Introduction

This is the exact translation in English of my Italian blog http://coltivarefunghi.blogspot.it/ about mushroom cultivation, so please forgive the numerous mistakes I'll make and my poor padronance of the language.

Hello everyone,

You may have seen for sale, at the indoor gardening and DIY, grow kit (usually straw bales, covered with a white mold) of various mushrooms species.What you will need is to put in a humid place and water it from time to time, and then wait, to see many small mushrooms that quickly growing. Within a month, however, the bale runs out and stops producing: if you want to see again the wonder of a growing fungus day by day, then you have to buy a new one. This, unless you want to try to produce your own, starting from zero. It is, in fact, possible to produce from raw materials such as straw, sawdust, manure and other, depending on the species you intend to grow. It sounds easy, but I assure you it is not :)

There's now to say that not all the species of fungi can be grown. At present, they can successfully produce only a few. Mushrooms in fact are divided into two categories: saprophytic / parasites, which feed on organic materials that is dead or alive (for example, by decomposing already dead trees, or growing on living ones) and mycorrhizal, that means, that they are associated with the roots of certain trees , with which they exchange nutrients. Porcinis and chanterelles, just to clarify, belong to the second category, which is currently not possible to grow with good results. Moreover, not all saprophytic / parasites can be grown successfully, then the species, so to speak, "usable" for our purposes become rather few, when compared with the immense number of existing species. This is not necessarily a disadvantage, since you can always experiment with new techniques and species, thus contributing, in our small way, to scientific research ... having fun! :)

Certainly the mushroom cultivation "amateur" is not a simple hobby, but it is certainly able to give more of a satisfaction. If the mysterious world of mushrooms fascinates you, and you need to succeed in growing, then you are right!

Over the next post I will try to explain, the basic techniques and gradually more complex ones that are able to learn from when I started, about two years ago.

You will not have to be discouraged by the first failures, which frequently occur at the beginning (and even after!)

Enjoy the reading!