Introduction to Mushrooms
Grow Mushrooms for Pleasure and Profit
Gardening Series
Dueep Jyot Singh
Mendon Cottage Books
JD-Biz Publishing
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Table of Contents
Introduction to Mushrooms
Introduction
So What Is a Mushroom?
Mushroom Fungophobia
Fairy Rings
Mushroom Hunting
Cultivation of Mushrooms
How Are Mushrooms Grown
Making a Mushroom Bed
Best Mushroom Compost
Compost Fermentation
Pasteurization
Mushrooms in Shelves or Trays
Spawning
Watering of Mushrooms
Ventilating
Casing
Harvesting
Mushrooms in Cuisine
Mushrooms in Medicine
Conclusion
Mushroom Identification
Mushroom Guide
Is a Mushroom Edible
Getting to Know More about Morels
Learning about Truffles
Starting up a Mushroom Business
Author Bio
Publisher
Introduction
Just look at the illustration of any fairy story with a number of fairies, elves, gnomes, and other
imaginary creations of the writer’s imagination. You are going to see them sitting on toadstools and
mushrooms. The Amanita muscaria is one of the easiest recognizable of all these illustrations, because
you see it ever so often in illustrations, associated with gnomes. In ordinary terms, this is called a
toadstool.
It seems even elves cannot do without toadstools
Nobody knows when the terms toadstool and mushrooms came into existence. However, the word
“mushroom” is an important part of normal language colloquialisms, when the term “mushrooming”
describes an outburst of rapid financial social and technological growth, building, or even a population
boom.
The idea is just like mushrooms growing in the forest, after a rainfall, you can see buildings
mushrooming in a city, after the city fathers decided that it needed to be expanded.
Toadstools actually were the names given to mushrooms which were poisonous, and which had a
classical shape of a cap like an umbrella, in ancient and medieval times. However, not all toadstools
with the umbrella shape were toxic or poisonous. My father remembers eating a variety of delicious
mushrooms, which definitely did not look like our typical concept of mushrooms, when a child. These
used to grow on dung heaps and were given the rude ancient name of “dog-pee.” This mushroom
variety is known as Panaeolus.
Paneolus.
So if you are under the impression that all mushrooms are totally white and buttonlike in shape, well,
this book is going to give you more information on edible and nonedible mushrooms, how to know
more about them, grow them for pleasure and profit, learn how to recognize them. And best of all, to
enjoy them because mushrooms are delicious and mushrooms are nutritious.
Nonedible Amanitas which you see in illustrations
So What Is a Mushroom?
The mushroom is a form of fungal plant life. When the seeds of the mushroom germinate, the roots
are sent out to explore the growing medium for nutrition so that the stems and the leaves can push
their way upwards. The microscopic seeds of a mushroom are known as spores. These spores send out
fungal threads called hyphae in all directions in the soil, and produce the mushroom, which is the
fruit.
A number of fungal threads crisscrossing are going to make up for user branches known as mycelium.
Mushroom growers call this mycelium “spawn.”[1]
A mushroom is going to appear as a tiny white ball. As it grows it is going to put out a stem. After
that, you are going to see the cap, which is also known as pileus.
Mushrooms can grow anywhere where they get a little bit of nutrition, including tree stumps and
dung heaps.
As the mushroom matures, the pileus is going to open up like an umbrella. You can now see pink gills
on the underside of the cap. They looked like spokes of a wheel.
These are called Lamellae and they radiate from the stalk. These gills are going to darken as the
spores growing all over them mature. When the cap of the mushroom begins to flatten out, these
spores are going to be released. They are then going to fall on the ground in millions.
One mature Mushroom is supposed to have 1 million spores. So your next question is going to be, so
how come we are not overrun by mushrooms if each spore is a potential mushroom?
The answer is that even if the spores happened to come to rest on a suitable piece of land and
germinate, the mycelium is so sensitive, and is readily killed by suitable weather, and also liable to
attack from numerous insects. So mushrooms do not overrun all the available land in the woods today.
Also, mushrooms are prey to other fungi of the soil. That is why, even when growth is firmly
established, there are plenty of seasons when mushrooms may not occur in the fields for months.
Animals also like to eat mushrooms. These spores are eliminated, along with the dung. It is in these
circumstances that the mushrooms flourish because the spores have been protected from their natural
enemies. That is why the association of dung and mushrooms has been well known down the ages.
Mushroom Fungophobia
“I am not going to eat that, that is a mushroom. That is poisonous.” Have you ever heard anybody say
that in your hearing? You are going to be surprised to know that there are plenty of people all around
the world who suffer from fear of mushrooms. A great variety of these mushrooms grow wild in many
parts of the world. However, conventional societies still fight shy of them, despite the fact that fewer
than a dozen species are generally considered poisonous to man.
Most of the deaths resulting from mushroom poisoning may have been due to the belief that a
mushroom is safe to eat if it blackens anything silver, which is placed with it in the saucepan or the
frying pan or if it peels easily.
Unfortunately, both of these beliefs were very prevalent in Victorian times, and totally erroneous. No
mushroom, edible or harmful has the capacity of blackening silver. Some of the well-known edible
varieties do not peel easily, while the deadly Amanita does so!
The only safe test is experience. So remember, when you go mushroom hunting, take an experienced
mushroom Hunter with you.
You need to remember that even today, there is no clear-cut delineation between poisonous
mushrooms, and edible mushrooms. That is the reason why poor mushrooms have been subject to
bitter social phobia, down the ages. All varieties have been tarred with the same brush, just like
snakes, and to lots of newbies, all varieties are considered to be potentially harmful.
Fungophobia or fear of fungus is a real and accepted phobia. Fungus hunters in the Victorian times
were considered to be below notice and contemptible, thanks to the narrow thinking of an English
botanist named William Hay.
He did not care much about mushrooms, labeling them, worthless, abnormal, and also inexplicable. So
from England, this fungophobia spread to its colonies like Australia and also to the USA.
That is because the effect of some harmful varieties which were poisonous, was exaggerated and their
ill effects transferred to all mushrooms. In some cultures, the mushrooms were considered to be the
work of the devil, especially if they had hallucinogenic properties. Some mushroom varieties do have
them, but more about that later.
What a rich harvest of chanterelles!
Fairy Rings
Also, in medieval culture, mushrooming mushrooms, growing in rings were avoided by villagers,
because according to them, they were magic and enchanted portals, taking a person to fairyland from
which he would not return. These are actually made with the spores germinated and threw up a clump
of mushrooms. The mycelium spread outwards from these point in search of food for the next crop of
mushrooms which would quickly exhaust the ground of its nutrients and cause much of the grass to
die.
The emptiness of the ring where the fairies have been supposed to holding their dancing parties during
the night is going to be accentuated by the green grass growing on either side of it – inside the ring
because the older mycelium has died and re-fertilized the land. The greenery just beyond the ring is
because the continued outwards spread of the mycelium liberates enough of food upon which the grass
is going to thrive and flourish.
Some fairy rings have been growing for hundreds of years, and adding to the legends. But the
development of these rings are slowly and steadily being interrupted due to obstacles such as roads
and streams, and other constructions and natural hazards.
In such cases, the arcs of the circle, which can continue their search for fresh food are going to grow
steadily outwards from the original center disregarding the arrested sections.
Mushroom Hunting
In medieval times, recognition of edible mushrooms was considered to be a fine art. The color of the
juice which appeared on breaking up of the mushrooms, reactions to bruising, tastes, smells, habits,
habitats and season in which they appeared were all taken into account in the classification of edible
and nonedible mushrooms.
Smelling and tasting mushrooms is hazardous in itself, because most of them have allergens,
hallucinogens and even poisons.
