Grow a mushroom patch in your yard!
By John Saltveit
OMS member
As I was starting to get interested in mushrooms, I read Paul Stamets’ Mycelium Running. In it he
described a kind of mushroom that could be easily grown in one’s yard. It would fruit before most of
the wild mushrooms would be gathered, and it would be plentiful and large. The mushroom is called
wine cap, garden giant, King Stropharia, and stropharia rugosoannulata. Partly because I have a
gardening background, I was intrigued and excited to try to see if I could grow it.
I talked to our very own Tony Migas to see if he could hook me up with some of the spawn and he did. I
bought a bag, then brought it home. As I could see the mycelium growing white and more crowded, I
mixed it with more wood chips, which Stamets said it primarily grew on. During the winter, I
quadrupled the size of the spawn, just by adding unaltered wood chips and water. Because I had two
buckets, from time to time I would move the water from one bucket to the other. If I tried again from
scratch today, I would pasteurize the chips, and drill holes in the buckets. I did only add rain water, so
as to not kill the spawn with chlorine or chloramines in the tap water.
As the winter went on, the spawn got big and we neared the time when Stamets said it would be good
to start the patch: early spring. On about March 1st (technically winter, but biologically spring in our
mild climate), I decided to go for it. Following the instructions in the book, I set out large pieces of
cardboard to cover the ground in the area. I set it in a place with some sun, some shade, and lots of
water. This is known as a sun-loving mushroom. It was just downhill from my raised bed, but shaded
around by bushes. I placed one layer of spawn on top of the cardboard, and then I placed wood chips
on top of that. Then I placed another level of spawn and another of wood chips. Finally, I capped it off
with straw as a casing layer. I left it there for several months. It got rained on. After awhile, I started to
notice some white mycelium. I was starting to get excited. About the end of August, I was starting to
feel like I wouldn’t get any mushrooms that year, because I had seen none. I started to water them
some because although we normally get very little rainwater in the summer, this was the driest summer
I could remember.
A couple of weeks later, I was looking at the raised bed and I couldn’t believe it. Red mushrooms starting
popping off. They were huge and all over the place. There was no way we could eat that much
mushroom. Each day several huge ones would pop off from an unexpected part of the patch.
September 16th was the first day I got them. I decided to make a huge pasta dish including herbs with
the mushrooms. It was delicious. Some of the mushrooms got huge before we could harvest them, so
we scraped off the spores and gills. One even showed up about 80 feet away from the patch. After
pumping out for several days, they abruptly stopped. Thank God, I was frightened about being taken
over by them.
About two weeks later, we started to get more. Lots more huge ones. You need to check your patch
morning noon and night because they become huge in a few hours. I made several more recipes, and
we were finally done. One thing I realized is that I do like them better when they are younger and more
dense, so checking during that part of the year is important. Some people apparently don’t like the
flavor of King Stropharia as much as other mushrooms, so taste some if you are very particular about
which ones you like. I like all edible mushrooms so far, but some, like shiitakes taste better. If you want
to have a great harvest of mushrooms from your yard every year, not just in a great mushroom year,
grow King Stropharia. It will also help the soil in your garden for your other plants.