Can honey agarics be grown at home?

Honey mushrooms are considered the most popular type of mushroom for growing in artificial conditions. Their excellent taste, fast growth rates and the economy of the whole process allow you to get stable yields even in a limited area (on a plot or in an apartment). In addition, growing honey agaric is a very exciting activity, which even children can take part in. In this article, you will learn how you can organize your mushroom garden and get big harvests of honey agarics every year.

Types of honey agarics for growing at home

There are many varieties of honey agaric, depending on the place of growth and the ripening period. Only two of them are suitable for growing in an artificial environment: summer and winter. The most popular are winter mushrooms, since they do not require large areas and financial costs.

Summer mushrooms can also be grown for home use or on an industrial scale, but in this case you will need a separate and specially adapted room: a cellar, box or hangar. In this room, it is important to create optimal climatic conditions under which the rate of crop growth will accelerate. Mushroom growers breed summer mushrooms on stumps, massive branches or wood waste (pressed or ordinary shavings).

Stump breeding

If you have a small area with birch or spruce stumps left, you can use it to grow honey agarics. But far from any hemp is suitable for this - the wood should be dense, not spoiled by bark beetles and not rotting from old age. The stumps should be moist. You can determine the permissible moisture level by the rich dark color of the cut and the release of liquid from a small chopped off piece. Moreover, it is important that the stump is moistened to the very core, and not just outside.

To moisten the stump yourself, water it abundantly 1-2 days before sowing the mushroom mycelium. Pour cold water in buckets or hose down in small portions to allow the water to soak into the wood.

Sowing from fruit bodies

Seed material, that is, the mushroom mushroom itself, is ordered on the Internet or found independently in the forest. You can take the fruit bodies themselves, as well as small pieces of wood affected by mycelium.

How to plant mushrooms if you are using the fruiting body of the honey mushroom:

1. Pick up exclusively overripe honey agaric caps with a diameter of 8 to 12 cm. The underside of the caps should be dark brown.
2. Take 10-20 caps and place them in a bucket of natural, non-chlorinated water. Tap water or water from quarries or other standing sources is not suitable in this case.
3. Leave the mushrooms in the water overnight.
4. Knead the caps with your hands, without removing them from the water, to get a mushy mass.
5. Stir the resulting solution thoroughly and filter it through several layers of cheesecloth.
6. So you get a talker from the spores, with which you need to water the prepared stumps. To increase the area of ​​infection, make small indentations on the vertical surfaces of the stumps and also pour the infusion there. The notches are best done in a checkerboard pattern so that the mushrooms do not interfere with each other's free growth. In one small stump, it is enough to make up to 10 such grooves.
7. Fill the grooves with wet sawdust or moss collected from the forest. In this way, you will ensure maximum moisture retention. The ends of the stumps should be left open.

On average, one stump should take up to 1 liter of spore talkers. Spores will "hatch" slowly, and the first crop will appear no earlier than 1.5-2 years after sowing. Such mushrooms bear fruit on stumps for 5 years. During this time, the stump is usually completely destroyed, after which the fruiting bodies move to the ground and attach to the large roots of nearby trees.

In a similar way, you can grow any types of honey agarics, but if you are going to cultivate a summer variety, it is best to select hemp of hardwood (birch, aspen, poplar). On conifers, the mycelium develops much more slowly. Mushrooms can be planted from May to August.

Helpful hint: to fill all the grooves with spore infusion as quickly and easily as possible, use a regular enema or syringe. The minimum diameter of a stump or trunk of a dead tree that you will infect must be at least 15 cm.

Sowing from mycelium

Most professional mushroom growers prefer to infect wood with mycelium particles. Unlike sowing with spores, mushrooms grow much faster, and the first crop can be harvested the next year.

You can find mycelium in the forest on practically rotted stumps. If you come across a place where a lot grows again, choose the most pronounced area of ​​mycelium development - it can be determined by the abundance of light creamy threads and a rich mushroom aroma.