There are plenty of local mushroom guides available which can tell you all about edible mushrooms,
especially when you are going out looking for mushrooms on your own. But it is much more sensible
to take the guidance and advice of an experienced mushroom hunter, who can tell you whether your
next meal is going to be delicious or it is going to make you sick.
Mushrooms have also been given different traditional names like Morel, stinkhorn and puffballs to
describe their characteristics. The term “mushroom” can extend over the fruiting harvest, the fungus
being cultured or the whole general species in itself.
Even the mushrooms are considered to be a delicacy for thousands of years, it is only during the last
300 years that people began to understand about how best to domesticate them, and cultivate them
right at home.
Until then, like they used hogs and trained dogs to sniff out morels, and precious truffles from under
Oak trees. Trained specialists in mushroom hunting were very much in demand. In fact, there were a
number of families in France who had made their name in medieval times, in being able to sniff out
truffles – this delicate sense of smell was until then highly developed in dogs and other animals – and
they could command their own price in aristocratic circles.
Truffles
All they had to do was approach Oaks, take some deep sniffs and then ask the servants to dig out the
delicious morsels of truffles growing underneath the soil.
Mushroom hunting is a really enjoyable activity, especially when you like walking in the woods and
you know that you have to hunt for your own food. Experienced mushroom hunters have mushroom
lore at their fingertips. So if you have one around, take full benefit of his knowledge. Get to recognize
mushrooms. Also look for local mushroom specialties and species growing in your particular area.
If you are living in an area, which abounds in truffles and morels, especially in Spain and France, you
can consider yourself lucky. These are delicacies, which are very much in demand by gourmets.
Morel mushroom
Cultivation of Mushrooms
Interesting way to grow mushrooms – right on a sack of compost and straw. This is admirable
sustainable farming with a vengeance!
In 1707, a Frenchman named De Tournefort wrote a book in which he described how horse dung
mixed with sawdust could be placed in places where it was allowed to rot. This compost could then be
placed in long ridges, and inoculated with mushrooms on which had been dug up from the Meadows.
If one was lucky, you would get mushrooms.
This was rather a touch and go, and chancy procedure. However, this same procedure is still being
used to grow mushrooms. Three centuries later, the same compost and the sawdust mixture is still
being inoculated with mushroom mycelium, but in a more scientific manner.
About 1800 the French, who liked their mushrooms and truffles in plentiful quantities had started to
grow mushrooms underground in the quarries around Paris. They heaped horse dung in huge stacks,
and allowed it to heat up naturally. Horse dung has the tendency to produce lots of heat. That is why it
is used in hot boxes to grow seedlings, especially when the weather is cold.
Many people in England – notwithstanding fungophobia, were very quick to catch on the commercial
advantage of growing mushrooms, when they saw that these could be cultivated easily. By 1850,
mushroom spawn was being exported from Britain to America, Denmark, Germany, and even
Australia! This mixture was contaminated with fungal molds, insects, and mixed up with horse dung
and cow dung. Even so, it was so much in demand that it was being sold extensively!
By 1918, pure Spore culture bottled Spawn was been sold in the USA, thanks to the pioneering work of
a young lady, Miss Ferguson of Cornell University. She showed that pure spawn could be drawn from
mushroom tissue and pure strains could be obtained in the lab instead of being gathered from the great
outdoors.
The pure Spore Culture Bottled Spawn was produced by collecting spores from a mushroom selected
for its size, colors, and general appearance. They were then germinated under aseptic conditions. After
that they were injected into a mixture of sterilized horse dung.
The culture flask was just an ornery milk bottle, plugged with cotton wool to prevent any sort of
contamination during the growing period.
When the compost was permeated with this mycelium, the bottle was broken and the spawn was ready
for planting. This means that you would be assured of a healthy mushroom crop.
Nowadays, mushroom houses have been evolved to bring the grower within reach of control
temperature, humidity and aeration all the year around. Also, the addition of gypsum to all the
composts improved spawn growth considerably, and it is now universally practiced.
