Mushrooms: how to grow them Part 6

Many growers plant sp.a.w.n a good deal deeper than I do, but I have never found any advantage in deep planting. In moderately warm beds, or beds that are likely to retain their heat for a considerable time, I am satisfied that shallow planting is better than deep planting. When we want to mold over our beds soon after sp.a.w.ning them, shallow planting is to be recommended. But if the beds are only 75 to 78, before being sp.a.w.ned; then I think deep planting is better than shallow planting, because the genial temperature gives the mycelium a better start in life than would the cooler manure nearer the surface.

If there is any likelihood of the surface manure getting wet from the condensed moisture of the atmosphere, I would again cover over the beds with some hay or straw, and let it remain on until molding time. And if the bed is a little sluggish,--that is, cool,--this covering will help in keeping it warm. Outside beds should be molded over in three or four days after sp.a.w.ning; inside beds in eight to ten days.

=Steeped Sp.a.w.n.=--As brick sp.a.w.n is so hard and dry I have tried the effect of steeping it in tepid water before planting; some pieces were merely dipped in the water, and others allowed to soak in the pails one-half, one, five, and ten hours. The effect was prejudicial in every instance and ruinous in the case of the long-soaked pieces.

=Flake Sp.a.w.n.=--"This is produced by breaking up the brick sp.a.w.n into pieces about two inches square and mixing them in a heap of manure that is fermenting gently. After lying in this heap about three weeks it will be found one ma.s.s of sp.a.w.n, and just in the right condition for running vigorously all through the bed in a very short time.... When flake sp.a.w.n is used the appearance of the crop is from two to three weeks earlier than when brick sp.a.w.n is used."--Mr. Henshaw, in first edition of "Henderson's Handbook of Plants." I have tried this method and given it careful attention, but the results were inferior to those obtained where plain, common brick sp.a.w.n had been used at once.

In all my practice I have found that any disturbance of the sp.a.w.n when in active growth which would cause a breaking, exposing, or arresting of the threads of the mycelium has always had a weakening influence upon it. I have transplanted pieces of working sp.a.w.n from one bed to another, as the French growers do, but am satisfied that I get better crops and larger mushrooms from beds sp.a.w.ned with dry sp.a.w.n than from beds planted with working sp.a.w.n from any other beds.

CHAPTER XII.

LOAM FOR THE BEDS.

In growing mushrooms we need loam for casing the beds after they are sp.a.w.ned, topdressing the bearing beds when they first show signs of exhaustion, filling up the cavities in the surface of the beds caused by the removal of the mushroom stumps, and for mixing with manure to form the beds. The selection of soil depends a good deal on what kind of soil we have at hand, or can readily obtain.

The best kind of loam for every purpose in connection with mushroom-growing is rich, fresh, mellow soil, such as florists eagerly seek for potting and other greenhouse purposes. In early fall I get together a pile of fresh sod loam, that is, the top spit from a pasture field, but do not add any manure to it. Of course, while this contains a good deal of gra.s.sy sod there is much fine soil among it, and this is what I use for mushrooms. Before using it I break up the sods with a spade or fork, throw aside the very toughest parts of them, and use the finer earthy portion, but always in its rough state, and never sifted.

The green, soddy parts that are not too rough are allowed to remain in the soil, for they do no harm whatever, either in arresting the mycelium or checking the mushrooms, and there is no danger that the gra.s.s would grow up and smother the mushrooms.

Common loam from an open, well-drained fallow field is good, and, if the soil is naturally rich, excellent for any purpose. But do not take it from the wet parts of the fields. Reject all stones, rough clods, tussocks, and the like. Such loam may be used at once.

Ordinary garden soil is used more frequently than any other sort, and altogether with highly satisfactory results. The greatest objection I have to it is the amount of insects it is apt to contain on account of its often repeated heavy manurings.

