Mushrooms: how to grow them Part 5

=How to Keep Sp.a.w.n.=--Sp.a.w.n should be kept in a dry, airy place, somewhat dark, if convenient, and in a temperature between 35 and 65.

Wherever things will "must," as in a cellar, cupboard against a wall, or in a close, damp building, is a very poor place for keeping sp.a.w.n. If the sp.a.w.n is perfectly dry and kept in a dry, airy place, and not in large bulk, and covered, it will bear a high temperature with apparent impunity, but whenever dampness, even of the atmosphere, is coupled with heat, the mycelium begins to grow, and this, in the storeroom, is ruinous to the sp.a.w.n. Judging from our natural mushroom crops, the sp.a.w.n for which must be alive in the ground in winter, one concludes that frost should not be injurious to the artificial sp.a.w.n, still my experience is that hard frost destroys the vitality of both brick and flake sp.a.w.n. And this is one reason why I get our full supply of sp.a.w.n in the fall and keep it myself rather than submit it to the mercy of the seed store.

=New Versus Old Sp.a.w.n.=--How long sp.a.w.n may be kept without its vitality becoming impaired is an unsettled question, but there is no doubt, if properly kept, it will remain good for several years. But I can not impress too strongly upon the reader the importance of using fresh sp.a.w.n. Do not use any old sp.a.w.n at any price; do not accept it gratis and ruin your prospect of success by using it. It takes three months from the time when the manure is gathered for the beds until the mushrooms are harvested. Can you, therefore, afford to spend this time, and undergo the care and trouble and expense, and court a failure by using old sp.a.w.n? We have risks enough with new sp.a.w.n, let alone old sp.a.w.n. I do not use any more old sp.a.w.n, but I have used it often and long enough to be convinced of its general worthlessness, unless preserved with the greatest care.

=How to Distinguish Good from Poor Sp.a.w.n.=--This is a very difficult matter, notwithstanding what people may say to the contrary. If we could positively tell good from bad sp.a.w.n, we would never use bad sp.a.w.n, and, therefore, with ordinary care, have very few failures in mushroom-growing; for good sp.a.w.n is the root of success in this business. Sp.a.w.n differs very much in its appearance; sometimes the bricks show very little appearance of the presence of sp.a.w.n, and still are perfectly good; and again, we may get bricks that are pretty well interlaced and clouded with bluish white mold or fine threads, and this, too, is good. When the bricks are freely pervaded with p.r.o.nounced white threads this is no sign that the sp.a.w.n is bad. Bricks dried as hard as a board may be perfectly good; so, too, may be those that are comparatively soft. Mushroom sp.a.w.n should have a decided smell of mushrooms, and whatever cobweb-like mold may be apparent should be of a fresh bluish white color, and the fine threads clear white. Prominent yellowish threads or veins are a sign that the mycelium had started to grow and been killed. Distinct white mold patches on the surface of the bricks indicate the presence of some other fungous parasite on the mushroom mycelium; the absence of any mushroom smell in the sp.a.w.n indicates its worthlessness and that the mycelium is dead. One familiar with mushroom sp.a.w.n can tell with considerable certainty "very living"

sp.a.w.n and "very dead" sp.a.w.n, but I am far from convinced that any one can decide unhesitatingly in the case of middling or weak sp.a.w.n.

Mr. S. Henshaw, in Henderson's Handbook of Plants, tells us: "The quality of the sp.a.w.n may be very easily detected by the mushroom-like smell, ... and I should have no hesitation in picking out good sp.a.w.n in the dark." Sanguine, surely, but I have tried it and found the test wanting. M. Lachaume says that good sp.a.w.n shows "an abundance of bluish-white filaments well fitted together, and giving off a strongly marked odor of mushrooms. All those portions which show traces of white or yellow mold or have a floury appearance, should be rejected and destroyed." Mr. Wright says: "A brick may be a ma.s.s of moldiness, and yet be quite worthless; and if the mold has a spotted appearance, as if fine white sand had been dredged on and through the ma.s.s, it is certain there is no mushroom-growing power there.... If thick threads pa.s.s through the ma.s.s and there are signs of miniature tubercles on them, then the sp.a.w.n may be regarded as too far gone.... Cl.u.s.ters of white specks on the sp.a.w.n denote sterility."

