Wine Cap mushrooms (Stropharia rugosoannulata), also known as Garden Giant mushrooms or Wandering Giants (for their propensity to pop up all over your garden), are a unique and rewarding addition to your garden. Known for their robust flavour and large, meaty caps, these mushrooms are easy to grow and thrive in outdoor settings. They are particularly well-suited for wood chip beds, which replicate their natural growing environment. This guide walks you through the process of cultivating Wine Cap mushrooms in wood chip beds, ensuring a successful harvest.
Step 1: Choose the Right Location
Selecting the perfect spot for your Wine Cap mushroom bed is crucial. Wine Caps prefer shaded areas with indirect sunlight, making garden beds beneath trees, in the shade of tall plants, or along the edges of a garden an ideal location. Our bed sits beside our compost bins to receive some shade from the afternoon sun.
Climate: Wine Caps thrive in temperate climates. They enjoy moderate temperatures between 13°C to 24°C. However, these mushrooms are also very hardy and will thrive well in areas like ours in the 3a growing region. Ours have survived 40+°C droughts and -49°C cold snaps they may just take more time to initially colonize and may not produce in their first year if you live in the north. Ours did not produce in their first year but some of our neighbours have beds that did.
Soil and moisture: The bed should be well-drained, but still retain moisture. The wood chips will do most of the work here as they hold a decent amount of water when soaked but also drain rapidly. Appropriate depth of wood chips is crucial for this water retaining effect. Read on for instructions on bed preparation.
Step 2: Prepare the Wood Chip Bed
Wine Cap mushrooms grow best in a bed of high-quality wood chips or sawdust, which provides the perfect nutrients for the mycelium. To build a wood chip bed, follow these steps:
Select Your Wood Chips: Choose hardwood chips (such as oak, maple, or alder). Softwoods like pine or fir are less ideal because they contain resin that can inhibit the growth of the mushrooms. That said, Wine caps are tolerant of softwoods if that is all that you can get your hands on. Call your local arborist to acquire large amounts of wood chips at a relatively inexpensive cost. I have even had 5 cu. metre loads delivered to us for less than $150. You will need some chips to start your beds and some more to feed it each fall to keep it producing but by no means do you need a dump truck load to get a bed started. We also use chips as a mulch in our garden paths so it made sense for us to have lots on hand.
Most importantly in your selection of chips is to get some that have been freshly shredded from healthy trees. Ask the arborist or check the supplier to ensure that they are from healthy trees or that they have not been treated with chemicals or other bacteria. Sometimes commercial products will have these kinds of treatments to “aid in the growth of healthy plants”. Don’t use these. Your Wine Cap culture will be of more benefit to your garden and the treatments will likely inhibit or outright block the growth of your desired mycelium.
Create the Bed: Start by preparing a location for your mushroom bed. You can create a raised bed or simply lay the chips directly on the soil. A raised bed can help improve drainage and allow for easier maintenance but is wholly unnecessary.
Depth: The wood chip layer should be about 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 cm) deep. If you make your bed deeper the mycelium will just take more time to colonize and start producing. The benefit here though is that a deeper bed also means more food and will allow them to produce larger amounts of mushrooms with the access to the extra nutrition. Its up to you which way you want to lean on this one.
Moisture: Before you add the mushroom spawn, ensure the wood chips are moist. You can do this by lightly watering them, but avoid making the bed soggy. After the initial watering rain can do the rest of the work for you or the bed can be irrigated alongside your garden. It will only be damaged by water if it gets flooded. Remember, mushrooms like moist areas but won’t grow in standing water.
Step 3: Inoculate the Wood Chip Bed with Mushroom Spawn
The next step is to inoculate the bed with Wine Cap mushroom spawn. Our spawn in grown on Albertan grown wheat berries and comes to you in any amount that you want, depending on the size of the bed that you want to spawn out to.
Get Your Spawn: Purchase your Wine Cap mushroom spawn from our website. We offer fully colonized bags of grain spawn so your beds have the best possible start. The grain spawn has more nutrition than sawdust or dowel based spawns. Each kernel of grain spawn acts as a seed for your new mycelium and the extra nutrition from the grain acts a a food reserve to fuel the initial exploration of its new environment. One the mycelium starts growing and forming a large colony it will switch over and instead digest the wood chips that you layer in the bed.
Distribute the Spawn: Start with a layer of wood chips, then apply a layer of grain spawn, then another layer of wood chips. For best results, use about 2 to 4 ounces of spawn per square foot of bed area (at a depth of 4-6 inches). One bag from our farm holds 2 lbs of grain spawn. 2 lbs x 16 oz per lbs means that each bag will seed 16 square feet (a 4x4 foot long bed). For deeper beds apply additional layers of spawn and chips until your desired depth is reached. If doubling the depth of the bed you will need to double the amount of spawn per square foot. In any case, go accordingly.
Cover the Bed: After inoculating the bed with spawn, cover it with a layer of moist cardboard or a fine layer of straw. This will help keep the moisture in and protect the spawn from the sun, which could dry it out. This is an optional step that is most useful to bed locations that are more exposed or may not have any shade or shelter. Best practice but not make or break for your bed.