Roadside dirt, whether loamy or gritty, may also be used with good results. If free from weeds, sticks, stones and rough drift, it may be used at once, but it is much better to stack it in a pile to rot for a few months before using.

Sandy soil, such as occurs in the water-shed drifts along the roads and where it has been washed into the fields, is much inferior to stiffer and more fibrous earth.

I have used the rich dark colored soil from slopes and dry hollows in woods, and, odd though it may appear, as mushrooms do not naturally grow in woods, with success. But it is not as good as loam from the open field.

Peat soil or swamp muck that has been composted for two or three years has failed to give me good returns. The mushrooms will come up through it all right, but they do not take kindly to it.

Heavy, clayey loam is, in one way, excellent, in another, not so good.

So long as we can keep it equably moist without making it muddy it is all right, but if we let it get a little too dry it cracks, and in this way breaks the threads of the sp.a.w.n and ruins the mushrooms that were fed through them.

=Loam Containing Old Manure.=--Loam in which there is a good deal of old, undecomposed manure, such as the rich soil of our vegetable gardens, is unqualifiedly condemned by some writers because of the quant.i.ty of spurious and noxious fungi it is supposed to produce when used in mushroom beds. But I can not join in this denunciation because my experience does not justify it. This earth is the only kind used by many market gardeners, as they have no other, and certainly without apparent injurious effect. When I was connected with the London market gardens, some twenty years ago, Steele, Bagley, Broadbent, and the other large mushroom growers in the Fulham Fields cased all of their beds with the common garden soil--perhaps the most manure-filled soil on the face of the earth--and spurious fungi never troubled them. Indeed, I can not understand why it should produce baneful crops of toadstools when used in mushroom beds, and no toadstools when used for other horticultural purposes, as on our carnation benches in greenhouses, in our lettuce or cuc.u.mber beds, or in the case of potted plants. True, spurious fungi may appear in the earth on our greenhouse benches or frame beds or mushroom beds at any time and in more or less quant.i.ty, but I am convinced that the rich earth of the vegetable garden has no more to do with producing toadstools than has any other good soil, and old manure has far less to do with it than has fresh manure.

All practical gardeners know how apt hotbeds, in spring when their heat is on the decline, are to produce a number of toadstools; and, also, that when the bed is "spent," that is, when the heat is altogether gone, the tendency to bear toadstools has gone too. This peculiarity is more apparent in spring than in fall. All mushroom growers know that spurious fungi, when they appear at all, are most numerous three to two weeks before it is time for the mushrooms to come in sight. The same growth appears in the manure piles out in the yard; a few weeks after the strong heat of the manure has gone lots of toadstools may be observed on and about the heaps, but on the piles of well-rotted cold manure we seldom find toadstools at all.

The fresh, clean stable manure used in mushroom-growing is not apt to be charged with the spores of pernicious toadstools; their presence is always most marked in the case of mixed manures.

And there is a current idea that mushrooms will not thrive in beds in which old manure abounds, either in the loam or fermenting material; that it kills the mycelium. This, too, I must refute. I have seen heavy crops of spontaneous mushrooms come up in violet and carnation beds in winter, and where the soil consisted of at least one-fourth of rotted manure well mixed with the earth. In cuc.u.mber and lettuce beds the same thing has taken place. And in similar beds that have been planted artificially with sp.a.w.n, good crops of mushrooms have also been raised, and the mycelium, instead of evading the lumps of old manure in the soil often forms a white web right through them.

CHAPTER XIII.

EARTHING OVER THE BEDS.

This is an important operation in mushroom-growing, and the one for which loam is indispensable. It consists in covering the manure beds, after they have been sp.a.w.ned, with a coating, or casing as it is more commonly called, of loam. The sp.a.w.n spreads in the manure and rises up into the casing, where most of the young mushrooms develop, and all find a firm foothold. The loam also contributes to their sustenance. And it protects the manure, hence the sp.a.w.n, from sudden fluctuations of temperature, and preserves it from undue wetting or drying.