Mr. A. D. Cowan, of New York, who has the reputation of being an excellent judge of mushroom sp.a.w.n, writes me: "To correctly judge the quality of brick sp.a.w.n by its appearance requires experience in handling it, and a trained eye which enables one quickly to detect good from bad, fair to middling. As two lots seldom come exactly or nearly alike in appearance, it is hardly possible to give precise rules to follow, excepting the never-failing requisite which the sp.a.w.n must possess to be good, namely, the moldy appearance on the surface, the more the better, without showing threads. Too many of these to a given s.p.a.ce are a sure indication of exhausted vitality, arising generally from the bricks being heaped together when in process of manufacture, before they are sufficiently dried. Healthy bricks are usually of a dusty brown color, and of light weight. Black colored sp.a.w.n is to be avoided, as a rule, and when the black appearance is very prevalent in a cargo of bricks it is a strong indication that the sp.a.w.n has not run its course; and as it is not expected to do so after it has reached the hands of the retailer it is economy to cast it aside. Some persons break a brick into several pieces to see how it looks inside. To the experienced eye this is not necessary, or even to lay hands upon it, as the outward moldy appearance is the best of all evidence of its healthy vitality, and this never exists if the bricks have lost their germinating power, excepting, of course, where they have been kept damp, and the sp.a.w.n has spent its power, which is detected by the white threads appearing in great quant.i.ty."

=American-made Sp.a.w.n.=--So far as I have been able to find out by diligent inquiry, mushroom sp.a.w.n is not made for sale in this country.

But I am informed that a few growers do save and use their own flake sp.a.w.n. Some of our princ.i.p.al growers, Van Siclen, Gardner, and Henshaw, for instance, in time past attempted to make their own sp.a.w.n, but with only partial success, and now they confine themselves to the imported article. But this state of affairs can not long continue. The demand here for fresh mushrooms is so great, the industry of mushroom-growing so important, the price of imported sp.a.w.n so high, and the quant.i.ty of foreign sp.a.w.n imported annually into this country is so large, that, before long, we hope some one will find it to his advantage to make a specialty of growing mushroom sp.a.w.n in this country to supply the American market. There is no practical operation in connection with the cultivation of mushrooms so little known or understood by the general grower as the growing (or "making," as it is commonly called) and preserving of mushroom sp.a.w.n. General cultivators in England and France (outside of the Paris caves) do not make their own sp.a.w.n; it is a distinct branch of the business, and carried on by specialists who grow mushrooms for sale in winter, and sp.a.w.n in summer.

The time and attention required to produce a small quant.i.ty of first-cla.s.s sp.a.w.n are worth more than the cost of the sp.a.w.n at the seed store. In order to make sp.a.w.n profitably we must make it in large quant.i.ty, and we need not attempt to make it unless we have good materials and conditions for its proper preparation, and will give it every attention possible for its best development.

Because sp.a.w.n may be made in America is no reason whatever why the American people will buy it. We must produce, at least, as good an article as the best in Europe before we can find countenance in our home market. It is not the shape of the manure brick, its size, fine finish, hardness, softness, or freshness, that counts in this case; it is the fullness and vitality of the ma.s.s of mycelium or mushroom plant that is contained within it.

HOW TO MAKE BRICK Sp.a.w.n.

As the making of brick sp.a.w.n for sale is not yet an American industry, but almost entirely confined to England, I think it best to restrict myself to describing how it is made in England. Mr. John F. Barter, of Lancefield street, London, is one of the most successful mushroom growers and sp.a.w.n makers in Great Britain. He writes me that he confines himself entirely to the mushroom business; he makes his living by it. He grows mushrooms in the winter months and makes sp.a.w.n in the summer months; he employs men for mushroom bed making from August until March, then, to keep on the same hands during summer, he makes sp.a.w.n for sale.

