Summer honey mushrooms are members of the strophariaceae family. Today there are more than 100 species of mushrooms that have a cap. Such mushrooms grow both on dead wood and in places where there is enough growing a large number of herbs.
Honey mushrooms are tasty and unpretentious mushrooms that are quite easy to care for.
Where can you see summer mushrooms?
Very often, such mushrooms can be found growing on the trunks of dried trees, and there are also cases when they are noticed on dead trees. Of all the varieties of trees, honey mushrooms love birch, oak and beech the most. In areas where weather softer and warmer, they can be seen on the stumps of felled chestnuts and on the remains of processed wood.
Usually honey mushrooms feed on substances that contribute to the destruction of trees. This is not surprising, because according to the type of their nutrition, such mushrooms are xylotrophs from the group of saprophytes. They can use substances from various plants. That is why they can often be found on old stumps and half-withered trees.
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What do honey mushrooms look like and how to distinguish them from other mushrooms?
After planting, honey mushrooms need to be sprinkled with moss or sawdust.
Basically, honey fungus is a mushroom that has a cap. The diameter of its “headdress” can reach from 3 to 8 cm, while the color of the cap can be yellow-brown, and its edges will have a darker shade. With a fairly large cap, the stem of the mushroom is quite thin. It very rarely can reach 0.5 cm, and its length can be from 5 to 10 cm. Home distinctive feature These mushrooms are distinguished by the presence of a small ring on the stem itself. Under this ring there are scales. Interior The mushroom is quite soft and has a beige color. The aroma of honey mushrooms is pleasant, basically it does not differ from the smell of all other mushrooms.
Since honey mushrooms are xylophyte mushrooms, summer honey mushrooms will never grow separately. Most often they grow in groups or entire colonies. They contain more than 100 bodies that are capable of reproduction.
Most often, the mushroom cap is quite soft, and the stem itself is very hard. Therefore, when it comes time to pick mushrooms, the stems are often discarded. But if you grow mushrooms of this type at home, their stem will be no different from the cap. Its structure will be just as soft and pleasant to the touch.
Honey mushrooms are quite common mushrooms. They can be found not only in Ukraine, but also in Europe, North America, and Asia. They can also be seen in Western and Central Siberia, which suggests that these mushrooms can quite easily adapt to a variety of natural conditions.
The most common time of year when honey mushrooms begin to bear fruit is considered to be from the beginning of June to the beginning of October. Sometimes growing honey mushrooms can be found even in November.
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How to grow mushrooms yourself?
Edible honey mushrooms: A, B – young, C – old.
Growing honey mushrooms yourself is a very responsible undertaking. In order for them to reproduce and grow, it is necessary to choose a suitable place. Basically, experts recommend choosing between the stumps of living trees and the wood that remains as a result of processing.
If you choose the first option, it will resemble natural conditions, in which summer honey mushrooms usually grow. This method very simple, you don’t need to spend a lot to implement it Money, and caring for mushrooms will require a minimum of effort. In order to do this, you will need to find a certain amount of mature mushrooms in the forest and spread their spores on the stumps of the trees on which you have decided to grow mushrooms. If the process is carried out successfully, then after 1-2 years a new mycelium will begin to form, which will regularly produce crops. It can exist for 6 to 8 years.
This method can be used in country houses and in small forest clearings. In this case, it is very important to have special stumps on which mushrooms will grow. If there are plans to grow a large number of honey mushrooms, then using this method is not advisable. The second method is perfect for this.
In order to grow mushrooms at home (that is, on your own territory), it is necessary to prepare the site for the future honey mushroom plantation in advance. It is very important that trees and grass grow on the site. In this case, stumps are necessary, because mushrooms will mainly grow on logs.
To make chocks you will need to prepare several trees.
