emmabrewda.com

Very few people think about how mushrooms grow - people just go to the nearest thicket or grove, on the so-called "quiet hunt", and if the season is good, their basket is filled to the brim with these amazingly tasty gifts of the forest. But if your plans include growing mushrooms on your site, then you will not be able to do without certain knowledge. And first you need to imagine what ecological groups mushrooms are divided into, and what is their difference.

How mushrooms grow (with photo and video)

Mycelium and mycelium - these are synonyms denoting the vegetative part of the fungus, which is in the ground, in the forest floor or in another substrate. The mycelium is a network of long filaments called hyphae. The mushroom mycelium looks like a pale bluish spider web. The mycelium of the oyster mushroom resembles white silk made of fine threads, and the shiitake mycelium resembles white fluff or thin silk fabric. In ringworm and other litter fungi, the mycelium hyphae are thicker, they look like harsh filaments.

In the practice of growing mushrooms, mycelium is also called a substrate developed by a fungus, intended for vegetative propagation of fungi. This can be a non-sterile substrate mycelium packaged in a bag or a “sterile” grain mycelium. Grain mycelium is a boiled and sterilized grain (wheat, barley, or millet), assimilated by the mycelium of the desired fungus under sterile conditions.

With the help of a set of enzymes, the mycelium decomposes the polysaccharides of the substrate, consumes atmospheric oxygen and at the same time releases carbon dioxide, water and heat.

The forest litter or bed, in which the fungal mycelium develops, constantly increases its moisture and heats up.

After the mycelium has mastered most of the substrate available to it, the formation of rudiments of fruit bodies begins. The transition of the mycelium from the stage of vegetative growth to the stage of fruiting is facilitated by a decrease in air temperature, depletion of readily available nutrition in the substrate and obstacles to the spread of the mycelium. Thus, fruiting bodies are often formed near mechanical obstacles, paths, or other soil compaction that impedes the growth of mycelium.

Mycelium hyphae can unite into thick cords, on which small nodules are formed - the rudiments of fruiting bodies. There can be a lot of such primordia, but only those primordia that evaporate water with the required intensity can grow and transform into fruiting bodies. The fact is that mushrooms (fruit bodies), unlike plants, can grow only due to the evaporation of water from the surface of the cap. Evaporation causes the flow of new portions of nutrients from the mycelium under the influence of osmotic pressure. Even with an air humidity of 100%, evaporation of water from the surface of the mushroom occurs if the temperature of the mushroom is higher than the ambient air temperature. Therefore, the fruiting bodies of fungi grow most rapidly at night and in the morning, when the temperature of the air and the upper layers of the soil decreases. The presence of a temperature gradient in the soil allows the fungus to raise the substrate layer with its cap and crawl out.

Consider the growth of the fruiting body of a fungus using the example of a ringlet. First, more often in the morning, a layer of chips rises, then a round shiny wet cap with a diameter of 3-5 cm appears. The lower part of the cap is connected by a blanket to the leg. At this stage, the mushroom is ideal for freezing and cooking. After 6 hours, the cap has a size of 7-12 cm, the shape is convex. White plates are revealed, the mushroom has a dense consistency and good taste. By the evening, the plates begin to acquire a gray-violet hue, and by the next morning they become bright purple. The leaves and grass near the mushroom are already covered with a well-visible spore powder.The stage of biological maturity came, when the spores matured, the hymenophore began to dust with spores. At this stage, the mushroom is only suitable for frying.

Look at the photo of how ring mushrooms grow:

For fungi to reproduce with the help of spores, it is not necessary to make a spore imprint, as is customary in mycological laboratories. For sowing spores, you can use water with spores washed out of mature caps, or pour a suspension of particles with spores obtained by grinding the hymenophore. Hymenophore - this is the lower part of the mushroom cap in the form of plates or tubes.

For oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus) and summer mushroom (Kuehneromices mutabilis), you can simply lay out the spore-bearing mushroom caps on the cut of a wooden block for sowing. It should be noted that when mushrooms are "seeding" with spores, the hybrid forms do not retain all their properties. Thus, when a hybrid strain of oyster mushroom (NK-35) was distilled in the garden, Florida oyster mushroom grew on nearby willows. This is one of the "parents" of the hybrid.

You can watch how mushrooms grow in the video below:

Further you can familiarize yourself with the classification of the main groups of mushrooms and their characteristics.

Where and how edible tree mushrooms grow (with photo)

What groups are mushrooms divided into and what is their difference? The main groups of fungi are woody, litter, humus and mycorrhizal.