How to grow mushrooms from mycelium:

1. Find the mycelium in the forest and separate the piece from the stump. Divide it into several small pieces of about 1x1 cm or 2x2 cm.
2. In a hemp intended for growing mushrooms, make notches on the sides - a couple of pieces at the ends and up to 7 pieces on the vertical sides. Size the indentations according to the pieces of wood brought from the forest.
3. Drown the graftwood pieces into the holes and cover them with sawdust or moss. To easily push the sawdust into the groove, sprinkle it on a sheet, bring it to the stump, and tamp it down with a stick or ruler.
4. Cover the end of the stump with a piece of dense polyethylene and press it down with a stone so that it is not blown away by the wind. The film will keep the proper moisture level inside the stump.
5. With the onset of cold weather, cover the infected hemp with spruce branches.
6. In the spring, when the snow begins to melt, make sure that the melt water falls on the ends of the stumps as little as possible. It can dramatically change the acidity of the environment inside the stumps and harm the developing fungi. If excess water gets inside, fruiting will be delayed for a month or longer. Therefore, with the onset of spring, it is better to immediately shake off the snow from the spruce branches.
7. Spruce branches should be harvested just before fruiting: in early June - for summer mushrooms, and at the end of July - for autumn ones.

Important: Honey mushrooms are known for their pronounced parasitic characteristics, therefore it is important to ensure safety measures when growing them on the site. Otherwise, fungi can infect fruiting crops. Dig a trench 30 cm deep and 10 cm wide at a distance of 2 m around the infected tree stump.

Growing in a greenhouse

Honey mushrooms (photo) grow well not only in the open air, but also in a greenhouse.At the same time, mushroom growers receive consistently large yields, since the optimum moisture level for the growth of mushrooms is always maintained in greenhouses.

How to grow mushrooms in a greenhouse:

1. Pick out some half-rotten logs and pile them in the corner of the greenhouse. Ordinary bagged cuttings will also work.
2. Water the wood with honey agaric spores and leave until germination.
3. Periodically, you can irrigate the logs with rain or river water. The best option is sprinkling for 5 minutes every hour from 12:00 to 17:00.
4. The first crop will appear in mid-June and will not come off until September.

Interesting: Summer mushrooms have a more pronounced taste and aroma than winter ones. They are great for making scented sauces, warm salads and julienne.

Growing in banks

If you do not have your own summer cottage, but you really want honey agaric, you can grow them right on the windowsill in an apartment of a multi-storey building. Place the jar of mycelium on the window and care for it like a common houseplant. However, this growing method is only suitable for winter mushrooms.

Winter mushrooms are the only type of mushroom that can fully grow and develop on the windowsill in the apartment. This is partly due to its small size - the maximum diameter of the cap is 5 cm. Mushrooms grow on long thin legs and can become not only a fragrant ingredient in a dinner, but also an original decoration of the interior.

How to grow mushrooms in a bank:

1. Prepare the substrate by mixing the bran and sawdust in a 1: 3 ratio. It is recommended to take sawdust from deciduous trees. Sawdust can also be mixed with buckwheat husks, sunflower husks or shredded corn cobs. In fact, cobs and seeds can be used as an independent substrate even without sawdust.
2. Soak the sawdust in water for a day, wring it out and place it in 3-liter jars, filling them 1/2 full.
3. Using a long stick with a diameter of up to 2 cm, make depressions in the substrate to the very bottom.
4. Pasteurize the jars as if you were preserving for the winter. This will eliminate all pathogenic microorganisms and prevent mold from developing. Place the jars in a pot of hot water and boil for 60 minutes. over low heat. Repeat the procedure again in the morning.
5. When the contents of the jars have cooled to about 24C, close them with plastic lids with holes up to 2 mm in diameter.
6. Add mycelium through these holes in an amount of about 5-7% of the total mass of the base. For convenience, you can use a medical syringe.
7. For the mycelium to sprout, you need to wait about 30 days. All this time, the banks should be in a warm place, the air temperature in which should not fall below 20C (ideally 23-24C).
8. When the first rudiments have appeared, the banks should be transferred to the windowsill located on the north side - mushrooms "love" the shade, and a large amount of sunlight can harm them. In winter, the banks can be taken out to the balcony, if the temperature there does not drop below 13C.
9. As soon as the mushrooms are stretched to the neck of the can, the lid should be removed and the neck should be wrapped with a wide strip of cardboard, making a kind of "collar". When the mushrooms grow outside the jar, they will grow within the boundaries of this very strip. Spray the mushroom caps periodically, trying to maintain the optimum humidity at 85-90%.
10. The harvest of winter mushrooms from cans can be collected as early as 2 weeks after the sprouting of the mycelium. You can cut them like ordinary garden flowers, and simply pull out the remaining legs. After a couple of weeks, a new batch of mushrooms will grow.

