How to grow mushrooms at home - methods and recommendations

Now it has become fashionable to grow mushrooms at home or in the garden. Honey mushrooms are the most popular option for this.

They are unpretentious, grow quickly, and do not take up much space. Special conditions for the mushroom garden are not required.

Many are attracted by the economy and simplicity of the process by which you can get a good harvest of delicious nutritious mushrooms. But you first need to figure out how to grow mushrooms at home. There are certain rules and special technology, without which the harvest may not work.

Honey mushroom varieties for self-cultivation

Among all edible mushrooms, honey mushrooms are the most popular. They are found almost everywhere. In the middle lane, this is the most common mushroom. It is appreciated for its pleasant flavor and nutritional qualities.

This mushroom is rich in vitamins, potassium, phosphorus, iron and other minerals and is able to prevent cancer. With regular use, honey mushrooms strengthen the immune system, normalize hormonal levels, and improve the functioning of the heart and blood vessels.

Honey mushrooms are the most suitable mushrooms for growing at home. They are unpretentious, grow quickly and are delicious. But in order to avoid problems, you need to figure out which variety to choose. There are several more suitable for self-cultivation.

1. Most often, winter mushrooms or flammulina are chosen. It does not require much space or material investment to germinate. This variety has a smooth brownish cap and creamy flesh. It can bear fruit all winter long.
2. Summer honey agaric is also easy to grow, but it requires special conditions. It grows on stumps or dead trees. Characteristic features are scales on a stem, creamy brown plates and a honey-colored cap.
3. Poplar honey is prized for its unusual nutty flavor, reminiscent of porcini mushrooms. It is not difficult to grow, but after cutting it is hardly stored.
4. White marble honeydew is considered a truffle-like delicacy. It has valuable nutritional qualities and medicinal properties. It is easy to grow, bears fruit in the cool season.

In addition to honey agarics, it is popular grow mushrooms at home oroyster mushrooms.

What conditions are necessary for growing honey agarics

Even if you choose a suitable variety, find a stump and properly populate it with mycelium, you can not wait for the harvest. To grow mushrooms, special conditions are required. They can be planted in a garden bed, balcony or windowsill.

If the mushroom garden is located on the site, the place must be chosen under trees or near buildings so that there is shade. It is very important that the sun does not penetrate there and does not dry out the mycelium. You can plant mushrooms on the street from early spring to late summer.

There are several conditions for their successful cultivation:

• temperature 10-15 °;
• humidity 70-80%;
• compulsory ventilation;
• lack of direct sunlight;
• uniform illumination.

Room selection

You can grow mushrooms at home all year round. You just need to choose the right place where it will be possible to create the conditions they need. It is recommended to allocate a separate room for mushrooms with an area of ​​more than 10 m2, to maintain the required temperature and humidity there. A basement, balcony or greenhouse is suitable for this.

The most important thing is to keep the humidity in this room from 80%. In winter, the temperature should be 10-15 °, and in summer - no more than 25˚.It is important to arrange ventilation so that there is constant ventilation. When the mushrooms grow, carbon dioxide is released and must be removed. Lighting is necessary, but not required. Honey mushrooms can grow without light, but they will turn out white.

Receiving seed

The material from which honey agarics will grow can be bought at a gardening store or found on their own in the forest. Take pieces of a mushroom or stump affected by mycelium. When self-collecting seed, you need to choose mature, non-wormy mushrooms with a cap with a diameter of 10 cm. The plates should be dark. Together with the mushrooms, it is advisable to take some wood with mycelium.

Finding such a section of a stump or log is not difficult. White threads are visible on it and a mushroom aroma is clearly noticeable. The mycelium is easy to find on old stumps, fallen trees.

In stores you can buy mycelium honey agaric. It is sold in grains or sticks. Sticks are more suitable for growing on logs or stumps. In order for the mycelium to sprout, you need to buy it from a trusted manufacturer, in large stores, where it is stored correctly. It is important to check the expiration date, it is also advisable to inspect the mycelium, smell it so that it is not infected with mold.

