What are brown caps?
Porcini mushrooms, chanterelles and morels cannot be cultivated artificially because they depend on a certain living environment. So-called saprophage species, however, can be cultivated on straw or freshly felled wood without any problems. They get their nutrients from dead organic material. These mushrooms also include the popular “brown caps”, although, strictly speaking, there are no mushrooms with this species name. Ready-made crops and brood of the reddish-brown giant dumplings (Stropharia rugosoannulata) are offered under this name. The chestnut boletus, which is quite similar in taste and appearance, should not be confused with this: This forest mushroom is a common mycorrhizal fungus of the spruce, ie it lives in close symbiosis with the conifer and is therefore not suitable for a fungal culture in the garden.
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Growing brown caps - that's how it works
The breeding of brown caps or the reddish brown Giant Trümmlings is all the easier. All you need is fresh straw or a bale of straw as well as grain spawn or substrate mushroom spawn, which you can purchase in stores. Good mushroom spawn smells fresh and pleasantly of mushrooms, is strongly infused with a white mushroom mycelium and should be brought into culture immediately - it does not last long and tends to be colonized by mold.
material
For the successful brown cap culture you need fresh straw, which is best obtained from an ecologically active farmer. Conventional straw is often treated with fungicides - that is, with chemical substances that fight fungi - so that it does not go moldy quickly. Of course, a brown-cap mushroom culture will also find it difficult to thrive on this. So-called small balls are best, but these days they are difficult to find.
Creation of a brown cap mushroom culture
You create your brown cap mushroom culture as follows:
- Moisten the bale of straw well.
- It is best to immerse it in tap water for 24 hours.
- So the straw can soak up water.
- Now pierce several holes at least 10 centimeters deep in the ball.
- Use a piece of wood or a broomstick for this.
- Put one to two tablespoons of the fresh mushroom spawn in each hole.
- Stuff the holes with straw again.
Place the inoculated bale in a warm and partially shaded spot in the garden. As soon as it is completely permeated with the white mycelium, cover it about two inches thick with fresh, not yet ripe compost.
Tips
You can harvest a particularly large number of brown caps if you mix the compost with manure.