You will spend no more than 45 days on growing honey mushrooms at home, starting from the infection of the substrate with mycelium until the moment of harvesting the long-awaited harvest. In one can of 3 liters, you can grow up to 1.5 kg of honey agarics.

You can buy winter mushroom mycelium in specialized plant growing stores or order online.Finally, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with a useful video about mushrooms and growing mushrooms in an artificially created environment:

Summer and winter mushrooms can be easily grown on their own. Planting mycelium (mycelium) is bought both in specialized stores and on the Internet.

Usually, for breeding at home, a winter type of edible mushroom is chosen, the so-called flammulina. The most common are three simple growing methods, technologically different from each other: on stumps or logs, in banks, in the basement.

Stump breeding technology

Growing honey agarics on stumps

In this case, a remarkable positive difference is that it does not require large financial investments and affordable ease of execution for anyone.

Planting honey agaric on stumps (logs) in the open field in the garden or in the country is most favorable in the warm season from April to September inclusive, indoors, if logs are used, - mushroom mycelium can be planted year-round.

For planting honey agarics in the country, you should choose a shaded place. Otherwise, they will need to be covered with straw or hay. Only deciduous tree stumps are used: aspen, birch, poplar, hornbeam, beech, apple, acacia, pear.

It is important that the tree is felled at least one month before the start of work. Also, there should be no signs of rotting, they should be sufficiently moist, with bark, but without branches. If the stumps are dry, then they must be thoroughly soaked in water for 2-3 days.

For several days, allow excess water to drain and ventilate in partial shade. Then, in a checkerboard pattern, using a drill, holes are made over the entire surface of the stump with a depth of 5-6 cm and a diameter of 0.8-1 cm. Small pieces of mushroom mycelium will be planted in these recesses.

They cover themselves with moss or branches. Periodically, in order to avoid drying out the stump, the ground around it needs to be watered. With this method, the mycelium grows slowly, therefore, to stimulate growth, it is recommended to cover them with a greenhouse film, which is nailed down with small nails for fixation.

Good to know: mushrooms love to grow only on dead wood; for garden trees, growing honey agaric in the country is absolutely harmless.

The result is expected the next year at the beginning of summer, and then you can collect honey mushrooms regularly for 5-7 years until the stump or log is completely destroyed. At first, the mushroom harvest will be small, but gradually it increases by 2-4 times.

Growing technology in glass jars

Growing honey agarics in banks

The method is perfect even for city apartments. For the base you will need: 1 part of bran and 3 parts of sawdust of exclusively deciduous trees. But other combinations are possible one by one:

• sawdust;
• buckwheat husk;
• sunflower husk;
• chopped ears of corn.

Husks and cobs are allowed to be used as an independent base. Boil everything together in water. When the sawdust is a little drained and cooled, add nutritious mass to enhance the growth of mushrooms in the jar. For 1 kg of sawdust, you need to take:

• 8 gr. starch;
• 25 gr. oat flour;
• 25 gr. corn flour.

Then the jars are tightly filled with the resulting mass by 2/3 of the volume, sterilized in a large saucepan over low heat for at least 2 hours. After cooling to 25 ° C, depressions of 5-7 cm are made with a sterile stick and mycelium is added. After the cans are placed in a dark place with a constant temperature of 24 ° C and 85% humidity.

To avoid drying out, the contents are covered with a lid with a hole, which is covered with cotton wool. When the mycelium sprouts, the jars are moved to a cooler place or the temperature in the room is lowered to 14-16 ° C. On the neck of the jar, paper is attached in the form of a cuff and wait for the appearance of the crop.