Growing methods

In addition to choosing a place for planting and seed, you need to decide on a growing method. Honey mushrooms are planted at home or in the garden, in a greenhouse or bags, banks or on stumps. Each method has its own characteristics.

In bags

It is easy to grow these mushrooms in bags filled with substrate. Sawdust of any species, except oak, is suitable. Add oats, barley, sunflower or buckwheat husks, chalk to the sawdust.

Boil the substrate and sterilize. Then dry and fill plastic bags with them. For 2 liters of substrate, 20 g of mycelium is added. You can use bags of any size, mix the mycelium with the substrate. Put damp cotton on top, tie and leave at a temperature of 14-16 °. After 3-4 weeks, bumps form on the surface of the bags. These are the fruiting bodies of mushrooms. Untie the bag and remove the cotton wool.

To let the mushrooms grow up, leave it that way. But you can cut the bag in place of the bumps so that the mushrooms germinate through them. This method is more often used if the bags are large. If there is not enough light, honey mushrooms will stretch, the legs will be thin, and the color will be light.

On logs

Decks are often used to grow mushrooms. Choose a log with bark that is not damaged by rot or bugs. Diameter from 20 cm. Of these, you need to cut chocks with a height of 40-50 cm, soak in water for a couple of days. When the liquid drains, make holes of 4 cm. Fill with sawdust and lay the mycelium or pour in a spore solution.

Logs prepared in this way can be placed in different ways:

• dig it vertically on a site in a shady place or put it in a large barrel, which is placed on the balcony;
• put in a trench 15 cm deep and sprinkle with earth and sawdust;
• if the chocks are not tall, you can simply put them on the floor in the basement.

For the normal growth of these mushrooms, constant humidity and temperatures between 10 and 25˚ are required. If they are bred indoors, it is important to provide adequate ventilation.

On the stumps

The easiest way to grow mushrooms is if there are hemp in the garden after cutting down trees. If they are in a sunny location, it is recommended to make an awning.

It is better to plant mycelium or mycelium in hemp. You need to make holes and lay pieces of 2 cm there, add sawdust, moss. The main condition is constant humidity. The stump will have to be watered daily, and in the heat - several times a day.

In banks

Winter mushrooms or flammulina are grown on the windowsill in three-liter jars. If you follow the step-by-step instructions, it is not difficult.

1. Fill the jar 2/3 with the substrate.
2. Sterilize for an hour by placing in a water bath.
3. Repeat the procedure the next day.
4. After the substrate has cooled down, make a deep hole 2 cm thick in it.
5. Place mycelium or spore solution.
6. Close with a lid with holes, put in a warm place, put wet cotton wool on top to maintain the desired humidity.
7. After a month, move to the north window with a temperature of 14-16 °.
8. When the mushrooms grow to the top, the cover must be removed.

In the greenhouse

Favorable conditions for the growth of honey agaric are easiest to create in a greenhouse. Any method is used: stumps, logs, bags with a substrate. You can pile logs in a corner or bag pieces of wood. The harvest is obtained in 2-2.5 months. With proper organization, such a garden will bear fruit from May to September.

Preparatory stage

Find a suitable substrate before sowing. If you arrange a mushroom garden on the street, wood is most often used. Growing stumps of apple or pear trees will do. They grow well on alder, aspen or poplar. You can also take fresh bark logs.

Diameter should be from 20 to 50 cm, height up to 50 cm. You need to choose the right log. It is undesirable to use rotten or rotten tree stumps. They should be dense, moist, not infected with bark beetles.

The stump should be moistened before planting for 1-2 days. Water it from a hose in small portions or from a bucket. The wood should be completely wet. If possible, it is better to soak the prepared logs in water.

Hemp is dug in in the shade. They should rise above the soil surface by no more than 20 cm. The soil around should be mulched with sawdust and watered well.

If you plant honey mushrooms in jars, bags or a greenhouse, you need to prepare a special substrate. You need to do it like this:

• Pour 2 parts of sawdust and 1 part of wood chips with water for a day;
• throw it back in a colander to make a mushy mass;
• add starch, corn and oat flour in a ratio of 8X25X25 per 1 kg of mixture.

