Making Wine Cap Mushroom Beds with Agroforester Ryan
25ft-4ft Wine Cap bed.
This project was incredibly fun, and surprisingly easy to do. The materials cost very little and the reward will be delicious Wine Cap mushrooms, known by their latin name - Stropharia rugoso-annulata.
I first made a game plan of where I was going to source my materials. I know I would need the mushroom spawn, cardboard, water, straw, wood chips and a shady place. I ordered the mushroom spawn (sawdust inoculated with Wine Cap spores) from Field and Forest Products. They have always been a reliable source for everything you need for growing mushrooms. Specifically for outdoor cultivation. The 5.5lb bag of spawn costs around $25 minus shipping and tax and arrived in a week. Note: It is important to store your mushroom spawn in a cool, dark place. Especially if you don’t plan on using it for a while. They usually keep for 3-6 months if refrigerated. Once I had the spawn, I needed to figure out where I would place the beds. Fungi are happiest when they have shade, moisture, and something to decompose. I found a great spot along a field hedgerow of Sugar Maples. This protected the bed from the glaring sun and kept them cool for the greater part of the day. The added bonus is that the beds are near a water hydrant. This way I can connect a hose and keep the bed nice and wet. Having your bed dry out will kill the fungi. They need moisture in order to survive, so I check in on them a few times a week just to make sure.
Next, I went to my local Agway and bought 6 bales of straw, and then found a bunch of recycled cardboard. For the cardboard, it's best to use plain cardboard without any gloss or coating on it. Remove any tape or stickers and you’re all set! Cardboard is great because it suppresses any tall grass, brambles or weeds and will eventually decompose and feed the fungi. When you’re ready to use the cardboard, take a pitch fork, or any type of implement that you like, and puncture some holes up and down the length of it. Wine Caps like a good amount of moisture but they do not want to sit in a bed of water.
Luckily for me, the wood chips were fairly easy to procure. I took the branches, twigs and anything that was too small to use for making my Shiitake Logs and ran that through the wood chipper. This was the most laborious task of the project. Gathering the branches and trimmings out of the woods and bringing them to the chipper. It took about 2-3 days to create a pile large enough to make the Wine Cap bed. An easier way to do this would be contacting your local highway or county department and asking about wood chips. The only issue I have with this is that I could never be 100% confident that the chips they’re giving me would be free of any herbicides and would be the correct type of wood for Wine Caps. Yes, Wine Caps are host specific to particular trees and will grow best if they are mixed with them. Avoid coniferous trees like Spruce, Pine, Cedar, Hemlock, etc. and stick with hardwoods and softwoods. For my beds, I used Red Oak, Red Maple, Sugar Maple and Serviceberry. There are also reports of people using woody invasive shrubs like Autumn olive and have had great results. Something I’d be interested to try in the future!
I had all of my materials set and in place, so it was time to start the process. I made the Wine Cap bed much like you would make a lasagna. It’s all about layering.
Stropharia rugoso-annulata Sawdust Spawn
I layed out my cardboard once all the tape and stickers were removed and I punctured holes in it. The bed was just under 25 ft long and was about 4ft wide.
Reusing waste cardboard from packaging
Next, I grabbed my straw and spread it out over the cardboard. Around 2-4’’ in thickness. At this point, I grabbed small handfuls of spawn and sprinkled it into the straw. The next layer would be around 2’’ of wood chips, with another sprinkle of spawn on top.
Applying the Spawn
Once I had two layers, I grabbed the hose and watered everything in. I repeated this until I had another layer of straw, spawn and then a topping of chips. The total depth ranged from 6-8’’.
The order should look like this:
Cardboard
Straw
Wine Cap Spawn
Wood Chips
Spawn
Water
Straw
Spawn
Wood Chips
Water
Watering the Wine Cap Bed
The finished product should look like a nice, fluffy, moist bed of straw and wood chips. The great thing about growing Wine Caps is that the waiting time is cut down dramatically, compared to other outdoor cultivated fungi, like Shiitake. Depending on moisture content, bed health, and materials used - you can have a harvest in 2 months time. Using both straw and wood chips gives your bed prolonged longevity because the wood will take longer to break down. This means you can have 1 bed last up to 3 years or more! Plus you can always “rejuvenate” the bed by reapplying fresh chips every year or so.
Growing these will diversify the forestry operations here at Wally Farms and give us nourishing food and forest products in between Shiitake harvests.
Ryan Surrano
Wally Farms