Take a note: planting material must be of high quality and sterile. It is produced under special conditions and packed in breathable bags with a biofilter.

When the mushrooms sprout 5-7 cm from the jar, the cuffs are removed and the mushrooms are cut off. The yield is 25-30 percent of the initial volume of the wet substrate.

The containers are closed again and left on the glazed balcony. In 20-30 days, you can expect new honey agarics.

Cellar growing technology

Growing honey agarics in the basement

For the third method of growing mushrooms at home, use a basement. The room must be prepared in advance. Whitewash or treat with 4% formalin solution to prevent insects and mold.

Provide forced ventilation with a power of about 25 kW or make ventilation outlets to the surface.

If honey agarics will be grown in the basement all year round, then it is necessary to provide a heater to maintain an optimal temperature of 24-26 ° C. For the substrate mixture, you can choose:

• chopped straw;
• sawdust;
• foliage of trees;
• husk from seeds.

Steam the substrate with boiling water for 6-12 hours and after cooling, mix with 300 g of fine mycelium. Arrange in dense plastic bags of 5-15 kg, tie them and lower them into the basement. After 3 days, you need to make several holes of 4-6 cm in the bags or completely remove the bag from the substrate.

On the 12-16th day, the sprouted fruiting bodies of the mushrooms will be visible. Now they need to provide sufficient access to light and reduce the temperature to 14-16 ° C. On such a home mini-farm, subject to the technology, in 1.5-2 months it is possible to collect up to 20 kg of mushrooms from one square meter.

Note: the room where mushrooms are grown must be well ventilated and at the same time a constant temperature and humidity must be maintained.

How to grow honey agarics at home, see the following video:

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Many mushroom lovers try to grow mushrooms at home. Not everyone succeeds. So, how to grow honey mushrooms in the country? It is recommended to start planting by choosing a site and preparing it. Such mushrooms grow best on dead wood. However, if desired, you can use a special substrate.

Why honey mushrooms

Honey mushrooms are quite tasty mushrooms that can be grown not only in the summer cottage, but also on the balcony. The main thing is to follow the germination and planting technology. These mushrooms have a delicate and aromatic pulp. Honey mushrooms are often used for making soups, stews and various sauces. After all, the product retains its unique aroma even after heat treatment.

In addition, growing honey agaric is an occupation that can bring a good income. In Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Germany, they are quite often engaged in such a business. However, in these countries, a special paste is used as planting material. It is not yet possible to purchase such a substance in our stores.

Where to germinate in the garden

Since it is not so easy to grow mushrooms in the country, it is worth preparing a place in advance. For germination, stumps from old fruit trees or damp chocks that were lying under a stack of firewood and in contact with the ground are ideal.

If there is nothing suitable on the site, then rotten, rotten boards will do. Also, some summer residents practice growing mushrooms on sawdust.

The choice of material for planting

Growing honey agarics on stumps is a simple process, but a long one. The main thing is to choose the right type of wood. Best of all, summer mushrooms germinate on birch stumps. This material retains a large amount of moisture even after felling. At the same time, the dense bark protects the wood from drying out.

If mushrooms are planted in the garden, then it is worth using stumps of old pears and apple trees for these purposes. Honey mushrooms also grow well on alder, aspen and poplar chocks. It is worth considering that mushrooms are capable of destroying any stump in 6 years.

Do not use pine and spruce for growing this type of mushroom.

Preparation and landing

How to grow mushrooms in the country? First, you need to infect the old tree stump with the spores of the fungus.It is not difficult. This will require the caps of already adult mushrooms. They must be laid out with the plates down on a blank sheet of paper. Spores should spill out of the caps. They look like dark dust. It is recommended to pour spores into a bottle of water and shake well.

It is also worth preparing the stump itself in advance. It is worth sawing off round timber from it, the thickness of which should be from 3 to 5 centimeters. After that, the upper part of the stump must be cut crosswise. This can be done with an ax. The more cracks are formed, the better.