The resulting primer is suitable for cans or bags. The substrate for the greenhouse needs to be done differently:

• Cook 200 g of sawdust in 2 liters of water over low heat for 2 hours;
• cool, add 70 g of oatmeal or barley flour and 1 tsp. quicklime or chalk;
• mix well.

Planting honey agarics

Honey mushrooms are planted at any time. The cultivation method is selected, the seed is collected. Depending on the place and time of planting, fruiting bodies of mushrooms, mycelium or mycelium will be required. They are seated in a prepared substrate or on a log.

Ready mycelium sprouts the fastest. It is planted in a grain substrate. This is not difficult to do.

1. Boil oat or barley grains for half an hour.
2. Cool, dry and put in sterilized jars.
3. Sterilize again in a water bath or autoclave.
4. After cooling, put the mycelium in jars.
5. Leave for a week at a temperature of 20˚.
6. When the grain is covered with white fluff, you can use it for planting.

The main thing is to maintain the required temperature and water regularly. When it is hot, it is recommended to do this every hour until 5 pm. In the evening, watering is not needed so that the wood dries out by night.

How to breed honey mushrooms

These mushrooms are propagated most often in two ways: by spores or mycelium.

Disputes

For reproduction by spores, they are looking for mature good mushrooms in the forest. Take 10-20 hats and follow the step by step guide.

1. Place the caps in water for a day. Take water from a spring or well; tap water will not work.
2. Without removing from the water, knead to a mushy state.
3. Stir the resulting mass well and pass through cheesecloth.
4. This solution should be used to water the prepared logs.
5. To make the spores better linger on the wood, make recesses at the top, where to fill the sawdust, then pour the solution. You can fill the recesses with the mass remaining after filtering.
6. One stump takes 1 liter of spore solution.

You can plant mushrooms in this way from April to August. They germinate in 1-2 years. After such sowing, the mushrooms will bear fruit for at least 5 years.

Mushroom

For breeding honey mushrooms, you can take mycelium. To do this, bring pieces of wood or a rotten stump from the forest. Divide the houses into 2X2 cm segments.Lay in holes 3-4 cm deep, made in the hemp or log from the side. Cover them with moss, and moisten the stump and wrap it with plastic wrap, in which holes are made for ventilation.

The mycelium is planted in the fall, so the package is necessary. It allows you to maintain the required humidity and temperature.

Before the onset of frost, to preserve the mycelium, cover the stump with spruce branches or straw. It is advisable to periodically clean it of snow so that moisture does not penetrate to the mycelium in the spring. It is necessary to open the stumps only in summer - either at the beginning of June or at the end of July.

Care instructions

You can harvest with ordinary garden shears or a knife, cutting off the mushrooms near the cap. The remaining stumps must then be removed. In 2-3 weeks, a new mushroom will grow in the same place. But he needs to create the necessary conditions. Water several times a day. On the street, you need to protect the mycelium from sunlight and high temperatures.

Precautions

Honey mushrooms are saprophytes, parasitic plants. They can spread and infect garden trees. Therefore, it is necessary to dig a trench 10 cm wide and at least 30 cm deep around the mushroom garden.The radius of the surface inside the trench should be at least 2 m.

Tips & Tricks

There are several secrets to a successful harvest, you can use them to avoid mistakes.

• After watering the stump with a spore solution, you can put the ripe mushroom caps on top with the plates down. They need to be removed after a few days.
• When planted with spores or mycelium, the first crop will be obtained only after a couple of years. It will be small, but from the second year it can increase by 4 times.
• If mushrooms are grown outdoors, they need to be protected from the sun. For this, the stump is covered with straw. If the mushroom garden is large, it is better to make an awning.
• When watering, it is recommended to moisten not only the log, but also the ground around it.
• Instead of a can, honey mushrooms are sometimes grown in a pumpkin. It is not cut, but holes are made where the mycelium is placed.

Growing honey mushrooms at home is not difficult. If you properly prepare the planting material and substrate, choose a place and method, you can provide the whole family with delicious nutritious mushrooms.

Video instructions for growing honey agarics on your site: