How To Grow 🍄 Mushrooms Outdoors at Home in the Garden! Wine Cap Mushroom Identification Cultivation

It's so easy to grow edible mushrooms outdoors! Wine cap (Garden Giant / King Stropharia) mushrooms, are great for beginners to grow. This single variety appeals to guerrilla gardeners, permaculturalists, organic gardeners, homesteaders and urban gardeners alike.
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CORRECTION (4:15): When I said March 12th, I meant June 2th.
MUSHROOM IDENTIFICATION:
Stropharia rugosoannulata are very easy to identify, and are less likely to be confused with other indigenous fungi. The trademark traits include a red-wine colored cap, grey-violet gills and a creamy-white colored stalk that displays an annulus or ring. If spotted soon after emergence, the cap may still be tightly closed, hiding the gills and perched at the height of the annulus. Over time the cap opens up exposing the gills which then darken with spores.
WINE CAP CULTIVATION:
Cultivation can be scaled to any property size. Site preparation is quite easy. Wine cap spawn can be purchased in pegs or sawdust. Unlike shiitake which do well with log cultivation, wine caps are best suited for in-ground or raised bed cultivation. Rather than logs, common stropharia substrates are wood chips, saw dust or straw which can be placed on or into the ground. Old wood chips are acceptable or new ones will work too. Allowing hardwood chips to age for a few weeks can improve colonization. Shade to partial shade seems to work well. Areas that tend to stay moist are ideal. Fall or Spring are the preferred seasons for inoculation.
MUSHROOM HARVEST:
If prepared in the Spring your first harvest may occur as soon as 8 weeks later. Weather fluctuations in moisture and temperature seem to signal mushroom emergence. But keep in mind that the process is quite random. So you need to visit your garden on a frequent basis. Placing your spawn in zones of frequent activity ensures that you won't miss any of your precious harvest. To pick them, simply cut them at the base with a sharp knife.
HOW TO COOK WINE CAPS:
Wine cap mushrooms are fairly versatile in cooking recipes. Many people suggest preparing them in the same fashion as portobello mushrooms. They work very well in sauté recipes. They have a slight nutty, earthy flavor. We've added them to homemade soups. And we've even stuffed the caps and baked them.
MUSHROOM PRESERVATION:
The mushrooms store well in a paper bag in the fridge for several days. Just be sure not to wash them. They also dry very well with a food dehydrator. This methods allows for long-term storage. Then they can be rehydrated and used in stocks and soups.
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR???
Do you have a small piece of land? Do you have access to free wood chips, perhaps from an arborist? Would you like some free organic mushrooms? Growing wine caps allows you to use existing resources to produce healthy food. At the same time you build rich soil and soil biota. A perfect example of stacking functions. The gardening technique in this video can work even in HOAs (home owners associations) where people often have major restrictions on their garden activities. Wine cap mushroom cultivation is the solution!
#WineCaps #GrowingMushrooms #GuerrillaGardening #FoodForest #UrbanGardening #Mycology #SoilBuilding #RaisedBedGardens #GardenGiant
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[@marktaichen]

Just today got the same mushroom popping up. I grow them in a big box. Only with straws. Very exciting.

[@Albopepper]

Awesome! 😃

[@chrissk6013]

Bravo. Nice polite. And correct information.

[@katrinaschultz8493]

"Ninja harvest" - Nice

[@maddart4445]

That’s so cool

[@oneofakind6313]

i may be late but i am doing a patch in the bush today using sawdust and straw.. Never know in oct a small harvest. never know but next spring hope a good one Have 30 logs impregnated also that might not flower this year ... May soak a few later in year to push some growth

[@userbosco]

You can also ferment shrooms!

[@Albopepper]

That's a good idea! 🍄🤩

[@kandiigoon680]

Inspirational af!

[@sumdumbmick]

it's weird to me that people have machines to dry things at 120 degrees. where I live you just wait until June and then that's the weather outside, probably with a lower humidity than the dehydrator produces. thanks for the info!

[@patticriss2238]

I love your channel. Very educational and easy to understand. Thank you.

