Forest mushrooms continue to resist the agricultural industry's persistent attempts at commercial cultivation. The main reason for this is the so-called mycorrhiza, a symbiotic relationship that chanterelles enter into with other plants for mutual benefit.
How to grow chanterelles in the garden?
Chanterelles can be grown in your own garden by inoculating root suckers of trees such as spruce, pine or fir with fungal mycelium or spores. Successful cultivation depends on ideal conditions such as the location at the edge of the forest and suitable tree species.
The location as the most important criterion for the growth of chanterelles
Forest mushrooms such as the tasty chanterelles cannot be cultivated in the open field or even in buckets and pots. While mushrooms have long been grown on straw bales and in crates, chanterelles on the market today still come from collected forest stocks in the wild. By taking a close look at the conditions for growing chanterelles, you can sometimes imitate them on your own property.
Certain tree species as partners of chanterelles
Chanterelles do not grow out of the mossy ground in every forest. Since they rely on symbiotic interaction based on the mycorrhiza principle, certain tree and plant species must be present as a basic requirement for chanterelle cultivation. Tree species on whose roots chanterelles typically grow include:
- Spruce
- Pine
- Fir tree
- Common Beech
This is how the symbiosis of tree and mushroom works
Chanterelles have no chlorophyll themselves, which is why they cannot carry out photosynthesis to generate energy. The yellow flavor wonders also lack enzymes that are present in mushrooms to break down complex carbohydrates. To do this, the fungi access the root system of trees while improving their water supply.
Creating conditions for chanterelles in your own garden
Ideal conditions for growing chanterelle mushrooms are if your garden borders on the edge of a forest or you have a certain number of trees in your garden. With a little patience you can also plant spruces, pines and firs and after a few years start trying to establish chanterelles.
Chanterelles and their mycelium
Mushroom pickers know that they should never pull up mushrooms by the root in the hope of future finds. The so-called mushroom mycelium is very sensitive and can produce new fungi if left in the soil. Go looking for chanterelles in the nearest forest. If you find what you are looking for, you can carefully remove the lower part of the chanterelles from the ground and try to establish them on your own property.
Spores and food residue
To this day, the cultivation of chanterelles still poses various puzzles to science. However, it is recommended in relevant circles to carry out a so-called inoculation of the soil with spores and mycelial parts, as with other fungal cultures. It may be possible to be successful if you distribute collected chanterelle spores through irrigation water or food leftovers from chanterelles in finely chopped form on the root runners of trees.
Tips & Tricks
If you don't succeed in growing chanterelles in your own garden, you still don't have to go without tasty mushrooms in winter. Specimens collected in summer from a successful walk in the forest can be dried relatively easily and thus preserved.