Now it remains to infect the stump with spores. This is done quite simply. It is necessary to water the prepared wood with water, which contains honey agaric spores. After that, it is worth nailing the round timber from above, which was sawn off from the stump.

If the weather is dry, it is advisable to regularly water wood that is contaminated with spores. Otherwise, honey mushrooms will not sprout.

Germination in bags

Since not everyone is able to grow mushrooms in the country in the first way, it is worth thinking about their germination in a greenhouse. To do this, half-rotted pieces of wood should be placed in the corner of the structure. They also need to be watered with water, which contains honey agaric spores. After some time, the wood should be transferred to bags and placed in a dark place in a woodpile. In the spring, the ends, as well as those places where the bark has been damaged, should be covered with mycelium. The material is ready for planting.

How to grow honey mushrooms in the country from mycelium

The wood on which the mycelium appeared must be placed in the place where the honey agarics are planned to be planted. It should be well protected from wind and direct sunlight. In this way, winter and summer honey agaric is germinated. The mycelium of the fungus must penetrate the soil. From there, it will receive additional moisture. Therefore, it is recommended to dig the chocks with mycelium into the soil by 2/3 of the height. The distance between pieces of wood should be between 10 and 15 centimeters.

In order for a winter or summer honey fungus to germinate, it is necessary to regularly water the chocks. This is especially true in dry and hot weather. It is recommended to water the workpieces for 5 minutes once an hour. At the same time, it is necessary to moisten the wood from 12 to 17 o'clock in the afternoon. By nightfall, the chocks should dry out well.

Method three

To grow mushrooms on the site, you need to collect mature mushroom caps. It is recommended to place them in a container and fill with water. The hats should stand for a few days. After that, the water from the container should be drained and filtered. The resulting infusion must be impregnated with pre-prepared pieces of wood or stumps. In addition, ripe mushroom caps can be laid out on the surface of the material. They can be removed after two days.

It is worth noting that this method is not suitable for everyone, since the germination process is very slow. The first harvest of honey agarics planted by a similar method can be obtained only by the end of the next season.

Germination of mycelium

There is also a less laborious way of germinating honey agaric. This will require not only rotten stumps or chocks, but also mycelium. At the same time, the growth of summer honey agaric proceeds more intensively. You can find mycelium in the forest. This should be done in early June. Only the area where the active growth of the mycelium is marked should be taken. As a rule, in such places you can see a large number of threads that have a cream or white tint. In addition, there should be a strong mushroom smell. Collect mycelium together with pieces of wood.

Such blanks must be placed in the notches on logs or stumps. So that the mycelium does not die, it is recommended to cover the landing site with shingles, moss or bark. For better germination, the stump or log should be covered with foil. This method allows you to get the first harvest of mushrooms by the beginning of the next season. It is best to infect wood with summer honeydew in the fall or early summer.

Growing features

The technology for growing honey agaric in the country is quite simple.However, there are some peculiarities. Such mushrooms should be covered with breathable material. If you wish, you can knock down a loose box of boards, agril, slab. Burlap or paper is also suitable for these purposes.

If the stumps remain from a freshly cut tree, then they do not need to be further processed. You can immediately start infecting them with honey agaric spores. If the upper part of the stump is dry, then it must be soaked. To do this, the wood is regularly watered for several days. Spores are planted only after the material has collected enough moisture.

The first mushrooms, if properly planted, should appear in June. They are harvested, as a rule, before September. However, it should be noted that there will be few mushrooms in the first year. The honey agaric yield largely depends on the degree of growth of the mycelium, the quality of the wood and weather conditions. In the second year, the number of mushrooms can increase by 4 times.

If mushrooms are planted in the garden, then it is worth choosing a darkened place where the sun's rays do not penetrate. If the stump is not in the shade, then it is recommended to cover it. For this, you can use hay or straw.

To grow mushrooms at home, you need to know the technology of the process and the features of caring for them.

Honey mushrooms are a valuable and nutritious food product. It turns out that honey mushrooms can be grown on their own, at home. There are a lot of options: on stumps or logs, in cans or bags, in open areas or in a greenhouse. How to grow mushrooms correctly? Which technology should you choose? What conditions are important to observe when growing mushrooms at home?