In this case it is necessary that minimum height each stump was approximately 40 cm, and its diameter would be 15 cm. This is necessary so that the mycelium can receive sufficient nutrition with all the necessary substances. If you don't create for this favorable conditions, then it can stop its development in advance. After the spores of honey mushroom chocks are populated, they must be placed in dark place. They will have to stay there for 4 months. The room temperature should be between 15° and 20°. When the wood dries, it must be wetted. This will allow the mycelium to feed. If all conditions are met, then good harvest summer honey mushrooms can be collected in just six months. There is also no point in using this growing method for commercial purposes.
The best way to get a huge harvest in a short period of time is to grow honey mushrooms on wood waste. To do this, you need to get wood chips, shavings and sawdust. In this case, you need to maintain the correct ratio of all components. For every amount of shavings you need to use double the amount of sawdust. To rid the wood of harmful microorganisms, it must first be thoroughly dried. This also contributes to better absorption of beneficial substances that are used to cover the sawdust before the fungal spores begin to spread.
In order for mushrooms to grow fairly quickly, it is very important that the room is relatively warm and humid. Humidity should be at least 90-95%.
It is necessary to ventilate the room. To do this you need to let in Fresh air into the room at least once a day. It is very important to carry out this procedure regularly. Otherwise carbon dioxide may harm the development of future crops.
And when to collect honey mushrooms? Harvest occurs in mid-summer and early autumn. During this period of the year, mushrooms reproduce quite well, and they can always be found in large quantities. A forest or clearing is considered a suitable place for collection. It is very important to avoid the edges of roads and places that are located near the roadway.
Mushrooms should be picked by a person who understands them. Indeed, in case of collection poisonous mushrooms there is a risk severe poisoning, which in case of untimely provision medical care may be fatal.
True, mushrooms also have their own exceptional fans - mainly due to the “ability” of these mushrooms, like a sponge, to absorb the taste of all kinds of marinades and spices. They also have one more pleasant property - ease of collection. Honey mushrooms, as a rule, bear fruit en masse and tend to grow in numerous clusters - so that from one place you can cut an entire basket in five minutes - this is also popular with foragers.
There are several types of honey mushrooms (of which three are not honey mushrooms at all), but some of them are very similar in appearance and grow at the same time, which makes lion's share Mushroom pickers consider them to be one mushroom (the honey fungus is also a honey fungus in Africa). This article is intended to fill this gap, at the same time I will describe in detail - in which forests and when, each of the honey mushrooms bears fruit. I’ll start, of course, with the most real, most often collected, autumn honey mushrooms.
Autumn honey fungus, also known as real honey fungus
If in the fall you happen to see a basket of freshly picked honey mushrooms at the market or at a mushroom picker you know, then most likely this is the autumn honey fungus (see photo at the beginning of the article). This mushroom is very widespread throughout temperate zone our continent (by the way - in North America too), and in certain years - when there is a wet and more or less warm autumn - it bears fruit so en masse that half a ton of it is collected from one hectare.
The autumn honey fungus is very recognizable, therefore it is recognized quite quickly even by novice mushroom pickers. Its fruit bodies usually have a pleasant-looking yellowish color - the color of honey (for which it is called “honey agaric” in Latin), or not very intensely orange, or light brown. Some experts associate the shade with the wood on which the honey fungus grows.
Still young, but edible honey mushrooms grow in dense clusters, have small - 3-5 cm in diameter, convex caps with slightly turned up edges on thin but strong legs - up to 10 cm long, often merging at the base. Both the caps and legs are usually covered with dark scales, which disappear with age (in the center of the cap these scales form a kind of dark spot). A mandatory attribute (one of the signs by which autumn honey fungus can be distinguished from poisonous false honey mushrooms) is a ring on a stalk almost at the very base of the cap, left over from the bedspread. And the younger the mushroom, the greater the chance that it will be a membrane - complete or partial, covering the plates on inside hats.
Photo 2. Young fruiting bodies of honey fungus on the roots of an old tree.
With age, the cap of the honey mushroom unfolds, expands and flattens. Its flesh becomes coarse, making it virtually unfit for food. Perhaps such mushrooms can be used for decoction (and then thrown away), or they can be fried, stewed and finely rolled into caviar. But, as practice has shown, with age the honey fungus not only becomes stiff, but also loses some of its strength. taste qualities oh, why more or less picky mushroom pickers categorically neglect it.
