King Stropharia Cultivation Success

Now, Ken cultivates mushrooms in the damp weather of SF and the East Bay, but our San Jose summers are warmer and drier. After some meager attempts to cultivate various mushroom types in the summer garden, we asked “Why not grow mushrooms in a Winter Garden?”, and that we did.

In November of 2009, we started a winter garden using a raised bed in one of our Master Gardener research facilities, which included cauliflower, cabbage and lettuce. In December, we acquired a 6 lb. bag of King Stropharia grain spawn from Mushroom Harvest of Athens, Ohio and were off with reckless abandon using memory notes from Ken and some phone consultation with the supplier. The first thing we did was to dig a trench in the center of the bed about two feet deep and about five feet long. In the bottom of the trench we added a layer of pasteurized alder wood chips and straw.

This pasteurization approach (90 minute water bath at 160°F) was indicated to be not absolutely necessary by our supplier, but was thought to give us an initial “leg up” on mold competition. We then added a layer of about 1.5 lbs. of spawn and covered it with more warm straw and chips. Two weeks later, we added another substrate layer of chips, straw and some leaf compost (unpasteurized), and another 1.5 lb. layer of spawn. Two weeks later still another layer of substrate was added, this time with no spawn. At this point we could see expansion of white mycelia. An estimated total of three pounds of spawn was in our trench.

From then on we just waited, letting the ample rains of Santa Clara County keep the mushroom winter garden hydrated. With eager eyes, in March we looked for fruiting bodies to no avail. It was beginning to look like we would have a fine garden of winter vegetables, but no mushrooms.

On April 10th it happened! Some small wine colored caps were appearing and it was an exhilarating feeling after previous fail-ures. They soon started getting bigger and coming up over the entire trench. I had heard of these getting up to three pounds or so. Maybe in moist climates, but we have harvested most of our mushrooms at between a half and three quarter pounds. They proved quite popular and delicious with a mild, sweet taste. At this point, we continue to feed “the giant”, this time with oak shavings and hydrating with drip irrigation.

These mushrooms are very meaty and clean and well worth the effort. The King Stropharia is one of the most beautiful mushrooms I have seen. These mushrooms certainly live up to the name Wine Cap Stropharia, as they sometimes call it in the Midwest.