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Mushrooms are loved by many; having them on your table requires a trip to the forest. City dwellers, with their frantic pace of life, do not always have time to visit the forest, and the result of a mushroom trip can be extremely unpredictable.
There is an exit. You can grow your own mushrooms in your dacha. And the most surprising thing is that these can be porcini mushrooms - the most desired ones in the kitchen, and not oyster mushrooms or the well-known champignons. Growing porcini mushrooms in the country is a fascinating and interesting process; in addition, it saves money and time.
Methods for growing porcini mushrooms in the country
When growing mushrooms in your summer cottage, you should keep in mind their biological characteristics. Spruce, pine, oak, and birch grow in symbiosis with porcini mushrooms. The older the trees, the better. Trees must be at least 4 years old. The mycelium or mycelium penetrates into the roots of trees and forms mycorrhiza or fungal root.
If the tree lacks any nutrients from the soil, it provides food for the mycelium. The mycelium grows, penetrates into the roots of the tree, and supplies it with dissolved mineral salts. In return, it receives carbohydrates and can form a fruiting body or mushroom.
For a tree to need nutrition, the soils should not be very fertile.Porcini mushrooms most often grow on sandstones, sandstones and loams, which are moderately moist and well drained.
So, how to grow porcini mushrooms in the garden? If there are old trees and suitable soil on the plot, then growing porcini mushrooms will be successful. There are several ways to grow mushrooms in the country.
Sowing with porcini mushroom spores
First of all, prepare the planting material. Old porcini mushrooms will do. Their maturity is determined by color; when broken, the color of the mushroom is greenish. Collect 7-10 large caps of porcini mushrooms with a diameter of 10 cm or more. It doesn't matter whether they are clean or wormy.
The collected caps are soaked in a 10-liter bucket of water. It is better to take rainwater. After a day has passed, the mushroom caps will have absorbed water, softened, and can be easily kneaded with your hands to a jelly-like mass.
You can go a different way. The collected caps of porcini mushrooms for seed material are passed through a meat grinder, and only then they are poured with rainwater for a day to better remove the spores into the water.
Then the mushroom mixture is filtered through several layers of gauze. This is done only for convenience. So that when sowing the holes in the watering can do not become clogged. Don't throw away the mushroom mass; it will come in handy.
In the meantime, prepare the area for sowing. A shady place or light partial shade next to a tree trunk is best. The ideal mushroom bed will be on an area of 1-1.5 m around the tree. This area is cleared of turf without going too deep, about 10-20 cm.
Next, the strained liquid is poured onto the prepared soil, and the resulting mushroom sediment is evenly distributed there. For 1 sq. m of soil use 2 liters of planting material.To evenly distribute porcini mushroom spores, use a watering can. In this way, the roots of the tree become infected with spores, from which mycelium will grow - mycelium.
A solution of spores and a mushroom mass are used, which also contains a huge number of spores. That is, a kind of double guarantee is obtained, which increases the chances of developing mycorrhiza. After sowing, the previously removed turf is placed in place, watering it well. Use at least 5 buckets of water per trunk circle.
You can count on the appearance of mushrooms only next year if spores from the fungal tissue take root. Perhaps the mushrooms will appear only after 2 years, which means that mycorrhiza developed from spores of the mushroom infusion. With optimal developments, in a year you can get a harvest of up to 5 kg of porcini mushrooms.
Caring for the mycelium is simple; you just need to water it if the season is too dry. Mycelium grown artificially will form fruiting bodies over 3-4 years. Since the mycelium has taken root on a small part of the roots, as a rule, on young shoots, and they cannot provide adequate nutrition, so over time the mycelium will degenerate. It will need updating.
The mycelium cannot completely take over the roots of a tree; it is hampered by the microflora that lives and develops under the tree, and it does not give up its positions easily. Therefore, the defeated mycelium is forced to retreat and cannot develop.
In nature, porcini mushrooms and trees form mushroom roots at the stage of the appearance of a young tree as a sprout. Over time, the tree grows, the mycelium grows and develops, and no microorganisms or microflora can interfere with it. The garden plot will have to be sown from time to time, again infecting the trees every 3-4 years.
For successful fungal root formation, the spores must be provided with food. When preparing seed, the following is added to the water:
- Granulated sugar – half a glass/10 liters of water;
- Dry yeast – 1 sachet or fresh yeast – 30 g/10 l of water;
- Alcohol – 4 tbsp. l./10 l of water.
Fertilizing activates the formation of mycorrhiza, which will have a positive effect on the future harvest.
Watch the video in which gardeners share their experience of growing mushrooms on their plot:
Planting porcini mushrooms from the forest
This method involves transferring the finished mycelium to the garden plot from the forest. The mycelium along with the soil is dug up and transferred to a new place of growth very carefully, trying not to expose the mycelium.