He grows for and sells in the London market about 21,000 pounds of mushrooms a year, and in summer makes some 10,000 bushels, equal to 160,000 pounds, of brick sp.a.w.n for sale. The amount of sp.a.w.n made in a year by this one manufacturer is about three times as much as the total annual importation of mushroom sp.a.w.n of all kinds into this country. And he is only one maker among several. This fact alone must convince us that mushroom-growing is carried on to a vastly greater extent in European countries than it is here, where we have as good facilities as they have, and an immensely better market.

The manner of making the sp.a.w.n differs a little with the different manufacturers, and no one can become proficient in it without practical knowledge. I asked Mr. Barter if he thought sp.a.w.n could be made profitably in this country, paying, as we do, $1.50 a day for laborers, and without any certainty of the same men staying with us permanently.

He writes me: "Uncertain labor would be of no use. Of course the wages you pay would not affect it much, as I pay nearly as much as that for my leading men. But to begin with, you must have a man that has had some experience."

About the simplest and best way of making brick sp.a.w.n that I find described is the following from _The Gardeners' a.s.sistant_. I may here state that Robert Thompson, the author of this work, was for many years the superintendent of the Royal Horticultural Society's gardens at Chiswick, near London, and, in his day, was regarded as without a peer in practical horticulture, and lived in the midst of the market gardens of London and the princ.i.p.al mushroom-growing district.

"Fresh horse droppings, cow dung, and a little loam mixed and beaten up with as much stable drainings as may be necessary to reduce the whole to the consistence of mortar. It may then be spread on the floor of an open shed, and when somewhat firm it may be cut into cakes of six inches square. These should be placed on edge in a dry, airy place, and must be frequently turned and protected from rain. When half dry make a hole in the broadside of each, large enough to admit of about an inch square of good old sp.a.w.n being inserted so deep as to be a little below the surface; close it with some moist material the same as used in making the bricks. When the bricks are nearly dry make, on a dry bottom, a layer nine inches thick of horse dung prepared as for a hotbed, and on this pile the bricks rather openly. Cover with litter so that the steam and heat of the layer of dung may circulate among the bricks. The temperature, however, should not rise above 60; therefore, if it is likely to do so, the covering must be reduced accordingly. The sp.a.w.n will soon begin to run through the bricks, which should be frequently examined whilst the process of sp.a.w.ning is going on, and when, on breaking, the sp.a.w.n appears throughout pretty abundantly, like a white mold, the process has gone far enough. If allowed to proceed the sp.a.w.n would form threads and small tubercles, which is a stage too far advanced for the retention of its vegetative powers. Therefore, when the sp.a.w.n is observed to pervade the bricks throughout like a white mold, and before it a.s.sumes the thread-like form, it should be removed and allowed to dry in order to arrest the further progress of vegetation till required for use. It ought to be kept in a dark and perfectly dry place." I would add, do not keep it where it is apt to become musty or moldy in summer; also keep it in as cool a dry place as possible in summer, and always above 35 in winter.

These other recipes are also given:

"1. Horse droppings one part, cow dung one-fourth, loam one twentieth.

"2. Fresh horse droppings mixed with short litter one part, cow dung one-third, and a small portion of loam.

"3. Equal parts of horse dung, cow dung, and sheep's dung, with the addition of some rotten leaves or old hotbed dung.

"4. Horse dung one part, cow dung two parts, sheep's dung one part.

"5. Horse droppings from the roads one part, cow dung two parts, mixed with a little loam.

"6. Horse dung, cow dung, and loam, in equal parts."

From the above it appears that horse dung and cow dung are the princ.i.p.als in sp.a.w.n bricks; the loam is added for the purpose of making the other materials hold together; it also absorbs the ammonia, which otherwise would pa.s.s off.

