Did a winecap experiment. Spawned a 6x6 area of wood chip with winecap in spring last year. Spread it to all the flower beds that fall. This year was a success with wine cap everywhere. Way more than could be eaten. Winecap is by far the cheapest and easiest mushroom to grow. And as the title says, it’s a great companion planting.
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This year I planted wine caps in three different locations:
- under berry bushes mulched with wood chips. I placed sawdust spawn and covered with more wood chips. Result - 0 mushrooms from 4 sq feet.
- In the deep shade near maple trees: woodchips, sawdust spawn , straw. Result -~10 mushrooms from 4 sq feet
3). Middle of the garden bed 9X4, few feet from the location 2, some afternoon sun, woodchips , Sawdust Spawn , straw , with reach garden soil around the woodchips middle. I planted impatiens in the soil surrounding woodchips . None of the mushroom grew in the middle, but they spread to the sides and grew between flowers - from there I got 8 pounds for the season.
Go figure…
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The first year when it was just the pile of chips I got nothing. That’s why I’m surprised it worked so well when I spread it to the flower beds. It takes a little time for that stuff to settle in and spread around. Trust me my results were amazing and I’m willing to bet next year yours will be too.
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Were your chips fresh? I have some piles that’s been around for 2 years. I wonder if they’re still usable or too far gone.
Mine were about the same.
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fresh is best but if not colonized with something else the older stuff will work. hardwood sawdust is best but I’ve talked to a lady in A.K and she said it grows on spruce. got to think the spruce sap would give it a unpleasant taste. ive heard of them growing on layered cardboard and newspaper but they don’t flush as much.
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this year I’ve gotten about 20 pounds from the winecap beds. first and most productive was on the dirt, covered with woodchips and straw, among the papaw seedlings. it gets a lot more water than other areas and it’s in shade
second bed was north side of the house along the porch, gooseberries and a few hostas grow there. I got two good flushes from the spot. this was the most dry area, but the most shaded.
third area was under the honey locust; I’ve only gotten a few from there. tulips and grape hyacinth are planted there and it gets a bit more sun than the other spots, medium amount of water.
I’m hoping the mycelium survives our tough winter, and plan to add more spawn in the spring in other spots mostly under all the trees. any place that gets watered regularly.
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I wouldn’t worry about them surviving the winter, im zone 3/4 and they do more than fine. They do burn through the material in thier “beds” quickly, like a couple years. They also spread, you’ll soon find them anywhere you have woodchips. I got them popping up in my blueberry patch now, like 500 feet from the place they were planted.
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that’s good news! two kinds of good news.
they were a lot bigger than I anticipated too. I’ve got plenty of woodchips to feed them. and straw
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feed them some hardwood woodchips in fall and again in summer. at least a few in. each time and they will be around for 5 yrs or more. mine lasted 7 before petering out.
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They even spread to my flower beds that have pine chip in them.
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Where you you fine folks get the spawn for winecaps?
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Got mine from Field and Forest, but my credit card was stolen after shopping with them. Sent them an e-mail, but not sure if they got that straight or not. Fungi Perfect and Sawdust Spawn is another, but I have not bought from them.
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I got mine from north spore, sawdust spawn
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I’ve got all my spawn from Field and Forest. Got more mushrooms than i can pick. Started drying some. One nice thing about winecap is they alway seem to be a few somewhere, but the rest come in big flushes.
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This thread has me thinking about growing winecaps. A few questions:
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What do they taste like fresh? (eg: More like criminis? Shitakes? Buttons? etc)
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What do they tast like dried, and what would they be used for? (eg: Would they go in pasta sauce, like porcinis? Or in stir frys, like shitakes?)
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If I bougt some spawn now, would it be a good time to inocculate some mulch? I was planning to put some mulch down in my gardens soon, so that the bare soil where the garden plants have died is protected over winter. (As an FYI, I bought NoFloat Cypress Blend Mulch, Brown Mulch, 2 Cubic Foot - Walmart.com, and I live in zone 7A outside if Philadelphia). I thought that, since I’ll be laying down mulch soon, it might be a good time to throw some mushroom spawn down as well.
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I was thinking of doing a thin layer of compost, then the sawdust spawn, and then the mulch on top. Would that work? Or would the compost somehow mess with the spawn?
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i made mine by scrapping down to bare earth then mixing the spawn with wet woodchips in a wheelbarrow. lay that down about 3-4in. thick then mulch with 6in. of straw. i bordered the 4’ x 4’ bed with poplar logs. water when you water your garden. make sure you use hardwood as they don’t like softwoods and no cedars. cypress is in the same family as cedar. 
spruce they may tolerate but you won’t get as good yields. i get hardwood sawdust from a firewood business for free. if you do it now you should have some flushes by spring. up here i can get away with part shade but in your environment i would look for a moist, not wet, spot in near full shade. i took about 1/2 my inoculated chips from that bed and spread them under the mulch around my plantings. as long as you give them about 3in.of fresh, not composted, woodchips to eat every year you should get flushes for 5-6 years.
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Thanks makes sense. Upon recent inspection, I got some sort of white crust fungus on my old chip heaps so it’s no longer good for growing fungus. But great stuff for garden.
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Nice, are you still getting winecaps after frost?
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