Between May and December you will find the parasitic mutabilis, which is considered a tasty edible mushroom, mostly in deciduous but also in coniferous forests. However, the tufted species is easily confused with very similar toadstools, which is why you can also grow the mutabilis in your own garden - without any danger to life or limb.

Mutabilis are ideal for breeding at home

Which is why only experienced mushroom connoisseurs should collect mutabilis

Only experienced mushroom pickers should look for wild mutabilis and always have them checked at a mushroom advice center. Due to their very similar fruiting bodies, the mushrooms can easily be confused with the deadly poisonous poisonous häubling, which differs only in the whitish frosted, scaleless stalk and the serrated cap edge - mutabilis, on the other hand, are hardly serrated. The Poison-Heubling contains the same toxins as the equally deadly poisonous death cap mushroom. It can even happen that mutabilis and poisonous snails appear on one and the same tree trunk.

Safe alternative: grow mutabilis yourself

The Japanese mutabilis, also called gold riding hood or Tuscany mushroom, is an edible relative of the mutabilis native to us. The bright orange mushroom is very popular in Japan and almost as well known there as the shiitake. With us you get the tasty cultivated mushroom in the form of grain spawn or inoculation dowels, which you can use to cultivate yourself.

How to breed the Japanese mutabilis

To breed the Japanese mutabilis you need freshly felled deciduous wood, preferably beech, oak, birch, poplar, but also willow or healthy (i.e. not already infested by other fungi!) fruit trees. If you have such a trunk or stump, inoculate it as follows:

  • Place the wood in a partially shaded place.
  • Apply mulch material around the wood.
  • Now saw the wood with several transverse cuts.
  • These should be at least ten inches deep.
  • Insert the grain spawn or inoculation plugs deep into these cuts.
  • Seal the sections with additional organic material, e.g. B. Bark mulch.
  • Keep the tree stump slightly moist at all times.

It takes about one to two years until the tree is fully colonized and the first mutabilis can be harvested. Patience will be rewarded, however, as you will keep winning fresh mushrooms over the course of several years.

tips

Mutabilis become particularly aromatic when dried. Use the stalks for this, as these cannot be cooked anyway.

Category:

Vegetable garden