Mushrooms are tasty and healthy: they contain valuable protein as well as many vitamins, minerals and trace elements. No wonder, then, that numerous collectors flock to the forests, especially in the late summer and autumn months. If you are unlucky when looking for wild mushrooms or are afraid of toadstools, you can also grow some species in your own garden.
The Stropharia rugosoannulata can be cultivated, but the chestnut boletus cannot
What are Brown Caps?
Porcini mushrooms, chanterelles and morels cannot be cultivated artificially as they are dependent on a specific living environment. However, so-called saprophagous species can be cultivated on straw or freshly felled wood without any problems. They get their nutrients from dead organic matter. These mushrooms also include the popular "brown caps", although strictly speaking there are no mushrooms with this species designation. Ready-made cultures and brood of the red-brown giant sapling (Stropharia rugosoannulata) are offered under this name. However, the chestnut boletus, which is very similar in taste and appearance, should not be confused with this: This forest fungus is a common mycorrhizal fungus of spruce, i. H. it lives in close symbiosis with the conifer and is therefore not suitable for a mushroom culture in the garden.
Breeding brown caps - Here's how
The breeding of brown caps or the red-brown giant rascal is all the easier. All you need is fresh straw or a bale of straw and grain spawn or substrate fungus spawn, which you can purchase commercially. Good mushroom spawn smells fresh and pleasantly of mushrooms, has a strong white mushroom mycelium and should be cultivated immediately - it does not keep for long and tends to be colonized by moulds.
material
For the successful brown cap culture you need fresh straw, which you can best get from an organic farmer. Conventional straw is often treated with fungicides - i. H. treated with fungus-fighting chemicals - so it doesn't mold easily. Of course, a brown cap mushroom culture will also have difficulty thriving on this. So-called small bales are best, but these days they are hard to come by.
Establishing a brown cap mushroom culture
Finally, create your brown cap mushroom culture as follows:
- Moisten the straw bale well.
- It is best to immerse it in tap water for 24 hours.
- This allows the straw to soak up water.
- Now pierce several holes at least 10 centimeters deep in the bale.
- Use a piece of wood or a broomstick to do this.
- Place one to two tablespoons of fresh mushroom spawn in each hole.
- Stuff the holes with straw again.
Place the inoculated root ball in a warm, partially shaded spot in the garden. Once it is fully infused with the white mycelium, cover it with fresh, unripe compost about two inches thick.
tips
You can harvest a particularly large number of brown caps if you mix the compost with stable manure.