Colds are excellent conditions for the growth of enoki (also known as Enokitake, Flammulina velutipes, velvet shank). This delicious and healthy mushroom can be found even in city courtyards, and it is not too difficult to grow enoki mushrooms at home on your own balcony. Gowing mushroom with proper care and parameter is easy.
Table of Contents
Description of the Enoki Mushrooms, biological features
Enoki mushrooms are prized primarily for their medicinal properties, although it tastes good too. It is edible not only after cooking but also raw: the caps of young honey agaric can be added to salads and snacks. Mushrooms are boiled in salted water, put in soups. The legs of naturally growing mushrooms are inedible, but under artificial cultivation (low light and high humidity), the leg of an enoki mushroom becomes long, soft, and just as tasty as the cap.
In nature, it grows in winter, when there are no other mushrooms (it is harvested even under the snow).
The mushroom is distinguished from other mushrooms growing in aggregates by a velvet leg, dark in the lower part. The cap is yellow or light brown, darker in the center, lighter at the edges. A mature mushroom has a dark brown cap, 3-8 cm in diameter, first in the form of a bell, then flat. The skin on the cap is sticky in wet weather, smooth and shiny in dry weather.
The leg is thin, cylindrical or compressed, straight or curved. The upper part of the leg is smooth, yellow or reddish-yellow in color. The underside is dark brown or even black, velvety.
The pulp of enoki mushrooms is white or pale yellowish, at first thin and tender, then denser.
Mushrooms grown under artificial conditions with a lack of light can be completely white, but this does not affect their properties. Bunches of honey agarics, similar to bouquets of flowers, are especially appreciated.
hHow to grow enoki mushrooms at home
Substrate preparation for growing enoki mushrooms:
- For one substrate block with a volume of 2 liters, you will need 230 g of dry sunflower husk or 200 g of dry sawdust. To them add 70 g of grain (oats or barley), a teaspoon of chalk or lime flour.
- The substrate is stirred and soaked in excess water, then boiled for 45 minutes. Excess water is drained through a sieve. The resulting mixture is dried for 20 minutes in a frying pan or baking sheet over low heat so that it does not burn. The weight of the boiled and drained substrate after drying will decrease by 20%.
- The processed mixture is packed in containers. With a clean tablespoon, place the still warm substrate in a clean plastic bag with a volume of at least 2 liters or in a glass jar with a capacity of 1 liter. Banks fill up to 0.8-0.9 of their volume.
- Without removing it from the bag, the substrate is cooled to a temperature below +25 ° C. In a clean room without dust, on a clean table, knead the grain mycelium with clean hands. In the open throat of the bag, 20 g of mycelium is poured onto the surface of the substrate and compacted. A cork with a diameter of 3 cm from sterilized cotton wool or from a new (not used) synthetic winterizer is inserted into the throat of the package, tightened with twine. Banks are closed with lids with a hole with a diameter of 2 cm and a cotton or synthetic winterizer plug inserted into it.
- The containers are placed on shelves at a temperature of +12 … + 20 ° C. A month later, the substrate is ready for fruiting: it will become denser and lighter, with tubercles on the surface (rudiments of fruiting bodies). Transfer the containers to the place of future fruiting carefully, without removing the cotton plug, without damaging the surface.
Preparation and sowing of enoki Mushroom
enoki mushrooms are grown on a glazed loggia, in a greenhouse, a cellar, and even in a basement without constant lighting. Substrate – a block already ready for fruiting is sold in a store, or you can make one yourself on the basis of hardwood sawdust (except for oak), sawdust from pine boards, shavings from an electric planer, or sunflower husk mixed with sawdust. Chips from branches of deciduous trees and shrubs are suitable.
Rules for growing enoki Mushroom
Transfer the jars with the substrate ready for fruiting or the substrate blocks to a room with an air temperature of +8 … + 12 ° C and relative humidity of 80-85%. Remove the covers, remove the cotton wool (synthetic winterizer). Fruit bodies will soon appear on the surface of the substrate.
The mushrooms in the bag begin to grow towards the fresh air. The bag forms a bunch of mushrooms and creates the necessary air humidity for them. In the basement, the bag can be removed from the substrate block, but the mushrooms will grow in all directions, like the needles of a hedgehog. To receive the mushroom caps with sufficiently large and short legs, during fruiting do not apply paper collars and give a more intense light in the chamber (5-10 W / g ).
You can build a small cultivation chamber on a loggia or in a house where the temperature does not exceed +18 ° C. An ultrasonic humidifier with a built-in fan, which produces cold steam, will not interfere, but in autumn, winter, and spring with high “collars” mushrooms grow well on a glazed loggia and without a device. Mushrooms are harvested 2-3 times with an interval of 12-14 days.
Enoki substrate mix recipes
| Substrate base weight | Additive weight | Dry substrate weight | Absorbed water | Wet substrate volume | Wet substrate weight |
| Wood chips – 500 g. | Sawdust – 120 g + shavings – 80 g (60%) | 630 BC | 570 ml. | 2 p. | 1200 BC |
| Wood shavings – 200 g (60%) | Barley or groats – 130 g (40%) | 330 BC | 670 ml. | 2 p. | 1000 BC |
| Sawdust – 120 g + shavings – 80 g (60%) | Barley or groats -130 g (40%) | 330 BC | 720 ml. | 2 p. | 1050 BC |
Enoki Mushroom Growing Secrets and Care
The longer the mushroom legs grow, the easier it is to collect them. To make them stretch up better, after the incubation period, dense paper collars with a height of 20-30 cm are put on containers (cans, bottles). For ready-made substrate blocks brought from the store, the packaging plays the role of a collar – a rigid polypropylene bag.
For mushrooms to grow in a room with temperatures above normal, a cold shock is needed. Containers with a substrate for 3-5 days are placed in a refrigerator or a place with a low temperature (+4 … + 8 ° C), then transferred to a room (temperature +12 … + 16 ° C). You can place the vessels with the germinated mycelium in the freezer for 3 hours or outside in winter. Then leave them in the refrigerator at a temperature of +1 … + 5 ° С for 2-3 days, then transfer them to the room. After 3-4 days, small mushrooms will appear.