The best soil to use for this purpose is rich, fibrous, mellow loam, such as is described, page 100.

If the manure is fresh and in good condition and the beds are in a snug cellar or closed mushroom house, I would not case them until the second week after sp.a.w.ning, say about the eighth or tenth day; but were these same beds in an open, airy shed or other building I would case them over some days earlier, say the fourth or fifth day. A fear is often expressed that when beds are cased within three or four days after being sp.a.w.ned the close exclusion of the manure from the air is apt to raise the heat of the manure in the bed, and thereby destroy the sp.a.w.n; but I have never known of any truth in this theory, and with well-prepared manure I am satisfied no brisk reheating takes place, at least the thermometer does not indicate it. The great danger of early casing is in killing the sp.a.w.n by burying it too deep in damp material and before it has begun to run through the manure.

I have conducted several experiments in order to satisfy myself regarding when is the proper time to case the beds, and have found no difference in results between beds that were cased over as soon as they were sp.a.w.ned and others that were not cased over until the fourth, seventh, tenth, or fourteenth day after sp.a.w.ning. The good or bad results in the time of casing depend on the condition of the manure in the beds, the depth at which the sp.a.w.n has been inserted, the openness or closeness of the place in which the beds are situated, and other cultural conditions. But to delay casing as late as the fifteenth or sixteenth day after sp.a.w.ning is injurious to the crop, because in applying the covering of soil we are sure to break many of the mycelium threads that have by this time so freely permeated the surface of the manure. After the fourth week little white knots may be observed here and there on the sp.a.w.n threads; these are forming mushrooms, and to delay casing the bed until this time would smother these little pinheads, and greatly mar our prospects of a good crop.

Peter Henderson, in his invaluable work, "Gardening for Profit," has given rise to a deep seated prejudice against molding over mushroom beds as soon as they are sp.a.w.ned by telling us that in his first attempt at mushroom-growing he had labored for two years without being able to produce a single mushroom, and all because he molded over his beds with a two-inch casing of loam just as soon as he had sp.a.w.ned them. Then he changed his tactics, and did not mold over the beds until the tenth or twelfth day after sp.a.w.ning, and was rewarded with good crops of mushrooms. Now, notwithstanding Mr. Henderson's experience, it is a fact that many excellent growers sp.a.w.n and mold their beds the same day, and with success. But Mr. H. has done much good in displaying a rock against which many might be wrecked, so much depends upon other cultural conditions. The old practice of inserting the sp.a.w.n three or more inches deep into the manure bed and then molding it at once with two inches deep of loam was enough to destroy the most potent sp.a.w.n; nowadays we barely cover the sp.a.w.n with the manure, and this is how molding over at once is so successful.

All the preparation necessary is to have the loam in medium dry, mellow condition, well broken up with the spade or digging fork, and freed from sticks, stones, big roots, clods, chunks of old manure, and the like.

Sifting the soil for casing the beds is labor lost. Sifted soil has no advantage over unsifted earth, except when it is to be used for topdressing the bearing beds or filling up the holes in their surface.

The condition of the soil should be mellow but inclined to moist. If wet it can only be used clumsily and spread with difficulty; if dry it can be spread easily but not made firm, and on ridge beds can not be put on evenly. But when moderately moist it can be spread easily and evenly on flat or rounded surfaces, and made firm and smooth.

How deep the mold shall be put upon the bed is also an unsettled question. Some growers recommend three-fourths of an inch, others one, one and one-half, two, or two and one-half inches, and some of our best growers of fifty or seventy-five years ago were emphatic in a.s.serting three inches as the proper depth, but among recent writers I do not find any who go beyond two and one-half inches. My own experience is in favor of a heavy covering, say one and one-half to two inches. In the case of a thin covering the mushrooms come up all right but their texture is not as solid as it is in the case of a heavy covering, nor do the beds continue as long in bearing; besides, "fogging off" is much more prevalent under thinly covered than under heavily covered beds; also, when the coating of loam is heavy a great many more of the "pinheads"

develop into full sized mushrooms than in the case of thinly molded beds.