The technologies below and clear instructions will help even beginners grow these delicious mushrooms. Honey mushrooms grown artificially are in no way inferior to forest "inhabitants", and the harvests will be abundant and stable, even in the absence of large areas. The process of cultivating mushrooms will be truly fun and, importantly, economical. So, in the article - the most popular options for organizing a real "mushroom garden" at home.

Growing mushrooms at home for beginners

The name of the mushroom "Openok" testifies to its habitat (stumps, logs, large branches). These fungi are often considered parasitic fungi, infecting wood and gradually destroying it. In nature, woody mushrooms, honey agarics, grow in large clusters on stumps, old or damaged trees. Fruiting begins in autumn and lasts until frost.

Honey mushrooms are edible mushrooms with high nutritional qualities. In addition, the presence of biologically active substances, amino acids and vitamins make these mushrooms an important object of research in medicine and pharmacology.

Growing honey agarics at home for beginners does not require special training or special knowledge. It is enough to adhere to the process technology and follow the methodological recommendations of practitioners.

Types of honey agarics for growing at home

Honey mushrooms differ from each other in terms of ripening and place of growth. Two types of mushrooms are suitable for growing mushrooms at home: winter and summer.

The winter species of honey agaric (flammulina) is especially popular, which does not require large financial investments and vast areas when growing. Winter honey agarics have small caps (from 2 to 5 cm) and thin legs. Such morphological features make it possible to grow winter mushrooms in ordinary glass jars and get a year-round harvest. As for the taste, many mushroom lovers still note a brighter and richer taste in summer mushrooms, compared to winter mushrooms.

Honey mushrooms grown in summer need a separate room adapted for this. Most often, they use a cellar or some kind of free hangar, where the necessary climatic conditions are observed. Successful cultivation of summer mushrooms is also possible on logs, stumps or wood shavings (sawdust).

Consider the main technologies for growing honey agarics.

Growing honey agarics on stumps

This method of growing mushrooms at home is suitable even for beginners: it is not difficult, profitable and practically does not require financial costs. So, if there are stumps, logs or logs on your site, you can safely use them to grow mushrooms. Below are the most important conditions for successfully growing mushrooms in this way.

• The wood should be dense, not rotten. Leftovers of birch, aspen or poplar are perfect. Fungi grow more slowly on coniferous wood. The diameter of a log, log or stump must be at least 15 cm and a length of about half a meter.

• A prerequisite for successful mushroom cultivation is moist wood. Visually, it looks darker than dry logs and emits drops of liquid when it breaks off. To moisten the wood, it is necessary to water the stumps or logs a couple of days before sowing constantly and abundantly with water. Watering can be done from a bucket or hose. The main thing is to soak the wood well, to the very core. Some gardeners place wood or tree stump completely in water for several days.
• Then the wood is brought into a room (for example, a basement) with a temperature of at least 15 ° C to ensure the rapid and abundant growth of mycelium. When the logs intensively begin to overgrow with the mycelium of the fungus, they can be taken out to the site, slightly digging in the ground. This positive temperature regime stimulates the growth and development of fungi.
• The harvest of mushrooms is obtained in 1-2 years (depending on the method of planting) and is used for 5-7 years, until the wood is completely destroyed.
• Mushroom mushrooms for planting are bought in online stores, specialized outlets, on mushroom farms or found in the forest. Both whole fruiting bodies of mushrooms and pieces of wood containing the mycelium of a sprouted mushroom are suitable. It is best to refrigerate mycelium prior to planting.