=J. Burton's Method.= From _The Kitchen and Market Garden_.--Make the sp.a.w.n in early spring. As cow manure is the princ.i.p.al ingredient used in making the bricks this should be secured before the animals get any green food. Store it on the floor of an open, dry, airy shed, and turn it every few days for a week or two. Then add an equal part of the following: Fresh horse droppings, a little loam, and chopped straw, mixed together. "The whole should then be worked well together and then trodden down, after which it may be allowed to remain for a few days, when it will be required to be turned two or three times a week. If the weather be fine and dry the ma.s.s will soon be in a fit condition for molding into bricks, which process can be performed by using a mold in the same way as the brick makers, or, ... the manure may be spread evenly on the floor to a thickness of six inches, and then be firmly trodden and beaten down evenly with the back of the spade. It should then be lined out to the required size of the bricks, and be cut with a sharp spade or turfing iron. In a few days the bricks will be sufficiently dry to handle, when they should be set up edgeways to dry thoroughly, and if exposed to the sun for two or three days they will be ready to receive the sp.a.w.n. In introducing the sp.a.w.n two holes large enough to admit a piece of sp.a.w.n as big as a pigeon's egg should be cut in each brick at equal distances. This should be well beaten in and the surface made even with a little manure. The bricks should then be collected together in a heap and covered with enough short manure to cause a gentle heat, being careful that there is no rank heat or steam to kill the sp.a.w.n. This must be carefully attended to until the sp.a.w.n is found to have penetrated through the whole of the bricks, after which they should be stacked away in any convenient dry place."

HOW TO MAKE FRENCH (flake) Sp.a.w.n.

I can not do better than to let a practical Frenchman engaged in the business tell this story. In Vol. XIII of the London _Garden_ I find an English translation of M. Lachaume's book, "The Cave Mushroom," and this comment by the editor: "The most complete account of the cave culture of mushrooms which has been published by any cultivator on the spot well acquainted with the subject is that recently published by M. Lachaume."

Lachaume says: "The best sp.a.w.n to use is what is called 'virgin sp.a.w.n'; that is to say, which has not yet produced mushrooms. In this country this kind of sp.a.w.n may be procured of any respectable nurseryman, under the name of 'French sp.a.w.n.' It differs from English sp.a.w.n by being in the form of small tufty cakes, instead of in compact blocks. Large mushroom growers, however, always provide themselves with their own sp.a.w.n by taking it from a bed which is just about to produce its crop, or which has already produced a few small mushrooms.... It is true that by thus 'breeding in and in,' as it were, the mushrooms show a tendency to deteriorate after a time; new sp.a.w.n must therefore be obtained as soon as any signs of deterioration begin to manifest themselves."

=Making French Virgin Sp.a.w.n.=--Condensed from Lachaume's book on mushrooms. Take five or six barrow loads of horse droppings that have lain in a heap for some time, and lost their heat, and mix them with one-fourth of their bulk of short stable litter. Then, in April, open a trench two feet wide, twenty inches deep, and length to suit, at the foot of, but eight inches distant from, a wall facing north. In the bottom of the trench spread a layer three to four inches deep of chopped straw, then an equally thick layer of the prepared manure, all pressed firmly by treading it down. The two layers must now be gently watered, and then another double layer of chopped straw and droppings must be laid, trodden down and watered, and so on until the top of the trench is reached. The bed ought to rise above the level of the ground and be rounded off like the top of a trunk. To prevent excessive dampness from heavy rain cover the mound with a thick layer of stable litter. Three months after filling the trench it should be opened at the side or end.

If the pieces of manure are well covered with ma.s.ses of bluish-white filaments, giving off the odor of mushrooms, the operation has succeeded, and the sp.a.w.n is fit for use or for drying to preserve for future use. But if the threads are only sparingly scattered through the ma.s.s, the trench should be covered up again and left for another month.

In saving the sp.a.w.n the flakes of manure containing the largest amount of sp.a.w.n filaments should be retained, and those showing a brown appearance rejected. In order to facilitate the drying of the sp.a.w.n the flakes should be broken into pieces, weighing from one to two pounds; they are then placed in a well ventilated shed, but they must not be piled upon each other. Properly prepared and dried this sp.a.w.n keeps good for ten years.

