Like many other mushrooms, boletus and aspen mushrooms can be grown in summer cottages. For the cultivation of aspen mushrooms, it is best to use the technology of harvesting grain mycelium or prepare a mushroom suspension. Growing boletus in the country can be done by sowing a shady area under the trees with spores of the hats of old mushrooms.
Boletus is a tubular mycorrhizal fungus. It is also called aspen, redhead. It is common in the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere. It grows in mixed aspen forests of Europe, Siberia, the Urals, the Far East. Fruits in the summer from June to September. Grows in moist light areas, on light fertile sandy soil. There are many different types of this mushroom.
The cap of young mushrooms is spherical in shape, its edges are tightly pressed to the stem. Over time, it becomes flatter and more cushion-like and grows up to 20 cm in diameter. Coloration can vary from red and red-brown to white or whitish-brown. The tubules are grey, cream or off-white. The leg expands downward or cylindrical, white, grows up to 20 cm in length and up to 5 cm in diameter. It is covered with fibrous oblong brown or black scales. The pulp is dense, white, strong, sometimes turns blue or red when cut.
You will learn how to grow boletus and boletus in the country by reading the material on this page.
Proper cultivation of boletus in the garden
For growing boletus, it is best to use grain mycelium. On the site, you should choose a shaded, damp place, protected from the wind, it is desirable that aspens or other forest trees grow nearby. The soil must be sandy. At the selected site, they dig a hole with dimensions of 2 X 2 m and a depth of 30 cm. Then its bottom is lined with leaves with a layer 10 cm thick. It is better to take aspen leaves or sawdust. Then the second layer is made from forest land taken from under the aspens. It should also be 10 cm thick. Then a layer of grain mycelium is poured and everything is covered with garden soil.
Mycelium can be sown in two ways – prepare grain mycelium and place it in prepared beds, or make a suspension.
To make a suspension, large overripe mushrooms should be collected in the forest and a tubular layer should be separated from them. Then pass it through a meat grinder and place it in a container with rainwater: for 10 liters of water – 2 kg of mushroom mass. Add 15 g of baker’s yeast, mix and infuse for 2 weeks at room temperature. When foam with small debris and pulp particles appears on the surface, the suspension is ready. It must be poured onto the prepared bed, under the top layer of garden soil. Then water the bed with rainwater and cover with burlap.
Proper cultivation of boletus on a personal plot in a dry summer involves the mandatory moistening of the beds. It must be watered from a watering can or with a sprayer. The first mushrooms appear the next year after planting the mycelium. Aspen mushrooms should be collected carefully, cutting them off, and not twisting them, so as not to damage the mycelium.
In Japan, a species similar to winter honey agaric is cultivated – spindle-legged colibia, a conditionally edible mushroom. Only hats are used for food, as the legs are too rough. It is one of the most popular mushrooms in Japanese cuisine.
Next, you will learn how to grow boletus mushrooms yourself.
How can you grow boletus in the country
Boletus is one of the most common tubular mushrooms. It grows next to birches and forms a symbiosis with their roots. It can be found in the forests of Europe, Siberia, the Urals, the Far East, even in the Arctic. It grows in mixed forests, in the tundra and swamps, on the edges and hillocks, in bright places. Fruits in summer, from June to September.
The mushroom cap grows up to 15 cm in diameter. At first it is convex, then it becomes flatter. It happens gray, grayish-brown, whitish, brown, black. The tubules are whitish at first, then become brownish-gray. The leg grows up to 20 cm long and up to 3 cm in diameter, slightly thickened at the bottom or cylindrical, whitish and covered with gray, brown or black oblong scales. The flesh is white, dense, may turn pink on the cut. Boletus is used in all types of blanks.
Growing boletus is possible only in open ground under trees. All conditions close to natural should be created for the growth of the mycelium. Why choose a ventilated bright place, but protected from direct sunlight. It is better to have a mycelium near birches. But you can also choose a plot in an orchard.
Before growing boletus in the garden, you need to dig a hole 30 cm deep, 2 X 2 m in size. A layer of birch sawdust or leaves 10 cm thick is placed at the bottom of the pit. You can also use a mixture of birch bark and sawdust. The second layer is made from humus taken from the mycelium of the boletus in the forest. Grain mycelium of the fungus is poured on it and covered with a layer of leaves or sawdust. It should be of the same composition as the first, 3 cm thick. The last layer is made from garden soil 5 cm thick. Watered with warm rainwater.
Instead of grain mycelium, you can sow the bed with spores from the caps of old mushrooms. Why hats are poured with rainwater and placed in a wooden container. A day later, the water is filtered and watered with the prepared bed.
If sowing is done with grain mycelium, then the first mushrooms appear in 2,5–3 months and you can harvest every 2–3 weeks until late autumn. In the second method, mushrooms appear only the next year.
Growing mushrooms consists only in watering the beds. It must always be kept moist. But you shouldn’t overdo it. From excessive moisture, the mycelium disappears. Mushrooms should be carefully cut with a knife without damaging the mycelium. After harvesting the next crop, the bed should be well watered with rain or well water.