Is it possible to grow honey mushrooms on a personal plot?

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 agaric 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 the spore-infested wood. 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 that 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, it is necessary 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 to germinate 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 must 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 planting 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 agarics 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.

Honey mushrooms are one of the most popular mushrooms, since they can not only be collected in the forest, but also grown independently in your country house or balcony. Summer and winter varieties of honey agaric are best suited for breeding at home. They are not whimsical and do not require much effort, even for a beginner.

In what conditions do mushrooms grow

It is easy to arrange conditions for the growth of honey agarics both at home and in a summer cottage or garden. The best time for planting planting material outdoors is in April-May or August., and in the house (warm balcony, basement) throughout the year.

Honey mushrooms are considered the most delicious and aromatic mushrooms

The air temperature at different stages of growth should be from +10 to + 25 ° С.

With a uniform and high level of humidity, the mycelium develops rapidly, which has a beneficial effect on the growth of mushrooms. The building must be well ventilated, it can be a window or built-in ventilation. Light for the growth of mushrooms is not needed bright, it can be grown almost in semi-darkness. Only then will the mushroom caps be pale, but this will not affect their taste. At the dacha for planting honey agarics, it is better to choose a shady place so that the wood on which the mycelium is located does not dry out.

Methods for growing honey agarics at their summer cottage

You can grow mushrooms using the following methods:

in the basement on bags;
on logs;
in greenhouses;
in banks;
on the stump.

In the basement on the bags

The room must be disinfected before planting. The basement should be well ventilated all year round. It needs to be heated in winter.

Growing honey agarics in bags

For soil for sowing mycelium, use:

shredded straw;
foliage trees;
woody sawdust;
husk seeds;
ready-made blocks substrate.

All plant components are steamed with hot water for 12 hours for disinfection from pests and mold. After cooling, add honey agaric mycelium (according to the manufacturer's instructions) and mix thoroughly. Then the mixture is laid out in dense polyethylene bags from 5 to 50 kg. Tied bags are stacked on shelves or hung in the basement.

After three days, holes about 5-6 cm long are cut in the bags. After 14-20 days, the mushrooms will sprout and become noticeable.

For normal growth of honey agarics at this stage, good lighting, high humidity and temperatures from +14 to +16 ° C are necessary.

On the logs

They can be used to grow mushrooms both on the street and in the house at temperatures from +10 to + 25 ° С. The larch log should not be rotten, but moist and barked. Length 300-500 mm, diameter 200-500 mm. If it is dry, then it is soaked in water for two or three days. Then they are pulled out and allowed to drain off the water.

Preparation of logs for growing honey agarics

You can grow mushrooms on logs in three ways:

Holes are made in the logs 1 cm in size, 4 cm long and at a distance of 10-12 cm from each other. Mycelium on wood sticks is inserted into them. At the same time, hands must be absolutely clean. After that, the logs are wrapped with plastic wrap, making several holes in it so that air can pass inward. Then they are transferred to a damp, darkened room. At 20 ° C the log will be overgrown with honey agaric mycelium within 3-4 months.
In the infield on the shady side dig a hole 15 cm deep and water it. Then wood is placed in it with a mushroom stick in a horizontal position. The soil around the planting is sprinkled with wood ash to scare away the snails. Watering is carried out regularly so that the earth does not dry out. Cover with leaves for the winter.

Growing honey agarics on logs

You can also prepare a prepared log put in a tub or barrel with soil, and put on the balcony.For normal growth, you need to constantly maintain a temperature from +10 to + 25 ° C and high humidity.

A hygrometer is used to determine the percentage of moisture.

In the greenhouse

Greenhouses and greenhouses are well suited for the temperature and humidity levels for growing mushrooms. Logs, stumps, logs are moistened and placed in a greenhouse. After that, holes are made in the wood and myceliums of honey agarics are laid, or they can be poured with a solution containing fungal spores. The planting is watered regularly to maintain moisture, and also monitor the air temperature. It is also possible to grow mushrooms in greenhouses in jars, bags or on substrate blocks.

In banks

This method of growing mushrooms allows you to do without personal plots. The jar can be placed on the balcony or on the windowsill.

Growing honey agarics in banks

A substrate is made for the growth of the mycelium - a mixture of sawdust (better than larch species) and bran in a ratio of 3: 1. For one day, it is poured with water, then squeezed out and not strongly compacted.

To prevent infection of mycelium with mold, the jar with the substrate is sterilized in hot water for an hour.

After the mixture has cooled, a hollow is made in it with a clean stick to the bottom of the jar and the mushroom mycelium is placed. The container is closed with a lid with holes and covered with wet cotton wool to maintain moisture. The jar is removed to a dark and warm place. As it dries, the cotton wool is moistened.

