Hit the Dirt; Raising Fungus

The following article is from New-England Gardner December 1989. It's called fungus among us mushroom cultivation is a highly individualized art. This is a quotation on the reverse side of a business card given to me by a friend who raises mushrooms at home. I noticed the conspicuous absence of the term gardening and realized that mushroom growing is rather a combination of gardening and microbiology. Of. Meticulous observation of the earth motives. It is indeed an art a branch of horticulture so specialized that it's beyond the reach of most gardeners. Mushroom cultivation as it's called in the industry is akin to gardening as we know it in a few ways. For one thing mushrooms grow in familiar surroundings. Compost peat moss. And when the crop is mature

after watering and wading like other vegetables it is harvested in fresh or canned and pickled for storage. It's just that Mushrooms aren't. Well. Plants. In fact they're often considered an entirely different kingdom from that of plants because they don't reproduce sexually like the rest of the world and because they don't manufacture chlorophyll. To put it more bluntly they don't have leaves or roots flowers or seeds. Mushrooms are heterotrophic meaning they obtain all the food they require from the medium in which they are grown. One might say so do plants but actually it is the presence of chlorophyll in plants that enables them to manufacture their own carbon based food starches and sugars. Soil nutrients act as building blocks for plants not as energy sources but with mushrooms soil has both food and building material. Mushrooms grow all

around us in the natural world. Some are edible and some are quite deadly. People have been cultivating mushrooms for centuries so one never sees mushroom farms orchards or greenhouses. Originally they grew in forests and fields taking advantage of moist environments and rich soils decomposing logs and leaves their favorite spots. Nowadays mushrooms are grown commercially indoors often underground in carefully controlled environments. In the US most of the mushroom industry is centered in Pennsylvania. Years ago the only market for mushrooms was the canned variety and mushroom farm sprouted in the limey soils of Pennsylvania not far from racetracks cheap sources of the horse manure they require and the already established canneries. Today the demand for fresh mushrooms especially exotic Fridays has caused the commercial industry to spread out and produce farms closer to the

markets. Pre inoculated kits are available through mail order that contain medium already spawned packed neatly in little plastic greenhouses All one need do is set this contraption under the sink or in the closet away from drafts and await the sprouting of one's own crop of fresh mushrooms. In addition certain preparations and varieties of mushrooms can be grown out of doors in summer. Not in the garden mind you but in beds of pasteurized straw or sawdust. Beyond the do it yourself kits. There is much to learn about raising mushrooms. Even family size crops. At home. Todd's mushroom Bible and one of the best authorities on the subject in print today. The mushroom cultivator. The Practical Guide to growing mushrooms at home. By Paul and another guide that list species sources of Spawn and equipment and other

information is wild and exotic mushroom cultivation in North America. A growers guide to the new edible species by Gerald Thompson and Morgan is the only regular nursery or seed catalog I could find that sells prepackaged mushroom kits. Theirs is the pick and pick again pack. Of white button mushrooms. The one advantage to raising mushrooms oneself is that it's a great way to get one's fingernails dirty in the winter when there's precious little else to do. Our terrific additions to bland wintertime diets are low in calories and high in vitamin and minerals. What seems worth the trouble is growing the more unusual varieties that aren't always available in local markets. They are certainly preferable to canned mushrooms anyway. But raising mushrooms like raising children isn't exactly what

I'd call gardening. What I'd call it I'm not quite sure. But as a winter hobby it's a fascinating and absorbing science.