The porcini mushroom is deservedly and rightfully considered the standard for other mushrooms. He looks attractive - with a fleshy brown hat on a white pot-bellied leg, and he has excellent taste. When frying, porcini mushrooms emit a special, nutty flavor. The mushroom got its name - white - because the incision does not darken during drying and cooking, while maintaining a juicy, appetizing structure. And today we will consider the cultivation of ceps at home and not only.
White mushroom: description
Almost everywhere, porcini mushroom is also called boletus. And also it is called a bear cub, a whale, a capercaillie. No matter how this forest beauty is called in numerous corners of Russia, he always looks distinctive:
- The boletus cap is brown. She changes her bulge with the age of the fungus. From a semi-cylindrical shape in a small mushroom, she gradually makes the transition to an almost flat hat, about 20 cm in diameter, with an adult mushroom hat.
- Leg is always whitish, with characteristic brownish vertical veins. Initially, it has the shape of a barrel, and as it grows, it is drawn into a dense, powerful cylinder.
Now you can visually distinguish the cep (the description you received) from other forest mushrooms.
Varieties of ceps
The white mushroom has many forms, and their varieties depend on the trees under which the mushroom grows and in symbiosis with which it enters:
- The pine form is perhaps the most colorful of the species of ceps. It has a beautiful brown hat and a leg with a slightly purple hue, slightly thickened from the bottom.
- The spruce form is the most common in central Russia. The hat has a brownish-reddish, with spots and a hem on the edge. The leg is barrel-shaped, covered to the middle with a fine mesh.
- Oak form - strong ceps with elastic brown hats with a grayish tint.
- Dark bronze form - the name speaks for itself. Hats are dark, wrinkled; legs are brownish.
Boroviks growing in shaded areas have a lighter hat coloring. And their brothers who grew up in the sun have a rich brown top.
The mushroom does not tolerate very shaded and mossy places. For example, in a dense forest will not grow. And he will choose slightly shaded or sunny places that are comfortable for himself.
We grow mushrooms in the country
If the mushroom picker returns from the forest with a full basket of mushrooms, then he went on mushrooms for good reason. Many people ask whether it is possible to grow mushrooms in the country in order to admire the beautiful landscape, and, of course, it is guaranteed to have a rare product on the table. Yes, growing the mushroom king in the garden is quite possible, although not an easy task. It is necessary to know the subtleties and features of breeding this fastidious forest fortress, but as a result of hard work, the first white mushrooms will grow next to your country house.
So, growing mushrooms in the country. It is not possible to achieve results with ease because the white mushroom belongs to the group of mycorrhiza, which indicates their long and very difficult intergrowth and interweaving with the roots of the trees under which they live. This is a very complex and vital symbiosis for fungi. Without a tree, or rather its roots, the so-called fungus root cannot form and the fruit growing on the surface does not develop. Therefore, to grow white mushrooms on a bare site, alas, will not work.
A long and well-established method of growing - in the territory where trees grow between the ages of ten to thirty years. A white mushroom settles under a pine, spruce, oak, birch, beech. Matching tree species when replanting mycelium is necessary. The more similar the conditions of the cottage plantation of boletus to their forest location, the more likely they are to take root successfully.
White mushrooms at home
If you wish, you can master the cultivation of mushrooms at home, having studied the accumulated experience of scientists from the Netherlands. Using the technologies recommended by them, you can start growing the product in greenhouses and buried cellars.
Breeding a plantation with an intensive method, namely it is taken into service at home, has its own difficulties. One of them is a considerable investment, the purchase of equipment to provide the necessary temperature and humidity in the room. But the advantages of this method of growing are considerable - fertility throughout the season and good ripening rate. For effective breeding indoors, it is recommended to use cultivation from mycelium.
Planting Material Requirements
It is advisable to purchase planting material from suppliers with recommendations, carefully study all the initial data of the mycelium indicated on the label. It is very important to pay attention to the smell and color of the mycelium. With a faint ammonia smell, immediately discard a batch of planting material - it was overheated and is now unviable. The color of a healthy exudate is orange with a slight yellowness.
Having brought home packages with purchased mycelium, you need to cool them, ventilate and only then proceed to preparation before laying. The contents of the packages are crushed without tearing the packaging. Thus, they support a gentle and adaptive temperature regime for future mycelium. When laying, sterility is very important:
- it is necessary to work with gloves;
- rooms for growing porcini mushrooms and bookmarks of the mycelium should be separate;
- opening the bag, it is necessary to treat with a disinfectant solution.
Mushroom growing technology
To complete the topic of the previous paragraph, we start with the method of germinating the crop at home. So, growing mushrooms at home. Here are the main stages of work in the room:
- Boiling in bags for 1-1, 5 hours and subsequent cooling of the substrate. (Holes for draining water).
- Mixing mycelium and substrate on disinfected tables. The presence of domestic material should be at the level of 5%, and imported - 2.5%.
- Bookmark the mixture in bags. Tamp the grafted substrate tightly into bags, flatten one of the sides and make several cuts for germination of the mushrooms.
- Place the bags on shelves vertically. Watering is normal, without much waterlogging. Ventilation of the room is mandatory.
- If the care was right, the fungus crop can be harvested for at least six months.
So there is the cultivation of ceps at home. Yes, it's pretty complicated, but it's worth it.
Garden cultivation methods
Growing porcini mushrooms at home is very different from growing on a personal plot. But first things first.
For the cultivation of ceps on the site, pre-prepare the site for laying the mycelium. Compost or peat ground is laid on a topsoil previously removed by a shovel. Lay the planting material, cover on top with the previously removed layer of turf.
The most effective seed harvesting options are to bring a few pieces of mycelium the size of a chicken egg from the forest. Such blanks are planted in the soil without treatment, it is only important to comply with at least two conditions:
- The trees under which boletuses grow in nature should be of the same species with plants at the new planting site.
- It is necessary to dig out the material very carefully - porcini mushrooms fuse heavily with the roots and restore communication with the satellite tree.
Sowing forest mushrooms
How to grow ceps, if there is no way to purchase high-quality planting material?
A very good effect is obtained by the method of sowing mycelium using a hat and the tubular part of the porcini mushroom. 5-6 mature hats are taken, even with wormholes, and soaked for a day in a bucket of water. Then the contents are kneading with hands. Ground is separated into another container. A dense mass is the body of the fungus, and it will also come in handy. The remaining liquid with a large number of spores spills the bare roots of the tree, then everything is covered with a layer of thick mushroom substance and sprinkled on top with previously removed soil. Carefully water the planted mycelium and perform subsequent watering once a week in the absence of rain.
Now you are familiar with the cultivation of porcini mushrooms at home, and in the garden, where, with proper observance of all technologies, you can get a crop of boletuses from the first time in a year or two. Good luck