Photo 3. A decent “plantation” of ripened fruiting bodies of the autumn honey fungus on old, almost rotten woody remains.
Autumn honey fungus begins to bear fruit in August - towards the end of the month; it appears most en masse in our forests in September, despite all this - it continues to release fruiting bodies until the very beginning real winter(in other years, when autumn is warm, it can be collected until December).
Seasoned mushroom pickers claim that honey mushrooms come in “three layers,” and you can also hear a story from them that mushrooms can appear in July, but such a statement is due to ignorance of scientific subtleties. For at the height of summer, slightly different types of honey mushrooms appear.
Northern honey fungus
He is also the northern autumn honey fungus. In many ways it is similar to the previous mushroom, except that it differs in color - it is more often light brown than yellow, at least in our area. It also sometimes looks a little stronger.
Photo 5. Mature fruiting bodies of the northern honey fungus.
In terms of other characteristics - from the preferred forests to the timing of fruiting - this mushroom fully corresponds to the autumn honey fungus.
Autumn thick-legged honey fungus
From regular autumn honey fungus differs in a thicker leg at the base, the color is almost identical, but at times it is somewhat lighter and paler, and sometimes with light scales instead of dark ones. In addition, this mushroom looks stronger and does not grow large clusters, and throws out fruiting bodies in groups of no more than a dozen. Not seen on living trees; it feeds on rotting plant debris, so it can more often be found on windbreaks and forest floors.
Fruits from August to October - evenly, without “layers”. In particular warm years fruiting bodies may appear as early as July. It is edible and is not inferior in taste to ordinary autumn honey fungus.
Autumn bulbous honey fungus
It is very similar to the previous mushroom (as well as to other autumn mushrooms), especially with a stalk, which has a characteristic tuberous swelling at the very base - but usually those mushrooms that grow on trees, those that appear on the ground, have a “standard” stalk ", thin. However, the cap of the bulbous honey fungus is usually noticeably darker than the stem, and the color of the entire fruiting body is often quite bright, varying from brown to outright yellow tones.
The bulbous honey fungus bears fruit from August to September (the peak of fruiting occurs in the second month), usually appears in deciduous forests in a friendly layer on dead wood, old stumps and fairly rotted wood debris.
Photo 8. Young fruiting bodies of the bulbous honey fungus on mossy dead wood.
In terms of edibility, it is somewhat inferior to real honey fungus (this is especially true for frail fruiting bodies growing on the soil). Mushroom pickers who know a lot about honey mushrooms note that it is better to throw away the very bottom part of the stem - it is, as a rule, especially hard and has completely unsightly nutritional qualities.
Honey fungus shrinking
He is also an oak honey fungus, a ringless honey fungus. Another species from the genus of true honey mushrooms, preferring broad-leaved species to other trees. It is most often collected from oak trees, which is why it received one of its alternative names. It is also not called ringless for nothing - the fruiting bodies of the honey fungus do not have a drying cover, so its stem is always without a ring, which greatly increases the chances of confusing this mushroom with false honey mushrooms, so only experienced mushroom pickers collect it.
Photo 0. Fruiting bodies of the shriveled honey fungus close-up.
However, the typical “honeycomb” hairiness of the fruiting body and the presence of scales on the cap are eloquent signs that make it clear that we are dealing with a representative of true honey mushrooms.
This mushroom bears fruit from July to October. IN warm summers fruiting bodies may appear earlier - as early as June.
In terms of taste, the shrinking honey mushroom corresponds to other real honey mushrooms.
Summer honey fungus
This mushroom, despite its considerable similarity, has nothing to do with real honey mushrooms. This is a representative of fungi with the unpronounceable name “Kyneromyces”. However, it is quite edible and is collected just as actively.