[@Lochness19]

I did something similar with the mix of substrates. I made layers and strips of straw that I inoculated the most heavily, and then put wood chips and assorted "yard waste" (ex leaves, weeds, plant stalks) in between and on top (that I inoculated more lightly). But pretty soon, the whole bed was filled with mycelium. I also made a hole in the middle of the bed (which was about 8" thick) and filled it with compost and put a cherry tomato in it. I also put watermelons, another cherry tomato, squash and yacon at the edges of the bed. I set up the bed April 22, and yesterday I saw my first two fruit popping out of the compost at the base of the cherry tomato plant. Unfortunately, by the morning, some animal (squirrel? chipmunk?) had eating one of the fruit and nibbled the second. But hopefully soon I'll get enough that the animals can't keep up. It's been fairly cool here near Toronto, mostly below 75F for the past month, which may have helped. Although it's also been very dry, only 0.5" of rain in the past month, so I've had to water the beds. I haven't had as much luck with the oyster mushroom beds, which I expected to be the first to fruit. Those are in a straw-only bed under some bushes. The straw seems relatively well colonized, but no fruit yet.

[@ebradley2306]

Any comment on putting the spawn in leaves. I have deep leaves covering my perennial beds.

[@polacosan]

Hola Mario. Puedo comenzar en mediados de septiembre con Wine Cap spawn? Estoy en Winnipeg, Manitoba. Gracias.

[@sjt4689]

I'm wondering how your dehydrated wine caps ended up tasting & what their texture was like. Many mushrooms don't dehydrate nicely, making them rubbery & fouling their flavor. I've found this with several mushrooms. Lobster, chantarelle, corals, hedgehog & others. I ended up wasting approximately 10 pounds of beautiful wild lobster mushrooms by making the mistake of dehydrating them. Unless wild / outdoor mushrooms are for medicinal use, I always cook them with basic spices (salt / pepper / fresh garlic), olive oil & butter, then freeze them for later use, when I can add other ingredients to them before adding them to dishes or serving them on sourdough toast. This always works. Just a heads-up to those who think dehydrating wild / outdoor grown mushrooms are a good way to go. I assume the same would be the case for indoor grown mushrooms. Test it out with any mushroom you're picking for home use first. Many are rubbery, tasteless rubbish once they rehydrate.

[@Jtronique]

hey Mario! I saved this video of yours from awhile back and revisited it to recommend you. I didn't realize your entire channel was devoted to "Drought proof" gardening. So glad I revisited you! Good luck with everything. Gave you a like on facebook too!

[@Albopepper]

Nice! Thanks so much for your support. I really appreciate it! 😀

[@WhoMe87799]

Stacking functions means you're discovering permaculture methods, very nicely done! I particularly like your conventional mulch disguise since HOA Nazis and Karens are a huge PITA. Also those wine caps will be around for years and likely spread, fungi are truly a gift that keeps on giving. Others have said the ones that are fully unfurled and flat don't taste as good as the ones that are only partly opened. Don't eat them for more that 3 days in a row, you can get some weird digestive issues.

[@highteawiththequeenAustralia]

What's HOA?

[@Albopepper]

Home Owners Association. A self-empowered regulating group that dominates a swath of residences through the creation of all sorts of mundane regulations. Residents who fail to comply with the HOA's "rules" can be slapped with hefty fines. It's a very draconian framework that operates in direct opposition to a free society where high value is placed on personal liberties.

[@leisurely6711]

Does pine chips work ?

[@MidwayGuy]

Nice! Looks fun

[@emidza212]

I saw many different types of mushroom in the forest, but don't know them, whether they are edible......

[@Albopepper]

Unless you are 100% sure, you definitely shouldn't risk it! ......🍄😵🍄

[@Nocommenting]

Did you have any issues with the old straw already being colonised? I had old straw but opted for buying a new bale to avoid wild species competition.

[@Albopepper]

The bale that I had was old, but had been kept dry. So I had pretty good results. If in doubt, a new bale makes perfect sense.

[@WhoMe87799]

Winecaps are a pretty aggressive species and have even been used to cleanup the runoff from farms, as in bacteria. Somewhere Paul Stamets made video about that.

[@thinginground5179]

Where do they grow naturally other than wood chips?