Remember that growing mushrooms commercially may have been developed systematically with
state-of-the-art technology, but this is definitely not an exciting blend of football pools and Gold
mine, bringing instant profits. It is going to take a little bit of experience for you to grow mushrooms,
profitably and you are not going to learn this through correspondence courses!
But as we are just producing these mushrooms for home use and for some selling in the local market,
possibly, here are mushroom growing techniques in the next part.
How Are Mushrooms Grown
Mushrooms are independent of sunlight. This does not mean that they grow only in the dark.[2] They
are usually sheltered from the sun because direct rays are going to discolor them. The rays are also
going to dry the beds and make it impossible for a grower to maintain the beds at a steady
temperature.
That is why the best places where mushrooms can be cultivated include sheds, cellars, garages and
greenhouses – anywhere where it is dark. My granduncle used to grow mushrooms and boxes in his
daughter’s garage. Every 7 – 10 days, he used to go harvesting mushroom crops, which Grand auntie
used to fry gently in butter before serving them to him on buttered toast. [3]
Making a Mushroom Bed
The most common type of bed in the open is a ridge bed. It is going to be triangular in section on a
2’6” base. Make sure that the sides are not steep. If that happens, the casing soil is going to come
away when the mushrooms are being picked.
Do not build the sides at an angle much greater than 45°. Flatten the top of the ridge until it is 6 inches
across.
You can try this out by taking out the desired base of the bed and run a length of string around it. Then
place a 12 inches layer of fertilizer within these limits. Trample it firmly. Now put down another 12
inch layer about 6 inches narrower than the first. Trample that down. In this way you are going to get a
narrow top layer. This is going to be formed with the back of a fork.
Tidy up the sides by raking downwards with the tines of the fork.
About one ton of fresh manure when composted is going to be sufficient for 7 feet of this ridge bed. A
clear 3 feet should be left between parallel ridges. If the field is on a slope, the beds should run up and
down and not across. That is going to save them from being flooded in heavy downpours.
When the beds have been made, put hotbed thermometers at several points along the top of the ridge.
You can now record the rise and fall of the temperature several inches down.
The beds should be covered at once, with at least 12 inches of clean long straw laid up and down. Do
not lay the straw length ways. This is going to keep the bed warm and throw off any rain, which may
fall. Consider the principle to be just the same as thatching your roof with straw!
If the temperature has not risen within a week, it is time for spawning. However, the temperature is
going to rise normally, so you will have to wait until it has fallen below 80°F. This is the time when
you are going to insert pieces of spawn about 2 inches deep, every 9 inches along and over the ridge.
Re – cover with the overcoat of straw as you go along.
Avoid windy sites. If there is a wind coming, you may want to cover the straw with tarpaulins which
have been tied down or pegged down.
When the spawn is seen to be running satisfactorily, 2 inches of the subsoil , should be patted onto the
top and the sides of the bed with the back of a spade . Then replace the straw and the tarpaulin and do
not bother about your harvest for about a month, except of course for watering.
The soil needs to be watered several times with a fine rose through the straw covering. Make sure to
wet as much as the soil as you can, without reaching the compost. The more accurately this is done,
the better chances you are going to have of a really good crop.
From then on, you need to water frequently until the mushrooms start to appear. Watering will need to
be done more often when you begin picking. This is again going to be through the straw. But keep in
mind the soil and the climate of your area and ask for advice from market gardeners in the vicinity.
The soil has to be moist but not soggy in hot water. Watering the tarpaulin is going to help to prevent
the heat of the sun from reaching the beds.
You will need to change the site of these beds every year unless the space is limited. That is to prevent
fungal diseases.
Outdoor ridge beds put down around Christmas are going to come into crop at the beginning of spring.
If the weather is inclement, this cropping is going to be later, but if you are lucky you are going to get
a crop steadily and regularly depending on the weather until the arrival of really hot days.
