mushrooms and mushrooms only at the end of summer and autumn. Growing mushrooms in the garden and in the basement will help solve this problem. If the area of ​​the site allows, you can create a forest corner in the country: plant birches, ate, Oak trees... Move the mycelium under the trees and you can pick mushrooms from your front porch. The season is over, but you still want forest delicacies? Grow champignons oyster mushrooms and honey mushrooms in the basement or in the greenhouse, and they will be on the table all year round.

In the country, mushrooms are always at hand

Avid mushroom pickers do not understand what interest it is to grow boletus and white boletus in their own garden. A trip to the forest is a tremendous pleasure: walking in the fresh air, communicating with nature. Mushroom picking can be compared to an exciting game: you have to guess where the most delicious species are hiding. It is impossible to guess in advance whether you will be able to return home with a full basket or you will have to bashfully show your family a few crumpled russula. There is no need to give up hiking in a dense forest or a cheerful birch grove, only now you can go there not out of necessity to provide your family with food, but for your own pleasure.

What other advantages does growing mushrooms in the country give? You can be confident in the quality of the products. Many small firms prefer not to spend money on waste disposal, but to slowly throw it into the nearest forest. Appetizing boletus can grow where a whole tank of toxic chemicals was recently poured or even a decommissioned X-ray emitter was buried. Mushrooms absorb all harmful substances, and a whole basket of dangerous poison can be brought from the forest.

Growing mushrooms in a greenhouse or on a plot has many benefits.

• Nobody but you will harvest the harvest, you can safely wait until the mushrooms reach the desired size.
• You will always have exactly the look you need at hand.
• If the mushrooms are urgently needed, their search will not take much time.
• Can be used for growing in a warm room and harvest in any season.

First experience

It is advisable to start with the simplest and most unpretentious mushrooms, so that the first bad experience does not discourage the desire to do this exciting business. It is better to start with oyster mushrooms, it can be grown both in the summer in a garden plot and in a greenhouse in winter, or find another suitable room. It is better to purchase a mushroom box from reliable suppliers. In the forest, you can take the wrong kind of mycelium or bring home an infected substrate.

In natural conditions, oyster mushrooms grow on rotting wood: fallen trees, branches, stumps. Their favorite species are birch and poplar. Prepare logs 30 cm long and 15 cm wide, keep the chocks in water for 2 days, and then make holes or cuts in them 10 cm deep. Place wet mycelium in the slot. The planting material should not dry out, otherwise it will not take root.

Place the logs on moistened soil. Cover the bottom with earth or moss. Make sure the wood is constantly moist. Growing mushrooms will continue for several years until the chock turns into rotting dust. In this way, you can harvest oyster mushrooms all year round in a greenhouse.

Planting mushrooms in the country

The most convenient time for planting mushrooms is the end of summer. For the mycelium to take root well, at least 1.5 months should pass before frost. There are several ways to plant mushrooms on the site.

To prepare planting material, you can:

• buy mycelium;
• dig up the mycelium in the forest;
• transfer a piece of rotting wood permeated with mycelium to the site;
• sow seeds.

The easiest way is to purchase mycelium. Together with the mycelium, you will receive instructions for planting and care. In this case, there is a guarantee that oyster mushrooms or champignons will be planted, and not toadstools. Do not take planting material from random sellers, so as not to bring various infections to the site or to the basement. Purchase mycelium from firms that specialize in mushroom farming.

The second simple method is to dig out the mycelium in the place where mushrooms of the type you choose grow. It should be noted that each species loves its own tree. They took mycelium in a birch grove, which means that it is necessary to plant it under a birch; dug in a coniferous forest - carry it under the tree. If the mushrooms are covering a rotting tree stump or fallen trunk, you can chop off a piece of the tree and place it in your garden or greenhouse. Please note that when transferring forest mycelium, you can plant toadstools and fly agarics in the country with edible mushrooms or bring in spores of microorganisms dangerous to plants.

Seed propagation of mushrooms

The technology for growing mushrooms from spores has several options. The advantage of this method is that you will know exactly which species will grow on the site. Depending on the conditions, you can use:

• dried hats;
• fresh hats;
• water solution.

For the first method, collect old mushrooms in the forest and dry their caps. Do not put them in an oven or other hot place, the high temperature will kill the spores. Shred the raw materials into a powder and sprinkle them on the prepared moistened substrate in the garden or greenhouse. Cover the top with rotten hay. You do not need to dry, but immediately put the caps of fresh mushrooms broken into pieces in place. Remove the spilled fragments after a few days.

