Mushrooms are delicious and he althy: They contain valuable protein, as well as many vitamins, minerals and trace elements. So it's no wonder that numerous collectors flock to the forests, especially in the late summer and autumn months. If you are not lucky when looking for wild mushrooms or are afraid of poisonous mushrooms, you can also grow some species in your home garden.
How can I grow browncaps in the garden?
To grow brown caps in your own garden, you need fresh straw, grain or substrate mushroom spawn, a soaked bale of straw and a partially shaded location. Fill brood into holes in the straw bale and later cover it with compost.
What are Browncaps?
Porcini mushrooms, chanterelles and morels cannot be grown artificially because they depend on a specific living environment. However, so-called saprophagous species can be easily cultivated on straw or freshly cut wood. They get their nutrients from dead organic material. These mushrooms also include the popular “brown caps”, although strictly speaking there are no mushrooms of this species name. Ready-made cultures and brood of the red-brown giant bluebird (Stropharia rugosoannulata) are offered under the name. However, the chestnut boletus, which is quite similar in taste and appearance, should not be confused with it: This forest mushroom is a common mycorrhizal fungus of spruce, i.e. H. It lives in close symbiosis with the conifer and is therefore not suitable for mushroom cultivation in the garden.
Breeding brown caps – this is how it works
Breeding brown caps or the reddish-brown giant bird is all the easier. All you need is fresh straw or a bale of straw as well as grain spawn (€26.00 on Amazon) or substrate mushroom spawn, which you can purchase in stores. Good mushroom spawn smells fresh and pleasantly like mushrooms, is richly permeated with white fungal mycelium and should be cultured immediately - it does not last long and tends to be colonized by mold.
Material
For successful brown cap culture you need fresh straw, which is best obtained from an organic farmer. Conventional straw is often treated with fungicides - i.e. H. treated with fungi-fighting chemicals – so that it doesn’t get moldy so quickly. Of course, a brown cap mushroom culture will also have difficulty thriving on this. So-called small bales are best, but these are difficult to obtain these days.
Creating a brown cap mushroom culture
Finally, you create your brown cap mushroom culture as follows:
- Wet the straw bale well.
- It is best to immerse it in tap water for 24 hours.
- This allows the straw to soak up water.
- Now poke several holes at least 10 centimeters deep into the bale.
- Use a planting stick or a broom handle.
- Fill one to two tablespoons of the fresh mushroom spawn into each hole.
- Stuff the holes again with straw.
Place the inoculated ball in a warm, partially shaded location in the garden. As soon as it is completely infused with the white mycelium, cover it with about five centimeters of fresh, not yet ripe compost.
Tip
You can harvest a particularly large number of brown caps if you mix the compost with stable manure.