It grows on damaged living trees, but prefers rotten wood, and not just any kind, but hardwood(although sometimes this fungus is also observed on coniferous trees).
Photo 10. The lower surface of the cap of the summer honey fungus.
Summer honey fungus bears fruit virtually throughout the warm season - from April to November (and in countries with a mild climate - all year round).
The size of the fruiting bodies of the summer honey fungus is slightly different than that of the autumn one - the cap does not grow more than 6 cm in diameter, the leg is also three centimeters shorter. The color is somewhat lighter, more faded into yellow. The main difference is a wide tubercle on the cap, very noticeable - usually light, but sometimes dark. In addition, the caps of summer honey mushrooms are often smooth, and if they have scales, they are light-colored.
This mushroom has a poisonous “double” (which will be discussed below in the chapter about features edible mushrooms from false and poisonous ones), so only experienced mushroom pickers collect it.
Winter honey fungus
This mushroom - despite the name, as well as some external resemblance to true honey mushrooms and the “habit” of growing on stumps and trees - is by no means a honey mushroom. To be honest, this is the most natural row.
Photo 12. Winter honey mushrooms - the lower surface of the caps.
But they call it “winter” for a reason - it is one of the few mushrooms of our latitudes that can develop under very low temperatures, close to zero.
The fruiting season for winter honey fungus is from late autumn to early spring.
It’s clear that in 40-degree frosts you won’t get a harvest from it - at this moment it will be in a state of suspended animation. But as soon as the thaw sets in, the mushroom instantly comes to life and throws out fruiting bodies, which can be seen even in the city - peeking out from under the snow - on ancient, well-worn poplars, or stumps - left over from them.
In addition to poplars, this fungus “occupies” willows, less often - other deciduous trees, mainly old or damaged ones, as well as everything that remains from their felling or windfall. It grows everywhere, from forests to parks and gardens, but it is especially abundant along the banks of small rivers and streams.
IN warm winters I often observe winter mushrooms in the yard of my house - on old poplars. Mushrooms look very unusual, dusted with snow.
Winter honey fungus is edible and has a very good taste, for which it is cultivated in Japan and Korea, and in Lately- and in some other countries. It is known throughout the world under the trade name “enokitake”; the youngest fruiting bodies, grown in the dark and devoid of pigment, similar to bunches of light “pins”, are sold.
Photo 14. Winter honey mushrooms grown on an artificial substrate - “enokitake”.
However, in our country it is not collected by all mushroom pickers: winter honey fungus is very similar to false honey mushrooms - it does not have a ring on the stem, and its color is just as bright. In addition, there is information that this mushroom may contain a small amount of toxins, causing disorder digestion (for which it is always recommended to boil it first).
The cap is from 2 to 10 cm in diameter, convex in young fruiting bodies, flat in old ones, usually has a yellowish or orange-brown color, richer in the center, paler at the edges. The leg is up to 7 cm long, up to 1 cm in diameter, hollow inside, velvety, brownish-yellowish, lighter in the upper part.
Experienced mushroom pickers he is recognized and distinguished without difficulty. Main sign- time of growth. In winter, by definition, no false honey mushrooms can bear fruit, especially on trees, and winter honey mushrooms sometimes “climb” very high.
Honey fungus
Another fake honey fungus, which is directly related to non-rotting mushrooms. It is named honey mushroom only for its partial external resemblance to true honey mushrooms, but otherwise it is not at all similar to them.
Fresh fruiting bodies of the meadow honey fungus are usually small: the cap is on average 5 cm in diameter, the stem is 6 cm long, occasionally there are specimens with an 8-centimeter cap and a stem up to 10 cm. The color is ocher-brownish, depending on the weather: in the heat it is paler than with high humidity(at the same time the cap also becomes sticky). The mushroom does not have a ring on the stem - which is why it is similar in appearance to some “toadstools”, so only experienced mushroom pickers collect it. However, in some places meadow honey fungus quite popular.
This mushroom avoids forests, preferring open spaces, overgrown with grass, especially those where cows and other herbivores often graze, and the land is well fertilized. The honey fungus is a typical saprophyte that feeds on organic debris.