For growing porcini mushrooms, it is better to use the third method. This species is very capricious, it is necessary that the same trees grow on the site as in the forest where you collected the planting material. Conifers and earth strewn with fallen needles are best suited. Pick up old mushrooms, the flesh of which has already acquired a green tint. Use the material no later than 10 hours after collection. You cannot freeze the caps for long-term storage: the seeds will not germinate.

Collect a bucket of river water, add a little potassium permanganate and 2 tbsp. tablespoons of granulated sugar. Place the caps in the solution and knead them with your hands to make a homogeneous gruel. Remove the top layer of soil around the tree and water the area with the infused substrate for about an hour. Cover with removed soil and water the tree trunk well. Pour over the wood from all sides, use about 5 buckets of water.

If the soil is contaminated with pathogenic microorganisms, it can be disinfected before planting. Use one of the following recipes.

1. Pour 100 g in 1 liter of boiling water tea leaves... When the solution is infused and cooled, spill the earth.
2. Take 30 g of oak bark and boil it in 1 liter of water for 1 hour. Top up the evaporated volume from time to time.

Advice

When watering, add EO preparations to the water. They promote the rapid decomposition of plant residues and create a favorable environment for the growth of fungi.

Planting mycelium

Mushrooms grow in a humid environment, among rotting leaves and twigs. On the garden plot, you need to create similar conditions for them. Choose the most shady spot out of the sun. Place a layer of straw or sawdust on the ground and water well. When the substrate is thickened, place the mycelium on top of it and cover with moist rotten hay. If the weather is dry, the planting needs to be moistened. Do not water the area, just spray it with water from a hose through a sprayer.

You can plant mushrooms on rotting logs and stumps. Drill holes in them and place the mycelium inside. Make sure that the wood is always wet, if the weather is dry, spray the stump with water.To grow mushrooms in this way, you need to be well versed in tree species. If you have collected mycelium from aspen, then the log in which you place it must also be aspen. The advantage of this method is that for the winter you can take the chock off the street and put it in the basement or greenhouse and harvest it in any season.

There are very capricious mushrooms, such as boletus, which are difficult to take root in a new place. If you are not afraid to wait for the harvest for several years, find a clearing where the species you have chosen grows. Dig up some young trees with a large clod of soil to grab some of the mycelium. Plant trees in your summer cottage, and in a few years you can harvest.

Growing mushrooms in winter

If you want to harvest all year round, choose a warm room for the mushrooms. On an industrial scale, special equipment for growing mushrooms is used for this purpose, you can adapt the container. Place a box in a heated greenhouse, fill it with compost, and plant mycelium.

To grow any species, the following conditions are required:

• humidity not lower than 85%;
• the temperature is about + 27⁰, while the mycelium takes root, and + 16⁰ for the growth of mushrooms;
• airing;
• lack of direct sunlight;
• soft water for irrigation.

If the area is dry, periodically spray all structures with water. Small raw sawdust and open containers of water help to maintain moisture well. At the same time, do not forget that mushrooms need fresh air; ventilate the greenhouse daily.

The correct choice of substrate is of great importance. To get a rich greenhouse crop, you need to give your plants the right nutrition. Mushrooms are big finicky, each species prefers its own composition.

• Champignons grow well in a mixture of horse manure and grass or straw.
• Oyster mushrooms will love chopped hay, sawdust, buckwheat husks, or a mixture of these ingredients.
• For porcini mushrooms, you need to take the soil with fallen leaves and twigs from under the tree where the mycelium was taken. Add manure and sawdust and let sit for a week.

Output

Growing mushrooms in a summer cottage is a very interesting activity. If space permits, plant several trees, birches, oaks and arrange a mushroom meadow there, which can also serve as a picnic area. It is better to purchase planting material in specialized centers. You can dig up mycelium in the forest, but at the same time there is a danger that poisonous mushrooms will begin to grow in your country house.

If you want to feast on oyster mushrooms, champignons or porcini mushrooms at any time of the year, organize a plantation in a greenhouse or in a basement. The container can be placed in any warm room as long as the plantings are protected from bright light. If you create the right conditions for your plants, your garden will run smoothly. Soups, stews and fresh mushroom stews are not a fairy tale in any season, put a little effort, and you will have this product in abundance both in summer and winter.