Growing Mushrooms

Steven starts with ...
Hi

I just wanted to ask if anyone knows anything about growing Porcini mushrooms. Ive recently been in Europe and have developed a love for them and would love to grow them as they are quite expensive but dont know if i can.

I have started growing portobello mushrooms as they have a similar flavor. I collected the spores from store bought mushrooms and the fungus seems to have started growing.

If anyone has any information it would be of great help.

Thanks

Steven

Pictures - Click to enlarge
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Adam says...
As far as I know, Porcini grow mycorrhizal association with certain types of trees. In other words you can't grown them like saproxylic fungi (which grow on dead trees etc).

Its the same situation with truffles, where hazel/oak trees are first established, then innoculated, then if you are luck you get truffles. I'm not aware that anybody has this setup with porcini, they are most likely wild gathered still.

edil says...
hello sir i'm relly interested to grow that portobello in our country i hpoe u can help me to my research,


thanks

edil

micarle says...
Have a look on the Corroborree forum! They have a section on mushrooms, lots of Edible one's for sale and trade ie. Shitake, Enoki, Shemeji, Oyster and some others. Dowels, Spawn material and plate's available. hope this helps.. Mitch

Steven says...
Hi Stodd how are you.

Porcini (Boletus Edulis) are mycorrhizal fungi so they form a symbiotic relationship with the roots of certain species of trees i.e. they grow on the roots of these trees (conifers and oaks are the main species). so if you want to grow them you need to innoculate a tree with the fungi and then grow that tree in the right conditions. from what i know they grow in similar climates to milk caps and fly agaric.

Ive innoculated a hazelnut, chestnut and pine nut with dried porcini i bought from the deli (i soaked them overnight then blended the mixture and drenched the roots with this solution) however its still too soon to tell if it was successful as the tree has to grow to a mature size before it will fruit.

I hope this helps you.


Steven

Speedy says...
That's coz it doesnt exist.
Porcini, Cepe (Boletus edulis) is Mycorrhizal.
that is it only grows on the roots of certain species of trees....oaks, pines, beech, chestnut etc.

It may have been Shiitake or oyster mushrooms if growing on inoculated sawdust, but they need light to do well
or, it could've been portabello if grown on compost.
They will grow in dark/low light conditions.

There is a company in Spain that sells inoculum (pellets) for porcini and they say it's best to put under oaks that are at least 20yrs old for best chance of results.
But thats still no guarantee that it will work... so many unknowns, so many variables with ectomycorrhizal mushrooms.

Maja says...
Hi Speedy, It may not exist in Au but it certainly exists in the world. My family in Europe have been growing porcini at home for many years. I am just not keen on smuggling the spores through the customs. There are many instructions all over the internet on how to grow porcini at home from the inoculated sawdust. I also have friends in Italy who do exactly that:
http://www.howtogrowmushrooms.org/how-to-grow-porcini-mushrooms/

Speedy says...
Hi Maja,
I'm still very sceptical.
If the instructions on that website are correct, maybe they konw something that most mycologists don't. :-)
One thing missing in the info is the mention of scientific names.
maybe they're calling something 'porcini' that is not Boletus edulis , B.aereus, B.reticulatus, B.pinophilus etc.

I wish it was that easy to grow them,
but Boletus spp. really do need to grow on the roots of a living tree.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boletus_edulis

Where in Europe are your family from?

Maja says...
Not so scientific if you follow wikipidia. Academics fail students for that ;-) Small-gardening websites are not usually that scientific but in simple language for everyone to use. There are other instructions as well, bot not necessary in English.

They grow them in Poland. They own glass houses as they farm other veggies in, but the porcini is just for cooking needs. You won

Diana says...
They do not look safe. Good move not eating mushrooms out of the garden, AuOrey. The people who just died in Canberra ate death cap mushrooms that looked like an edible variety in China. That's a common problem in Australia- very few are not poisonous, and it's hard to tell often. Some that grow in southern Australian pine forests are apparently edible, but I would only trust a real expert.

Speedy says...
Janita, Saffron milk-caps are Lactarius deliciosus, they grow exclusively under pine in Aust.
The 'Boletus' would be a Slippery Jack , a Bolete (has spongey spore surface under the cap) , however not a Boletus sp. but either Suillus luteus (has a remnant ring on the stem) or more common Suillus granulatus.


Maja, I'm not just grabbing this info from Wikipedia, that said, most of the info in that article is as accurate if not better than many books I've read on the subject.
Nothing wrong with simple language but
scientific names are very important when it comes to fungi if considering eating them even for beginner growers, (and absolutely essential for wild mushroom pickers)
Imagine mistaking Amanita phalloides for Volvariella volvacea...
It cost two people their lives and one person's liver for that simple mistake just recently as I'm sure you're aware.

It also helps to know exactly what your growing in order to provide it with as close to optimal conditions as possible, substrate composition, what it's life cycle is, changes in temperature you may need to subject it to, light levels etc.

I did a bit of a search of 'How to grow Porcini' and came up with several of the same recipe/method (ie. soak cardboard, separate layers, blah blah...) looks like it's the same one been copied many times , some as part of an advert thing to try and get people to buy ebooks etc.
I doubt that whoever wrote the instructions have ever attempted it.

Current knowledge is that most(all) Boletes are mycorrhizal.
I have read somewhere in the past that Xerocomus badius (Boletus badius) may be able to grow without growing on tree roots...that was only one reference though, out of many books that I've been through.


Pics would be great if you could somehow get some.

Mike says...
There are many similar species in Australia to edible mushrooms of europe,n america and asia as well as species introduced from those places.The spores are tiny,long lived and easy to transport.Unless a mycologist identifies it as the edible one usually the exotic I would not try it.Many natives are reputedly toxic and it is likely many are edible but no one eats them.I used to get 2 kinds of small agarics with pink and brown gills from the cemetary in Cairns after being shown by old timers.They warned there were incidents with wrong ones picked in the past.Friend used to pick gold tops and blue meany agarics on the Atherton Tablelands and it was never worth the trip.

ringelstrumpf says...
Mike, do I understand it right, that there are European mushrooms here willingsly or unwillingly imported by spores and very similar native mushrooms which might not be edible but looks very similar? And didn't the aborigines ate mushrooms?