It bears fruit almost throughout the warm season - from late May to late October.
"Royal honey fungus" (hairy scale)
This sample mushroom kingdom also has nothing to do with honey mushrooms. Nevertheless, among the people the nickname “royal honey fungus” has stuck to it, so I will still mention it.
It was called “royal” primarily for its appearance - the mushroom looks very impressive and photogenic, has beautiful shape a bell-shaped cap and all covered with large scales, the pattern of which vaguely resembles a royal robe.
As for the taste, the opinions of mushroom pickers are divided. Some consider this mushroom to be tasteless, while others, on the contrary, praise it and value it higher than the usual autumn mushroom. The fleecy scale has a distinct “rare” taste and smell.
“Royal honey fungus” grows in any forest - on stumps and trunks of old trees, as well as on rotting wood. Fruits from mid-August to late autumn.
About the places where honey mushrooms grow
It would seem that it is easier to find honey mushrooms than steamed turnips: purely logically, they should be in any forest in which their potential host plants grow. But in reality everything turns out to be more complicated: we are surrounded by giant forested areas, but no matter where honey mushrooms are not found in them, but only in special places - which are “registered” with seasoned mushroom pickers and are strictly classified.
If the bark is suddenly damaged, then the second means of defense comes into play - chemical substances, suppressing the development of fungi (garden fungicides are a kind of analogue of these substances). Any plant secretes especially a lot of these substances in at a young age- when it develops intensively.
Therefore, in places where the trees are young and healthy, honey mushrooms are unlikely to bear fruit; it most likely makes no sense to look for these mushrooms there.
But where the trees are old or damaged, where there are stumps, fallen trunks or dead wood, honey mushrooms, as a rule, develop with a bang and throw out their fruiting bodies quite quickly. If you want to find them, go to some old forest, for example, with huge birch trees, whose trunks are 80 centimeters in diameter. And pay attention to the butt and roots of these very trunks - if they are quite overgrown with moss and lichen, it means that everything for mushrooms has been observed here the necessary conditions. Here honey mushrooms grow not only on the bark of old trees (sometimes “climbing” very high), but also on their roots, so they can often be seen not on the trunk, but right on the ground.
The next places where you can successfully collect honey mushrooms are clearings, and it doesn’t matter at all whether they are fresh or old. Although it has been noted that in ancient clearings honey mushrooms grow more intensively, the fact that the first fruiting bodies appear on stumps a little more than six months after logging is known for certain.
In places where tree felling occurred for natural reasons - from the wind, for example, honey mushrooms also appear quite quickly. Therefore, any areas of the forest littered with windfall also need to be inspected during collection.
From my own experience, I can also add the following: honey mushrooms (at least ours - the Ural ones) do not particularly like places well warmed by the sun. They definitely prefer shade and some coolness, so you should look for them on the northern slopes of the mountains, in logs or ravines, as well as in spruce forests mixed with other trees.
In such places, I often observed breathtaking accumulations of mushrooms that covered everything with an orange carpet - stumps, tree bases, fallen trunks, and forest floor. From one average stump it was possible to easily cut a whole basket of honey mushrooms.
The main thing is to be in such a place on time - when the fruiting bodies are still small, tender, and have not developed into “burdocks”, having become tough and inedible.
Important: how to distinguish edible mushrooms from inedible and poisonous ones
With the autumn honey fungus (as with its other varieties) everything is simple: it has a ring on the stem, is most often decorated with a dark spot in the center of the cap, and almost always its fruiting body, especially the cap, is covered with dark scales. It also has a characteristic pleasant smell. Even if you want to, you can’t confuse it with the well-known false honey mushrooms.
However, another mushroom is somewhat similar to it - fringed galerina, containing dangerous toxins, not inferior in power to the poison of the toadstool. It grows in almost the same places where edible honey mushrooms. It has a noticeable ring on the stem, however, it can be quickly distinguished by its absolutely monochromatic, smooth, often shiny cap.