The seat should be prepared in advance. Near a related tree, at a distance of 0.5 m from the trunk, the top layer of soil along with vegetation, 30-40 cm deep, is removed. The exposed soil is spilled with an antiseptic and covered with a layer of fallen leaves and wood debris. Options for natural antiseptics and their preparation:
- A decoction of oak bark is prepared in the following way: take 100 g of oak bark and 3 liters of water, put it on the stove, wait until it boils, reduce the gas and simmer over low heat for 1 hour. When the liquid boils away, the volume is brought to the original volume. Cool the finished broth and water the soil around the tree;
- Black tea infusion can be prepared from low-grade, cheap varieties. 100 g of brewing tea is poured into 1 liter of boiling water, left for 20-30 minutes, cooled and poured onto the prepared soil.
Such antiseptics are simply prepared from natural raw materials and will not harm the mycelium.But pathogenic fungi and microflora will become less active and will not harm the mycelium, which adapts to new living conditions. A light pink solution of potassium permanganate can be used for disinfection.
Place a layer of soil on top and water well. Then the soil with mycelium brought from the forest is placed. Once again, everything is well watered, preferably with rain, and the soil is covered with forest debris on top: leaves, pine needles, tree branches. If the weather is dry, water the mushroom bed regularly using 3 buckets of water.
It is best to transfer mycelium from the forest in mid-August - mid-September. The mycelium will have time before frost to adapt and begin to grow. In a month it will get stronger and withstand the upcoming frosts.
Reproduction with ready-made mycelium
You can purchase ready-made porcini mushroom mycelium at garden centers. To plant it, you need to prepare the area. Choose a place near the tree, 0.5-0.6 m away from the trunk. The top layer of soil is removed. The area of the plot will depend on the weight of the mycelium. The manufacturer indicates all data on the packaging.
The turf and part of the soil will be removed to a depth of 0.5 m. The surface of the planting pit is lined with a woody substrate, 20 cm high. Then a layer of soil 10 cm high is laid again. Next, a portion of the soil is taken, so that it is enough for the next 10 cm layer. Mix it with a woody substrate, lay soil mixed with ready-made mycelium on top of it, and lightly clap it with your palms. It is recommended to add any growth activator to the soil with mycelium. The topmost layer is soil, watered well and covered with fallen leaves.
At first, make sure the soil always remains slightly moist. After 2 weeks, water only if there is a drought.The first mushrooms will appear next year; the mycelium will begin to produce maximum fruit after 2 years. And in the next 2-3 years it will be possible to get a harvest from the planted mycelium. The soil should be loosened if possible.
Tips to help the mycelium take root better:
- When growing mushrooms from collected planting material, remember that if the mushrooms were cut under a pine tree, then they should be planted in their own area under the pine tree;
- Do not store planting material for a long time; it is better to soak the mushroom caps immediately;
- Do not use frozen mushrooms for planting;
- Best time for planting: May - September;
- If there are no trees on the site suitable for planting porcini mushrooms, then it is quite possible to plant the mycelium near a wooden frame on the shady side;
- If the area of your plot is quite large, then you can move the mycelium along with the young tree.
Try, experiment and luck will definitely smile on you. By growing porcini mushrooms on your site, you will be confident in their environmental purity.
Conclusion
It is not always possible to go into the forest to pick mushrooms, especially since porcini mushrooms are not so common. However, you can grow them in your own area. It’s worth a try, it’s an interesting activity, suitable for lovers of quiet hunting, and doesn’t require any physical or material investment. If everything is done correctly, then even in the current mushroom season they can grow their own mushrooms, which are less susceptible to insect attacks and have the taste and appearance of forest mushrooms growing in natural conditions.
I live in Uzbekistan. I have 15 acres of land, there are fruit trees and nut trees. They brought me 2 bags of porcini mushroom mycelium. If there are no coniferous trees, does that mean I won’t be able to grow porcini mushrooms on my property?
Good afternoon, Saida!
To successfully grow porcini mushrooms, it is necessary to have trees such as oak, pine, birch or spruce on the site. It’s not for nothing that these mushrooms don’t grow just anywhere. If you don’t have such trees on your site, then growing porcini mushrooms will be very, very difficult. In addition to the presence of these trees, boletus mushrooms need to create a suitable microclimate. In nature, the porcini mushroom season begins when the morning fogs begin and the rains begin. During this period, the temperature in August mornings is only 15-18°C. It is hardly possible to create such conditions in Uzbekistan, since your climate is completely different.
However, you can get out of the situation. You need to study well what soil you can grow mushrooms on and choose a suitable substrate in the store. Now there are many soil mixtures with a wide variety of composition. The assortment of garden stores includes peat, pine bark for mulching, and coniferous substrate. If you prepare high-quality soil and create suitable microclimate conditions, you can grow boletus mushrooms in your conditions.
We wish you high harvests!