Edible woody mushrooms are those that grow naturally on trees and stumps. Their mycelium is not found on the roots of trees, but under the bark or inside the wood.

The main characteristic of this group of mushrooms is the ability, with the help of special enzymes, to break down and use wood polysaccharides, including cellulose, for nutrition. With the growth of mycelium inside the wood, the concentration of carbon dioxide becomes very high. The mycelium of woody fungi grows much faster under these conditions than mold and other competitors. Therefore, it is quite easy to grow woody mushrooms. It is necessary to create conditions for them with a high carbon dioxide content (for example, inside a plastic bag) and take a substrate with a high cellulose content without readily available food (wood chips or straw).

The mycelium of woody fungi grows inside natural wood, in almost sterile conditions, therefore, a pasteurized or sterilized substrate in an autoclave is best suited for their cultivation, and sterile grain mycelium is used for vegetative propagation of woody fungi.

Oyster mushroom, or oyster (Pleurotus ostreatus), Is the most suitable mushroom for artificial cultivation.

As you can see in the photo, this edible tree fungus grows on any hardwood, except oak:

Fruiting in spring and autumn. It can be grown on stumps or logs, but large yields are obtained only on a free-flowing substrate of wood chips, straw or sunflower husks in plastic bags. Oyster mushroom mycelium, due to its high growth rate, is able to capture and assimilate the substrate faster than mold. Therefore, oyster mushroom can be grown without heat treatment of the substrate or simple methods of pasteurization can be used.

Another representative of the group of woody mushrooms - shiitake (Lentinula edodes).

This photo shows that the tree fungus grows on oak or other hard wood:

Before sowing, it requires sterilization of the substrate in an autoclave or steam treatment at + 95 ... + 100 ° С. The mushroom is grown on oak trunks up to 15 cm in diameter. Also, this tree fungus grows where there is a lot of free-flowing substrate of oak chips, shavings or sawdust with the addition of grain. Shiitake has a competitive advantage over mold and other mushrooms on oak, as its mycelium secretes the tannase enzyme, which decomposes tannins.

Representatives of the litter group of mushrooms

Speaking about what ecological groups of mushrooms there are, it is especially worth highlighting the litter mushrooms that grow in the forest on the litter, in the fields on straw, in the garden on mulch.

Typical representatives of litter mushrooms are purple row (Lepista nuda), ring (Stropharia rugoso-annulata), straw mushroom (Volvariella volvacea). For the garden and vegetable garden, these are the most useful mushrooms. The litter mushroom readily assimilates beds mulched with sawdust or wood chips. It is believed that they do not form mycorrhiza with plants, but help supply plants with water. After rain or watering, the mycelium of fungi in the upper soil layer collects a large amount of water. This water remains available for plants for a long time. Studying the distribution of water in a bed with ringworm mycelium, it can be seen that after watering a small area of ​​the bed, the mycelium distributes water evenly over the entire area. Ringworm mycelium actively penetrates into the root zone of plants growing in the garden bed and contributes to the preservation of water there in the absence of rain and irrigation.

Mushrooms of this ecological group have a strong immune defense, since in the forest litter their mycelium is surrounded by mold and other microorganisms. Therefore, they can grow in non-sterilized substrate. In 2015, on such a bed with a size of 3x10 m, the ringlet formed from 10 to 40 mushrooms per day, during which fruiting waves are visible.

For vegetative propagation of litter fungi on a non-sterile substrate, grain mycelium must not be used. Molds and bacteria in the substrate will invade the grain before the mycelium of the litter fungus grows. In addition, the grain mycelium of ringworm and other litter mushrooms is poorly stored, because carbon dioxide is not a complete protection for him. A sterilized substrate can be sown with grain mycelium, but this greatly complicates the technology. It is easier to use non-sterile substrate mycelium for the reproduction of these fungi - a piece of the garden that has been mastered by the mycelium.

Litter fungi are easily sown with spores on moistened mulch from pine needles or wood chips. Bedding mushroom blue ring (Stropharia aeruginosa) can multiply by self-seeding in a bed with phlox. Phlox grows well at the same time, and the mycelium of the fungus was visible when they were transplanted.

You can make a garden bed for planting a ringlet from a mixture of birch chips with pine needles. On this bed, already partially mastered by the ringlet, purple rows can grow by themselves.

Group of humus mushrooms

The mycelium of fungi belonging to this group is located in the humus layer under the litter.

The most interesting humus mushrooms are commonly found in stores. double-stemmed champignon (Agaricus bisporus) growing on sidewalks two-ring champignon (Agaricus bitorquis), meadow champignon (Agaricus campestris) and big motley umbrella (Macrolepiota procera). The mycelium of humus fungi completes the transformation of woody forest litter into soil humus.