A slightly different matter is the summer honey fungus. It is also difficult to confuse it with false honey mushrooms - thanks to the ring on the stalk, but it has a fair resemblance to the above-described galerina, especially with its young fruiting bodies.
Photo 17. Galerina fringed is a poisonous “double” of the summer honey fungus, the strength of its poison is not inferior to the pale grebe.
However, a very noticeable light tubercle on the cap of the summer honey fungus is the very first sign of its difference from the poisonous galerina. Also, seasoned mushroom pickers claim that no one has ever seen it in deciduous forests. That’s right - the galerina prefers to eat rotten coniferous wood.
Experts advise novice mushroom pickers not to collect summer mushrooms in coniferous forests or mixed with an admixture of coniferous species.
The winter honey fungus does not have a ring on its leg, so it is virtually impossible to confuse it with the galerina, but it is easy to confuse it with false honey mushrooms. To identify him, you need some experience. Also, do not forget about the time of growth - when the winter honey fungus begins to bear fruit, the false honey mushrooms usually have already finished bearing fruit, and of course - in the middle of the cold season, especially in the spring, the winter honey fungus is the only mushroom found in our forests.
From all of the above, the only conclusion follows: Honey mushrooms should be collected only if you are absolutely sure that they are edible(and accordingly - in the presence of all the necessary signs of difference). If you have the slightest doubt, it is better to avoid them.
The size of the cap reaches 6 cm in diameter. In a young fruiting body it is convex, and as it matures it becomes flat with a central tubercle. During rain, the color becomes brown, and in dry weather it becomes dull honey. The edge of the cap has clearly visible grooves, usually darker than the central part. The top layer is smooth to the touch and slightly slimy.
At the bottom of the cap there are thin plates that can be adherent or slightly descending. The older the mushroom, the darker the color of the plates. The cap flesh is watery and pale yellow-brown in color.
The thin leg, no more than 7 cm high, has a dense structure. The color is uneven: the upper part is lighter than the base. In addition, there are small dark scales below. Young individuals are characterized by the presence of a remnant of the veil in the form of a thin ring, which disappears over time.
Places and rules for collecting summer mushrooms
Mushroom row: characteristics of edible and inedible species
The season for collecting summer honey mushrooms begins in June and continues until the beginning of autumn. Mushrooms are found in all forest plantations in Russia. Experienced mushroom pickers go out in search of crops after long rains, especially if it's worth it warm weather. Most often, honey mushrooms settle in hard-to-reach or impassable places. If you come across a tree with a rotten hollow on your way, it is recommended to look into it, otherwise you may miss a whole nest of mushrooms.
Summer honey mushrooms, in addition to fallen trees and clearings, can settle on healthy wood or at the base of a tree, in leaves or tall grass. Mushrooms love birch, oak and hazel.
Varieties of honey mushrooms (video)
Not to return from quiet hunt With empty handed, it is recommended to go for mushrooms in a forest that is over 30 years old, since its forest area has many suitable places for mushrooms: windbreaks, rotten stumps, protruding root system. It is important to adhere to established rules collection of forest gifts:
- do not cut off unfamiliar or unfamiliar mushrooms;
- if there are suspicions about the edibility of a mushroom, it is better not to pick it;
- It is not recommended to collect very young or, conversely, old specimens, since the fruiting body absorbs toxic substances during growth;
- It is advisable to twist the tubular type, and break or cut off the marsupial mushrooms;
- When picking a mushroom, it is important not to cause damage to the mycelium;
- since honey mushrooms grow in colonies, if you find one mushroom, you should carefully search nearby;
- Instead of a bucket, it is recommended to take a basket to provide air access and avoid spoilage of the mushrooms;
- Mushrooms should be placed in the basket with their caps down or sideways.
It is best to go for mushrooms early in the morning, while their freshness and density have not yet been lost after the coolness of the night. The fruit bodies are not fragile, but easily bendable, which makes them easier to transport.