=A Second Method= (by Lachaume). "This is generally adopted by mushroom growers. The formation of the sp.a.w.n is accelerated by adding pieces of old sp.a.w.n here and there.... At the beginning of April we must choose a piece of ground situated at the foot of a wall facing north.... The soil ought to be very open and light rather than heavy, so as to avoid dampness. Taking advantage of a fine day, we open a trench sixteen inches wide and at about eight inches from the foot of the wall, and of a length adapted to the quant.i.ty of sp.a.w.n we desire to produce. The earth is thrown out on the side opposite the wall. Manure which has been prepared for a mushroom bed, and has just come into condition is then filled into the trench, leaving, however, a s.p.a.ce at one end of it about two feet and six inches in length for the formation of a mushroom bed, which is made by tossing the manure about and shaking it up with the hands, after which it is pressed down with the hands and knees. As soon as the layer of manure reaches six inches in thickness we place along the edge a number of lumps of sp.a.w.n at about one foot apart. These lumps are placed level with the manure on the edge facing the wall. This portion of the surface of the manure ought to be raised vertically, and should lean against the earthen wall of the trench. The other half of the surface ought to slope gently toward the wall, leaving a s.p.a.ce of three or four inches between it and the side of the trench, so that it may be trimmed. The lumps of sp.a.w.n on this surface should be placed a little backward, so that they may not be broken when the bed is trimmed.

The bed is then covered with more manure, until the first lumps of sp.a.w.n are buried three or four inches deep. A second row of lumps of sp.a.w.n is then inserted, as described in the directions for making the first row, and the bed is filled up level with the surface of the soil. It is finished by covering it up with a layer of fine, dry soil three or four inches thick. The sp.a.w.n ought to be very dry, otherwise we shall get a premature crop of mushrooms instead of fresh sp.a.w.n. At the end of six weeks or a couple of months the new sp.a.w.n ought to make its appearance, a fact which we may learn by opening the bed. One sign, which will save us the trouble of opening up the beds, is the appearance of young mushrooms on the surface. The layer of earth is first removed, and then the cakes of sp.a.w.n are treated as described in the directions given for the first method of making sp.a.w.n."

=Third Method= (by Lachaume). "By filling in a trench like that described in the first method, by a series of layers of one-third of pigeon or fowl guano, and two-thirds of short manure, containing a large proportion of spent horse droppings, treading it down firmly, watering it if it is too dry, and finis.h.i.+ng up with a layer of soil, as described already, we may, at the end of a couple of months, or even a little longer, procure a supply of well-formed cakes of sp.a.w.n of excellent quality, which may be used in the ordinary manner."

From Mr. Robinson's "Mushroom Culture." "This (French) sp.a.w.n is obtained by preparing a little bed, as if for mushrooms, in the ordinary way, and sp.a.w.ning it with morsels of virgin sp.a.w.n, if that is obtainable; and then when the sp.a.w.n has spread through it, the bed is broken up and used for sp.a.w.ning beds in the caves, or dried and preserved for sale."

From Mr. Wright's book on mushrooms. "French sp.a.w.n ... is contained in flakes of manure. Neither is it virgin sp.a.w.n, nor derived immediately from it, ... but is sp.a.w.n taken from one bed for impregnating another."

=Relative Merits of Flake and Brick Sp.a.w.n.=--The flake or French sp.a.w.n costs about three times as much as the brick or English sp.a.w.n, and, as it is so much whiter with mycelium than is the brick sp.a.w.n, many believe that it is more potent and well worth the additional cost. In sp.a.w.ning the beds I use two pounds of flake sp.a.w.n to plant the same s.p.a.ce for which I would use five pounds of brick sp.a.w.n, and this gives a capital crop, with number of mushrooms a little in favor of the flake sp.a.w.n, but on account of the larger size of the mushrooms the weight of crop is considerably in favor of the brick sp.a.w.n. And I find more certainty of a crop in the case of the brick sp.a.w.n than in the other.

Regarding the respective merits of brick and flake sp.a.w.n, Mr. Barter, in response to my inquiry, writes me: "I have tried them both, and know brick sp.a.w.n to be far the best. You see, I do nothing but this mushroom business for a living, so, of course, would use the best kind of sp.a.w.n for my crop. Generally the French sp.a.w.n produces one-third less mushrooms than does the brick sp.a.w.n from the same length of bed, besides, those from the brick sp.a.w.n are by far the heaviest and fles.h.i.+est."