Growing honey agarics: using the fruiting body of the mushroom

• Mushroom spores are planted from May to August.
• First you need to choose suitable mushroom caps: they must be overripe, 10-12 cm in diameter. If you turn a well-ripe cap, it will have a rich, dark brown color.
• Selected caps must be filled with cold water for a day. Water is taken clean, not stagnant, in order to avoid infection with pathogenic microorganisms.
• Mash the caps that have absorbed moisture with your hands (in a bucket, without pulling them out of the water) until they are mushy.
• Stir well the resulting chatterbox and strain it through a cloth or several layers of gauze.
• Pour the prepared wood with the obtained concentrated solution containing mushroom spores.
• To better saturate the wood with fungal spores, make notches-notches on a log or stump. It is better to do them in a checkerboard pattern so that mushrooms do not interfere with each other during germination. So that a moist environment is well preserved in the recesses, they are sealed with moistened sawdust or moss. To accurately hit the spores of fungi in the grooves, use an enema or syringe. Mushrooms are not planted from the end of a log or stump.
• One stump will require about 1 liter of "spore solution".
• Spores germinate slowly, the first mushrooms will appear no earlier than 1.5-2 years, and fruiting will last about 5 years. During this period, the log or stump is almost completely destroyed and the mushrooms must be transplanted to a new place.

Growing honey agarics: using mycelium mushroom

• Planting mushrooms on wood is also possible with the help of mycelium particles. The optimal time for planting is the end of April or the beginning of May, when the humidity level is still high outside and the air temperature is above zero.
• In this case, mushrooms appear much earlier: after a year you can harvest.
• The mushroom mushroom can be found in the forest, on old stumps or tree trunks, in places of mass mushroom growth. A suitable area of ​​the mycelium has the appearance of light intertwined threads, with a characteristic bright mushroom aroma.

• Having separated part of the mycelium (take a piece of wood affected by the fungus), it must be divided into several pieces (1-2 cm).
• In the prepared stump, it is necessary to make recesses and put the pieces of mycelium there.
• The mycelium is placed in the recesses and covered with sawdust (moss).
• For the germination of mycelium, it is important to maintain a moist wood microclimate. To do this, some gardeners cover the end of the stump with a film or constantly moisten the soil around the stump.
• At the onset of frost, the stump is covered with spruce branches. In the spring, it is recommended to shake off snow from stumps so that melt water does not penetrate into the wood and does not change the acidity of its environment, which will slow down the development of fungi. It is better to remove branches before the very beginning of fruiting, at the beginning of summer.
• To prevent mushrooms from infecting healthy fruit-bearing trees growing nearby (when the culture is infected, the wood begins to collapse and the tree dies), a shallow (20-30 cm) trench is dug around the stump with mushrooms.

Breeding honey agarics on stumps and other similar wood is ideal for growing mushrooms in the country or in a personal plot. Moreover, there are rather high yields with insignificant labor costs.

Growing honey agarics at home

At home, honey mushrooms can be grown in a greenhouse (if available) or directly in banks. Let's consider the basics of these technological processes.

 

Growing honey agarics in a greenhouse

Honey mushrooms can be grown not only in open areas, but also in a greenhouse. This method allows you to get constantly stable and high yields of mushrooms. The greenhouse provides the optimum required temperature and humidity level.

• Prepared (moistened) logs, stumps or logs are placed in the greenhouse.
• The wood is "infected" with mushrooms: it is watered with a prepared solution (with a spore-maker) or embedded in the recesses of a part of the mycelium.
• Before the mushrooms germinate, the wood in the greenhouse is regularly moistened.
• It is also possible to grow mushrooms in a greenhouse on special blocks, in cans or homemade bags.

 

Growing honey agaric on substrate blocks, in packages

• For professional and mass cultivation of mushrooms, special substrate blocks are used.
• You can buy them in the store or make your own from sawdust, oats (barley) and chalk. For 2 liters of substrate, take 200 g of sawdust, 70 g of oats and 1 tsp. chalk. The sawdust is boiled in water (40-50 minutes), the excess water is drained, and the substrate is dried over low heat for about 15-20 minutes. Then the sawdust is thoroughly mixed with the rest of the ingredients and tightly packed into a bag.
• On such a wood basis, the mycelium of mushrooms is grown. This recipe for the substrate is also suitable for the "can" cultivation of honey agarics.

How to properly grow mushroom mycelium in bags?