Description of the taste and nutritional value of summer mushrooms
The fruits belong to the 4th category of taste. Their soft and pleasant taste, as well as the delicate aroma of fresh wood, is valued in Russian cuisine. Universal mushrooms are used in the preparation of any dishes, since heat treatment does not affect the nutritional properties. The legs are not recommended due to their hardness.
Having studied the properties of honey mushrooms, experts came to the conclusion that it is not only delicious product, but also good for health.
How to distinguish summer honey mushrooms from false types of mushrooms
Among the representatives of the mushroom kingdom, there are inedible individuals that are similar to their edible relatives, and not only in appearance, but also by places of growth. So that a poisonous specimen does not end up in the basket with summer honey mushrooms, It is important to know some differences:
- an edible mushroom is characterized by the presence of a ring (skirt) on the stem, formed from a protective film, which, as the mushroom matures, comes off the cap, remaining on the stem;
- on the surface of the cap of natural representatives (except for old individuals) there are small scales, painted in a darker palette than the cap;
- the color of the surface film on the caps of false specimens is much brighter and depends on the location of the fungus;
- the color of the plates in twins is slightly green, yellowish or dark olive, in summer mushrooms it is beige-cream or light yellow, depending on the age of the mushroom;
- in contrast to the musty smell emitted by inedible species, real mushrooms have a pleasant aroma.
Edible and poisonous mushrooms of Crimea
Given the signs edible mushrooms, even a novice mushroom picker will be able to distinguish false specimens from forest mushrooms.
Where do honey mushrooms grow (video)
Features of growing summer honey mushrooms at home
Honey mushrooms are natural product, which is cultivated in an artificial environment. There are several growing methods that do not require special preparation, using:
- logs;
- banks;
- package;
- greenhouse or open area.
Only winter and summer types of honey mushrooms are suitable for self-cultivation. When using wood, it is important to adhere to the following rules:
- The trunk must have a dense structure, but not rotten (birch, aspen, poplar) with a diameter of 15 cm or more;
- Provide sufficient humidity. If the material for growing mushrooms is dry, then a few days before sowing it should be watered abundantly or immersed in water;
- After sowing, bring the trunk into a cool room (not lower than 15°C);
- As soon as the mycelium begins to germinate intensively, the wood can be taken out to the site and buried a little with earth;
- You can collect mushrooms after a couple of years, until the wood is completely destroyed;
- To obtain mycelium, you can use fruits, wood pieces, or purchase mycelium in specialized stores. It is recommended to use a refrigerator to store it.
If desired, dilute mushrooms personal plot, wood is usually used. At the same time, labor costs are very low. In addition, you can grow mushrooms on your own in a greenhouse or in a jar. In the case of using a greenhouse, the following technology is used:
- logs prepared in advance are stacked in the greenhouse;
- wood is infected with mycelium using spores or mycelium;
- Before the mushrooms appear, the wood is constantly moistened.
Summer honey fungus grows in conifers, on stumps, rhizomes, snags and in grass. Honey mushrooms of this subspecies are common in Russia, Europe and Asia, as well as in North America. They are found wherever there are conditions for their development. Fallen conifers quickly become infected with spores, and summer honey fungus begins to bear fruit abundantly in mid-June.
Because of their rapid growth and excellent taste, honey mushrooms are very popular among gardeners trying to grow mushrooms on their property. With the right approach, you can get double benefits: grow a delicious, aromatic mushroom and get rid of powerful stumps fruit trees, which will collapse in 4-5 years if a mycelium has settled there.
Considering that summer honey mushrooms (there is a photo in the article) grow in huge colonies, you can harvest a decent harvest even from one stump. This mushroom is considered edible, with an excellent aroma and pleasant taste. Suitable for both marinades and first and second courses.
Unlike the autumn and winter ones, the summer honey fungus is thin; its diameter is only 0.5 cm with a height of 5-10 cm. The yellow or brown cap has a light spot in the center; at the beginning of the growth of the mushroom, the cap is always rounded, with a small tubercle.