I would here observe that Mr. Barter's remarks apply more to ridge beds out of doors than beds in the cellar or mushroom house. And it is odd, but true, that the flake sp.a.w.n does not produce as good results in outdoor beds as it does in those under cover.

CHAPTER XI.

Sp.a.w.nING THE BEDS.

After the mushroom bed is made up it should, within a few days, warm to a temperature of 110 to 120. Carefully observe this, and never sp.a.w.n a bed when the heat is rising, or when it is warmer than 100, but always when it is on the decline and under 90. In this there is perfect safety. Have a ground thermometer and keep it plunged in the bed; by pulling it out and looking at it one can know exactly the temperature of the bed. Have a few straight, smooth stakes, like short walking canes, and stick the end of these into the bed, twelve to twenty feet apart; by pulling them out and feeling them with the hand one can tell pretty closely what the temperature of the bed is.

All practical mushroom growers know that if the temperature of a twelve inch thick bed at seven inches from the surface is 100, that within an inch of the surface of the bed will only be about 95 indoors, and 85 to 90 out of doors. Also, that when the heat of the manure is on the decline it falls quite rapidly, five, often ten degrees, a day, till it reaches about 75, and between that and 65 it may rest for weeks.

Some years ago I gave considerable attention to this matter of sp.a.w.ning beds at different temperatures. Sp.a.w.n planted as soon as the bed was made (five days after sp.a.w.ning the heat in interior of bed ran up to 123) yielded no mushrooms, the mycelium being killed. The same was the case in all beds where the sp.a.w.n had been planted before the heat in the beds had attained its maximum (120 or over). Where the heat in the middle of the bed never reached 115, the sp.a.w.n put in when the bed was made, and molded over the same day, yielded a small crop of mushrooms. A bed in which the heat was declining was sp.a.w.ned at 110; this bore a very good crop, and at 100 and under to 65 good crops in every case were secured, with several days' delay in bearing in the case of the lowest temperatures. But notwithstanding these facts, my advice to all beginners in mushroom growing is, wait until the heat of the bed is on the decline and fallen to at least 90, before inserting the sp.a.w.n.

Writing to me about sp.a.w.ning his beds, Mr. Withington, of New Jersey, says: "I believe a bed sp.a.w.ned at 60 to 70, and kept at 55 after the mushrooms appear, will give better results than one sp.a.w.ned at a higher temperature, say 90."

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 23. BRICK Sp.a.w.n CUT IN PIECES FOR PLANTING.]

=Preparing the Sp.a.w.n.=--If brick sp.a.w.n is used cut up the bricks (standard size) into ten or twelve pieces with a sharp hatchet, and avoid, as much as possible, making many crumbs, as is the case generally when a hammer or mallet is used in breaking the bricks. Extra large pieces of sp.a.w.n are apt to produce large clumps of mushrooms, but this is not always an advantage, as when many mushrooms grow together in a clump they are apt to be somewhat undersized, and in gathering we can not pluck them all out clean enough so as not to leave a part of the "root" in the ground to poison the balance of the clump, in cases where several or many of them spring from one common base.

=Inserting the Sp.a.w.n.=--When brick sp.a.w.n is used plant the lumps about an inch deep under the surface of the manure, and about ten inches apart each way. If the sp.a.w.n looks very good, and the lumps are large do not plant them quite so close as when the sp.a.w.n shows less mycelium in it, and the lumps are small. Never use a dibber in planting sp.a.w.n; simply make a hole in the manure with the fingers, insert the lump and cover it over at once, and as soon as the bed has been planted firm it well all over. Although the lumps are buried only an inch deep under the manure, we have to make a hole three or four inches deep to push the lump into to get it buried.

French or flake sp.a.w.n is inserted in much the same way and at about the same distance, only, instead of cutting it up into lumps, we merely break it into flaky pieces about three inches long by an inch thick, and in planting it in the beds, in place of pus.h.i.+ng it into the hole, lay in the flake on its flat side and at once cover it.