• Packages with mycelium seeded on the substrate are tied and left in a room with a temperature of about 15-20 ° C. The mycelium is poured onto a wet substrate with clean hands, indoors without dust and dirt. The substrate, in fact, is a breeding ground for the growth and development of fungi.
• One bag contains about 20 g of mycelium. After a month, the sawdust in the bag thickens and brightens noticeably, and tubercles appear on top - future mushrooms.
• During this period, the bags are untied and the temperature is lowered to 5-10 ° C. For successful fruiting, you need to constantly moisten the bags by spraying them with water.

Growing honey agarics in banks

The advantage of this method of growing honey agaric is the uselessness of large areas or areas. Mushrooms grow in a jar, right on the windowsill of a house or apartment. Thus, only winter honey fungus (flammulina) is grown.

• First, a woody substrate is prepared from bran and sawdust (1: 3). Sawdust is best prepared from deciduous trees. They can be replaced with seed husks or crushed corn cobs.
• The prepared substrate is poured with water for a day. Then it is squeezed out and laid out in 3-liter jars, filling them halfway. The substrate is slightly compacted.
• Next, the jars with the contents are sterilized in a saucepan with hot water over low heat, for about 1 hour. This will destroy all pathogenic microbes and mold. The next day, the sterilization procedure is repeated.
• When the jars with the wood mixture have cooled down (up to 20-25 ° C), a long sterile stick (1-2 cm in diameter) makes indentations to the bottom of the jar - holes for the mycelium of the fungus.
• The mycelium is placed in the grooves, at the rate of about 5-10% of the total mass of the base. For convenience, you can use a medical syringe.
• The jar is closed with a lid with holes and placed in a warm, dark place, with a temperature of at least 20 ° C. The optimum temperature is 23-24 ° C and 85-90% humidity. To maintain constant humidity, wet cotton wool is placed on the lid.
• The mycelium takes about one month to germinate. And after 2-2.5 weeks, the first mushrooms will appear.
• When the first "sprouts" appear, the banks are placed on the windows of the north side, the temperature is lowered to 14-15 ° C. Mushrooms are not very fond of bright sunlight.
• When the mushrooms sprout to the level of the neck of the jar, the lids are removed, and the neck is wrapped with a strip of cardboard. This “collar” helps to keep the mushrooms in place as they grow.
• From time to time, you need to spray the mushrooms with water, maintaining a constantly high humidity.
• Mushrooms are cut as usual - along the stem, the remnants of which are simply pulled out. After 2-2.5 weeks, new mushrooms appear.
• In one 3-liter jar, you can grow up to 1-1.5 kg of honey agarics.
• Some mushroom pickers grow winter mushrooms even in pumpkin, using it as a nutritious basis. A small hole is made in the pumpkin, where a piece of mycelium is placed. The pumpkin is placed in a warm place, and the hole is closed with a plastic bag. After 20-25 days, the pumpkin is placed in a cooler place and soon the first mushrooms appear on the pumpkin.

Flammulina has a number of valuable qualities: it is used by humans as a food and medicine. Many traditional healers believe that winter honey fungus helps in the fight against cancer.

Room for growing honey agarics

• For the cultivation of this type of mushroom, it is not at all necessary to have large premises. On average, you will need about 15-20 square meters.
• For these purposes, you can use a greenhouse, basement, open backyards, or a regular window sill.
• The main conditions for a properly selected room are the required temperature and humidity. The temperature regime of the air should vary from 20-25 ° С to 10-15 ° С. A consistently high level of moisture will ensure the rapid development of mycelium and high yields.
• The room should be periodically ventilated or ventilated so that excess carbon dioxide does not accumulate.
• Lighting for the development of fungi is not so important. The light should not be bright, uniform.
• When growing mushrooms in open areas, it is better to place logs or stumps in shady places so that the wood does not dry out and the mushrooms do not fall into direct sunlight.

 

conclusions

• Before you start growing mushrooms at home, you should decide on the technology. It depends on living conditions, available funds and the type of cultivated honey agaric. Most often, honey mushrooms are bred on wood (stumps) or in banks.

• Having chosen the cultivation technology, you need to purchase the mycelium of the fungus. They buy it or find it in the forest. Also applicable for planting spores of mature mature mushrooms.

• Observing the conditions for planting and caring for mushrooms, it will soon be possible to harvest honey agarics.

Growing honey agarics, video