The mycelium will sprout in a month, and after 15-20 days the first mushrooms will appear. As soon as the mushrooms rise, the container is placed on the windowsill on the north side, or darkened from the sun. When they grow to the lid, it is removed and the neck of the can is wrapped with a wide strip of cardboard. This will help the mushrooms to hold on during growth. To maintain moisture, the mushrooms are sprayed with water. As it grows, the crop is cut off, and the remaining legs are pulled out. In 14-20 days, new mushrooms will grow.

Growing on a tree stump

Planting mycelium on a stump is done in a warm, but not hot season. In the forest, on old stumps or tree trunks, they find mycelium and separate its part along with a piece of wood. For planting, recesses are cut out in the hemp, and pieces of mycelium 1-2 cm in size are laid. Then cover with wet moss or sawdust. The soil around it is watered, preventing it from drying out.

Disputed breeding method

Overripe mushroom caps with a dark brown color underneath are selected. They are placed in a container and filled with clean water for 24 hours. Then, without getting them out of the water, rub them with your hands. The resulting mass is filtered. A solution containing spores is watered on stumps or logs with notches made in them. Thanks to them, the wood is better impregnated. Then they are covered with wet moss or sawdust. Spores germinate for a long time, mushrooms will grow only after 1-2 years. After the mycelium has grown on wood or hemp, it can be propagated. For this, a part of it is carefully separated and transplanted to a new place.

Honey mushroom mycelium

You need to buy mycelium only in specialized stores, since the goods are stored in them in the correct conditions. If, during the cultivation of winter mushrooms in containers, the temperature rises high, then they should be refrigerated for several days. The temperature should be no more than + 8 ° С, but not less than + 4 ° С.

Honey mushrooms are considered the most popular type of mushroom for growing in artificial conditions. Their excellent taste, rapid growth rates and the economy of the whole process make it possible to obtain 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 agarics, 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 where birch or spruce stumps remain, it can be used for growing 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 allowable 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 batches to help the water 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:

Pick up exclusively overripe honey agaric caps with a diameter of 8 to 12 cm. The underside of the caps should be dark brown.
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.
Leave the mushrooms in the water for a day.
Knead the caps with your hands, without removing them from the water, to get a mushy mass.
Stir the resulting solution thoroughly and filter it through several layers of cheesecloth.
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.
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 advice: 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, honey 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:

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.
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.
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.
Cover the end of the stump with a piece of dense polyethylene and press down with a stone so that it does not blow away by the wind. The film will keep the proper moisture level inside the stump.
With the onset of cold weather, cover the infected hemp with spruce branches.
In the spring, when the snow begins to melt, make sure that the melt water falls as little as possible on the ends of the stumps. 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.
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:

Pick out some half-rotten logs and pile them in the corner of the greenhouse. Ordinary bagged cuttings will also work.
Water the wood with honey agaric spores and leave until germination.
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.
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 don't have your own summer cottage, and 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 mushrooms 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:

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.
Soak the sawdust in water for a day, wring it out and place it in 3 liter jars, filling them 1/2 full.
Using a long stick with a diameter of up to 2 cm, make depressions in the substrate to the very bottom.
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.
When the contents of the jars have cooled to about 24C, close them with plastic lids with holes up to 2 mm in diameter.
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.
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).
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.
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%.
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:

We tame mycelium and get a rich harvest

Many people would like to grow mushrooms directly on their plots. Indeed, it is pleasant, even without leaving the gate, to collect a basket or two.

Honey mushrooms are considered one of the easiest to tame, especially since now the time for these mushrooms is coming. In order to grow them, it is enough that somewhere on the outskirts of the site there are old stumps, although instead of stumps, you can take unnecessary logs with a diameter of at least 15 cm (cut them into 30-40 cm chocks and dig them into the ground).

To plant mushrooms, you need:

Prepare a large stump (spill it with water a day before planting).
Find a stump with mushrooms in the forest, break off small pieces of wood with mycelium from it.
Place these pieces in the cracks of the prepared home stump. If there are no cracks, you can drill the holes in a staggered pattern. An average of 10 holes are made in one stump.
Cover the "landing site" with moss, sawdust or shavings, etc.
Water the soil around the stump with water from time to time throughout the year.

The honey agarics can be harvested as early as next fall or in autumn.

Honey mushrooms are parasitic fungi that can destroy a healthy tree in the neighborhood, however, rarely any site owner has encountered this in practice. But if you are worried about your plants, it is best to traditionally pick mushrooms only in the forest.

At FORUMHOUSE, they are discussing the cultivation of not only honey agarics and oyster mushrooms, but also other mushrooms, up to white ones, on their site. We also offer you our article on how to grow mushrooms in a plot and even an apartment. Get acquainted with recipes for harvesting mushrooms for the winter - in different ways and for different tastes.

Date of publication:Growing

Is it possible to grow mushrooms on a personal plot?