Here is the plan for a DIY mushroom shed which you would want to try out. Build four walls of bailed
straw. Cover the top with corrugated island sheets covered with straw. Grow 12 inch flatbeds on the
ground. These improvised mushroom sheds are going to give you excellent crops. The straw walls can
later be turned into garden compost by saturating with water and mixing with old mushroom beds
inside.
Best Mushroom Compost
Mushrooms have an affinity to horse dung.
Ordinary compost does not work very well when you are growing mushrooms. You are not going to be
using a mixture of loam, peat, sand, leaf mold and fertilizer, which is your immediate reaction
whenever you hear of gardening compost.
Mushroom compost is totally different and is going to be a mixture of wheat straw and horse dung.
These are decomposed and composted together.
Not only are these constituents the best medium provided for the cultivation of mushrooms
successfully, but they are also the best suited for mushrooms.
So if you do not have horse dung, what do you do? You can grow mushrooms on a compost made of
other types of straw, mixed with the dung of other animals also. Barley straw, with chicken droppings
– used effectively by granduncle – are also extremely effective. Along with this, cow dung and sheep
dung does quite as well.
This has been mentioned for the adventurous experimenter and enthusiast, who wants to look for other
natural mediums in which to grow mushrooms. It is fun looking for other mediums, but if you are
seriously thinking of growing mushrooms in your garage or in your cellar, the compost should be as
far as possible to this composition which I am giving you.
This has been in use for the last 250 years, with great results. So you may want to try them out and get
excellent results.
The compost is started by stacking the straw in successive layers, about 6 inches deep. After that, put a
layer of horse dung, which is the activator. Make as many layers as you want. Each layer should be
well trodden as the stack is built. The temperature is going to rise in two or three days, possibly
reaching up to 140° Fahrenheit within the week.
If the compost takes too long to heat up or the weather is cold, you can surround the stack with bales
of dry straw. Under normal conditions, the compost is going to be ready for the bed within three weeks
of the day you made the first stack, not counting the turnings. It can be wet in looks, and you may find
it more of straw compost than of horse dung compost.
The straw which is added to this decomposing mixture is always wheat straw. Do not try rye straw,
because that is going to take too long to decompose. Wet the straw and chop it into short lengths of
about 6 to 9 inches.
So, you may ask, why does one have to go through all this trouble of composting? That is because we
are not using ordinary compost like we would do for an ordinary plant. These are mushrooms. If we do
not use proper compost, a number of other fungi are also going to take possession of the manure. They
are going to stifle the mushroom spawn before it had an opportunity to germinate and grow.
By composting the manure before making the mushroom beds in which they are going to grow, not
only are we going to kill off all the competent of organisms that are present but we are also going to
transform the growing medium from one which is acceptable to cultivated mushrooms.
Ready to use compost for mushrooms
Compost Fermentation
But as they say, the recipe for jugged hare , as told by the famous Victorian cook and housekeeper,
Mrs. Beaton starts with “first catch your hare.” The day of the horse is over, so we cannot get fresh
droppings and urine from Well fed, and hard-working horses so easily today. Along with that, you are
going to need fresh long wheat straw. A ton of wheat straw is going to vary in size between five – 9
yd.³, According to the amount of liquid and straw you are using and how firmly you compress it.
The ideal type of horse dung can be half droppings by weight, because the straw is going to
preponderate here because it is so less compact. The fresher the dung is, the better. Commercial
growers like their horse dung to be under four weeks old. However, this is not often possible, because
unless you happen to be living in a rural setting, horses are other hard to come across in this day and
age.
So, naturally, you may not be able to get his horse dung fresh. When you get it, store what you can get
in a dry place until you have sufficient for your immediate needs. This is the reason why synthetic
composts are so much in demand today because we do not have the original and natural stuff.
But 200 years ago, all we had to do is go to the nearest stable and asked the stable boy to give us a
sack full of horse dung because we were growing mushrooms in the cellar…