As it grows, it straightens, becomes flat, rainy weather may be sticky. In an adult mushroom, the diameter of the cap reaches 7-8 cm. Feature- the presence of a ring on the stalk, below which the surface is scaly and fleecy. The color of the stem is much darker than the cap, dark brown at the growing point. In overgrown mushrooms, it often bends, becomes rigid, and hollow inside. The pulp is very tender, fragile, beige in color, has a characteristic mushroom smell and pleasant taste. The leg is coarser, more fibrous, and becomes tough when cooked for a long time. Therefore, during processing, only the caps are often left.
Summer honey fungus has a poisonous counterpart - which also lives on stumps and contains powerful toxins comparable to the potency of action. It is especially difficult to distinguish summer honey fungus in dry weather, when its color changes and the light spot in the center disappears. To prevent mistakes, it is worth collecting honey mushrooms from coniferous stumps and trees.
According to avid mushroom pickers, collecting summer honey mushrooms in rainy weather, the season of which begins in June, is very difficult. Mosquitoes like to ambush near honey mushroom thickets.
When collecting, you should pay attention to the color of the cap of the lower layer of mushrooms. It often turns grayish due to the spore powder that the upper mushrooms spread. Such mushrooms are also edible, although they seem slightly rotten.
Taxonomy:
- Division: Basidiomycota (Basidiomycetes)
- Subdivision: Agaricomycotina (Agaricomycetes)
- Class: Agaricomycetes (Agaricomycetes)
- Subclass: Agaricomycetidae (Agaricomycetes)
- Order: Agaricales (Agaric or Lamellar)
- Family: Strophariaceae
- Genus: Kuehneromyces (Kyuneromyces)
- View: Kuehneromyces mutabilis (Summer honey fungus)
Cyneromyces variablea
Summer honey fungus(lat. Kuehneromyces mutabilis) is an edible mushroom of the Strophariaceae family.
Summer honey fungus cap:
Diameter from 2 to 8 cm, yellow-brown in color, strongly hygrophanic, lighter in the center (in dry weather the color zonation is not so pronounced, sometimes completely absent), first convex with a tubercle in the center, then flat-convex, in wet weather sticky. The pulp is thin, light brown, with a pleasant smell and taste. It often happens that mushroom caps " lower tier"are covered with a brown layer of spore powder from the upper mushrooms, and it seems as if they are rotten.
Records:
First light yellow, then rusty-brown, attached to the stem, sometimes slightly descending.
Spore powder:
Dark brown.
Leg of summer honey fungus:
Length 3-8 cm, thickness up to 0.5 cm, hollow, cylindrical, curved, hard, brown, with a brown membranous ring, dark brown below the ring.
Spreading:
Summer honey fungus grows from June to October (fruits abundantly, as a rule, in July-August, no later) on rotting wood, on stumps and dead wood deciduous trees, mostly birch. Under suitable conditions it falls into a huge number. Rarely found on coniferous trees.
Similar species:
According to foreign experts, first of all you should remember about, which grows on stumps coniferous trees and poisonous as death cap. Due to the strong variability of the summer honey agaric (it’s not for nothing that it was called “mutabilis”), there are virtually no universal characteristics by which it should be distinguished from the fringed galerina, although it is not so easy to confuse them. To avoid accidents, you should not collect summer honey mushrooms in coniferous forests or on the stumps of coniferous trees.
In dry weather, Kuehneromyces mutabilis loses many of its characteristics, and then it can be confused with literally all mushrooms growing in similar conditions. For example, with, false honeys and, as well as with. Moral: do not collect old summer mushrooms that no longer look like themselves.
Edibility:
Considered very good edible mushroom, especially in Western literature. In my opinion, it is really very good in boiled, “lightly salted” form. Lost in other species.
Notes
Mosquitoes often ambush summer mushroom thickets. This is true. And summer honey fungus is the most delicious, healthy and “harvestable” mushroom of early summer. If only it weren't for those mosquitoes.
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