Step 4: Maintain the Bed and Wait for Colonization
Now comes the patience part! It typically takes 2 to 3 months for the mycelium to colonize the wood chips fully, depending on weather conditions and amount of spawn used. If you were to increase your spawn rate (the amount of spawn per square foot) you will see increased rates of colonization. In our growing region (3a), if you spawn the bed in the spring, you may see your first mushrooms in the fall. If you start in the summer, a heavier spawn rate would be needed to have a chance at a first year harvest. Either way, or if you start your bed in the autumn of the year you should definitely see mushrooms the following year.
Moisture: Keep the bed moist but not waterlogged. Water the bed regularly, especially during dry spells, but make sure that excess water can drain away. If you do not water during periods of drought, the mycelium will not die but it will go dormant to protect itself. While it is dormant it is consequently not growing and will delay colonization of a new bed. Water regularly for best results but if you don’t it will be fine in the end. We let our beds ebb and flow with the rain that Nature provides and still get good yielding harvests. Wine Caps can be a very lazy crop if you let them!
Check Progress: After a few weeks, you should begin to see white mycelium growing through the wood chips. To see this, gently pull some wood chips back with your hand or the caring edge of a shovel. If your chips are fresh at the time of spawning they will not have any competing fungus or other organisms present and your grain spawn will give the Wine Caps a head start on the spores that land on your new chips and try to germinate naturally.
Weed Control: Keep weeds and grass from growing over the bed. Weeds can compete with the mushroom mycelium for nutrients and moisture. Some grass shoots aren’t a problem here but if you have tall shrubby weeds taking over they can make harvesting your mushrooms difficult. Either way, plants do not compete with mushrooms for resources. Rather, mushrooms are beneficial to plant growth. Look ahead for our next blog post that will focus on plant/mycelial symbiosis.
Step 5: Fruiting the Wine Cap Mushrooms
Once the mycelium has colonized the wood chip bed, they will fruit when conditions are right. You can wait for Nature to deliver this organically by waiting for the fall and for the appropriate rains but you can also help the process along with a few simple actions.
Temperature Drop: A drop in temperature, around 5°C, can help stimulate the fruiting process. Providing some shade can help achieve this. Anything can be used for this purpose, keep it simple and use what you have handy.
Humidity and Moisture: During the fruiting stage, keep the bed moist, but not overly wet. A misting system would be ideal but a sprinkler will also work well. Not to mention way easier to obtain and more common to already have on hand. Just don’t drown the bed and you’ll be good to go. Otherwise, remember that a couple days of good rains are all that they are waiting for so no action is always an option on your part.
Harvesting: Once the mushrooms mature, typically within 1 to 2 weeks after they begin to appear, you can harvest them. Wine Cap mushrooms are ready to be picked when their caps open up and the gills are fully exposed. Use a sharp knife to cut the mushrooms at the base. For peak flavour but reduced overall harvest pick them when the veils are just about to break. They will be smaller but more tender and flavourful. Watch your beds carefully after rains as mushrooms grow rapidly and are easy to notice only after they are over ripe. Its also smart to pick your Wine Caps earlier than later to avoid bugs and rodents from getting to them before you do. We are not the only critters than love eating mushrooms. So do bugs, slugs, snails, mice, squirrels, birds and even deer!
Step 6: Post-Harvest Care and Continuous Cropping
Wine Cap mushrooms can fruit multiple times per year, especially if they are well cared for. After the first harvest, keep the bed moist and wait for the mycelium to produce additional flushes of mushrooms. With the right conditions, you can expect several harvests throughout the growing season.
Replenishing the Bed: Over time, the wood chips will break down, and you may need to add more fresh wood chips or re-inoculate the bed with spawn to maintain healthy mushroom production. Typically an annual feeding of fresh wood chips is enough to keep a bed producing. Simply dump another 4 – 6 inches of wood chips on top and give some water. The mycelium will happily do the rest of the work.
End of Season Care: In colder climates, you may need to provide winter protection, like covering the bed with straw or other mulch to shield it from frost. In warmer climates, consider shading the bed to prevent drying out. We use an inch to 1.5 inches of straw. This can be left on throughout the summer as it will only aid in keeping moisture present below. Don’t go too thick with your straw though. Too much will hinder the growth of the mycelium and the formation of your delicious mushrooms.
Tips for Success
Patience is Key: Mushroom cultivation can take some time, and initial colonization may take longer than expected. Be patient and monitor the bed regularly. All good things come in good time. That and you positively cannot rush a mushroom! Trust me, I’ve tried...
Maintain a Healthy Environment: Keep the bed free from competing fungi or pests that could damage the mycelium. Healthy wood chips and moisture are key to success.
Enjoy the Harvest: Once the mushrooms begin fruiting, enjoy their rich, earthy flavour. Wine Caps can be used in a variety of dishes. Well suited for saute, soup or the grill.
Conclusion
Cultivating Wine Cap mushrooms in wood chip beds is a straightforward, as easy as you want to make it, and highly gratifying process. By preparing the right environment, inoculating with quality spawn, and maintaining moisture and humidity levels, you'll be able to grow a steady supply of these delicious, hearty mushrooms all the while enhancing your garden’s vegetable crops. With patience and a little care, you’ll be rewarded with a robust harvests of Wine Cap mushrooms that will enhance your culinary creations and provide a unique gardening experience.
Comments