The main characteristic of this ecological group of fungi is the inability of enzymes to break down cellulose. However, they can use compounds for nutrition that remain in the soil after litter fungi work. That sowed in a garden bed with a ring willow (Pluteus salcinus), champignon august (Agaricus augustus) and some dung beetles, allows us to hope that after the ringlet it will be possible to plant other humus mushrooms on it.

Suitable for humus fungi and substrate created by aerobic bacteria and actinomycetes in compost heaps. Such a substrate, consisting of a mixture of straw and manure from farm animals, is called mushroom compost. On the mushroom compost, you can grow not only mushrooms, but also other humus mushrooms.

For vegetative propagation of humus fungi, grain mycelium is produced, but it is poorly stored and takes root. More reliable is compost mycelium made on mushroom compost as a carrier. Non-sterile compost mycelium is a mushroom compost overgrown with the necessary humus fungus. For the manufacture of sterile compost mycelium, a pure culture of the fungus from a test tube is transferred to the mushroom compost, sterilized in an autoclave. Previously, such compost mushroom mycelium was produced by the Zarechye state farm.Everyone could make a simple compost from straw and horse manure and grow mushrooms in the basement. I remember my experience of growing mushrooms on an unglazed loggia. For more than a year, there was kept a jar with compost mycelium of champignon bought in Zarechye. A liquid formed in the jar, which was poured as fertilizer into a 0.5 m3 box, where a tomato grew on a mixture of sphagnum and horse manure. Two months later, mushrooms grew in a solid carpet. With grain mycelium, everything is much more complicated. High-quality compost is needed for a reliable start of grain mycelium. How to make such compost is described in the sections on mushroom cultivation.

Humus mushrooms include mushrooms that grow near stables and barns on nitrogen-enriched plots of land or on heaps of straw.

Most interesting dung beetle white shaggy (Coprinus comatus). Its rather large fruiting bodies grow and survive for only a few days, after which the mushroom begins to blur into a black mass with spores. In a young state, shaggy white dung beetle is very tasty fried, and in terms of sugar content it surpasses other mushrooms.

What mushrooms form mycorrhiza with plants

There are fungi that form mycorrhiza with plants, they are called mycorrhizal.

White mushroom (Boletus edulis), boletus(Leccinum scabrum) and chanterelles (Cantharellus cibarius) Is a typical mycorrhizal fungus living in symbiosis with trees. This fungus forms mycorrhiza with tree roots, such a community is mutually beneficial for both organisms. These mushrooms supply the tree with water, trace elements and phosphorus compounds, which they extract from the earth using their enzymes. The host tree controls the development of mycorrhizal fungi, supplying them with glucose and other simple sugars through the mycorrhiza.

Butterlets (Suillus granulatus) and gourmet mushroom (Lactarius deliciosus) grow under young pines. They do not require thick forest litter and can even grow on a mowed lawn. For porcini mushrooms, boletus and aspen mushrooms, it is desirable to have a layer of fallen leaves or needles. So, the porcini mushroom is most often found in a birch forest under an oak tree. The oak form of the porcini fungus forms mycorrhiza with oak, birch - with birch, but for its development the porcini mushroom chooses a place where there is a significant layer of birch leaves, in which moisture is retained due to the surface layer of oak leaves. Birch leaves rot in one season, and oak leaves are stored for two years.

Another representative of the mycorrhizal group of fungi is the aspen form boletus (Leccinum aurantiacum). This fungus creates mycorrhiza with plants such as aspen and birch. But it happens that these boletuses crawl out of a thick coniferous litter under an old pine tree, and neither aspens nor birches are visible. Only excavations have shown that a thick aspen root passes under the pine tree, connecting very young aspen shoots with each other.

Some fungi in the literature are described as not mycorrhizal, but when studying them, doubts arise. So, giant raincoat (Langermania gigantea) could not be transplanted from the forest to either ringworm substrate or mushroom compost. Observing its growth in different places, it always grows next to bird cherry. Maybe he forms mycorrhiza with her? Transplant together with bird cherry, now wait for the result.

Lighting and air movement in the forest are of great importance for the growth of mycorrhizal fungi. In a grove of densely growing young birches, boletus mushrooms grow, as a rule, at the edge of the southern side of the grove. At the edge of the forest there is more light and stronger convective air currents, which promote fruiting. Porcini mushrooms do not grow in such a grove. It needs thinning to increase soil illumination and for better air movement.