Opinions differ as to firming the soil. I am in favor of packing the soil quite firm, and have never seen good mushrooms that could not come through a well firmed casing of loam, and I never knew of an instance where firm casing stopped or checked the spreading of the mycelium or the development of the mushrooms. In the case of flat beds,--for instance, those made on shelves and floors,--a slightly compacted coating (and this is all Mr. J. G. Gardner uses) may be all right, but in the case of alongside-of-walls, ridge, and other rounded beds I much prefer and always use solidly compacted casings.

Mr. Henshaw has for several years used green sods about two inches thick, put all over the bed, gra.s.s side down, and beaten firmly. The advantage of using sods instead of soil, he thinks, is that the young cl.u.s.ters of mushrooms never damp or "fogg off" as they are apt to do when soil is used.

I have given this green sods method repeated and careful trials, and am satisfied that it has no advantages, in any way, over common fibrous loam; indeed, it is not as good. No matter how firmly a sod, having its green side down, may be beaten on to a bed of manure, there is barely any union between the two; the sod merely rests upon the dung, but so closely that the mycelium enters it freely. A slight movement or displacement of the sod after the sp.a.w.n enters it will break the threads of mycelium between the manure and the sod, and this will destroy the immature mushrooms forming in the sod. This gave me a good deal of trouble. Stepping on the sod would disturb it. A clump of strong mushrooms formed under it sometimes displaces it in forcing their way to the surface.

Sods are only fit for use on flat beds where they can lie solid; on rounded or ridge beds they are too liable to be disturbed. And the trouble and expense of procuring sods are too great to warrant their use, even if they had any advantages.

CHAPTER XIV.

TOPDRESSING WITH LOAM.

In beds that are in full bearing or a little past their best we often find mult.i.tudes of very small or what we call "pinhead" mushrooms, that seem to be sitting right on the top of the loam, or clumps that have been raised a little above the surface by growing in bunches, or what we term "rocks"; now a topdressing of finely sifted fresh loam, about one-fourth to one-half inch thick, spread all over the bed, will help these mushrooms materially without doing any of them harm. But while this topdressing a.s.sists all mushrooms that are visible above ground, no matter how small they may be when the dressing is applied, I am not convinced that it induces greater fertility in the sp.a.w.n, or, in other words, induces the sp.a.w.n to spread further and produce more mushrooms than it would were no topdressing applied. I know that this is contrary to the opinions and writings of many, at the same time it is according to my own observation.

Go over the bed very carefully and pick out every soft or "fogged-off"

mushroom, no matter how small it may be, and root out every bit of old mushroom stem or tough spongy material formed by it, and in this way get the bed thoroughly cleaned. Then fill up all the holes caused by pulling the mushrooms or rooting out the old stumps, and when the whole surface is level apply the topdressing evenly all over the face of the bed, avoiding, as much as possible, burying the well advanced mushrooms.

While it would be very well to pack the dressing smoothly over the bed, it is impracticable; we may press it gently with the back of the hand on the bare spots between the mushrooms, but we should not even do this over the mushrooms, no matter how tiny they may be, else many of the "pinheads" will be injured and cause "fogging off."

But we can firm the dressing to the bed by watering it, which may be done over the whole surface of the bed, and without sparing the mushrooms, large or small. Use clear water and apply it gently through a water-pot rose. I always do this, and have never known it to injure the young mushrooms.

In the case of mushroom beds in which black spot has appeared in the crop, I have found that a topdressing of fine, fresh earth applied evenly all over the bed acts, to a certain extent, as a preventive of further attack, but of course has no effect upon any of the already affected mushrooms, large or small.