[@great0789]

I just bought 11lbs of wine cap sawdust spawn online for about $50. I am going to try and get it going in the garden and around the property under trees. I look forward to having an experience like yours! Thank you for sharing.

[@chrome0011]

Fantastic vid!

[@haroldhoy2154]

Awesome very good information for persons who are in an HOA. You have a wonderful site here and valuable information thank you for thinking of others like this.

[@Albopepper]

:-D Thanks for watching! I appreciate everyone's support on my channel!

[@BlueStateEmpire]

Excellent! Thanks

[@Albopepper]

Thanks for watching Rumi!

[@dandavatsdasa8345]

I have been in a predicament with not having wood chips and saw dust handy. I am trying some shredded cedar chips. I tried using just shredded cedar this year in trays. I am wondering if I should have layered with damp peat moss. Thank you for sharing helpful and informative videos!

[@ThahnG413]

I assume this didn't work since one it sounds like you are trying to grow winecap inside?? The other factor that is likely going to fail is the cedar woodchips which are antifungal...

[@Lochness19]

You can grow them outside in just about anything afaik. If you gather whatever yard waste you have available, that should work. Mine are growing in a mix of straw, chopped up branches, and random leaves, weeds and plant stalks I gathered from the yard. You just have to make sure it's chopped up into small enough pieces that the bottom of the bed stays moist (a brush pile would probably be too airy and dry).

[@deborahdupain5962]

Thanks for this great video learnt heaps from New Zealand

[@Serpent32776]

Does the substrate have to be put on bare dirt or can it go over grass?

[@Albopepper]

If you have a nice thick layer of substrate, it could probably go right over the grass. Or you could even lay down clean cardboard 1st and then add substrate.

[@winnipegdigitalpsychogeogr5958]

this is a great video, thank's for sharing ! I am going to incorporate mushrooms in my garden for the first time come this spring, it is exciting to see how it can work with existing beds.

[@peewahlau9375]

Can your mushroom be grown in Redding California? My husband said that Redding is not humid enough. Is this so? Appreciate your speedy response. Thanks.

[@Albopepper]

I've never tried them on the west coast. I suggest asking a spore supplier.

[@peewahlau9375]

Could you give me the name of a supplier in my area?

[@miketurany2082]

Great video I wonder how the HOA would feel about planting Golden Teacher

[@abeNpdx]

Make them some tea.

[@jewelciappio]

They wouldn’t ever know.

[@andrewmcconnell5205]

👍👍 Awesome!

[@Albopepper]

Thanks for watching Andrew! :-D

[@alfredosalazar526]

Can you eat wine cap mushrooms raw?

[@teenaneuner3376]

this reminds of when i was young and we would walk in the woods or around our yard and pick berries and fruit and nuts. our yard wasn't landscaped. your "edible landscaping"is sooooo much better because it's both pretty and functional in the best way. as far as the mushrooms go, "yey ninjas!"

[@Albopepper]

ahhhhh memories...... Thanks for watching!!! :-)

[@SurfviewTV]

Excellent video! Thanks, man.

[@Albopepper]

Thanks for watching! xD

[@lets7121]

gotta luv shrooms

[@EvoChuckDee]

Definitely going to try this one! Thanks for another great video :)

[@Albopepper]

Thanks for watching Ian! :-)

[@agawied2910]

Awesome video

[@C_Swells]

ninja harvest, love it! great video

[@Albopepper]

;-) Thanks Clif!

[@northernpike56]

Good stuff !!!

[@Albopepper]

Thanks! xD

[@chestnutplanter]

Thanks for this video! I love when wine caps grow in the asparagus bed here. Been a couple years since I've been able to get an arborist chip drop, but I feed my beds every little scrap of wood and dried plant bits I have. They grow great with corn from what I hear and see. Wine caps taste great too!

[@ColoradoKrone]

Wow! Fantastic! building soil, yummy mushrooms, unbelievable!

[@jennifermisquith5606]

That’s pretty awesome! How do you maintain over the years? Do you have to re-inoculate? Add more chips?

[@drqin402]

Win, win, win nice. You can do this with a variety of different mushrooms too.

[@randomjohn]

I like that jar! I tried to grow some in a raised bed this year, but I was only able to make mulch. I spread the mycelium I had left to some boxes to over-winter, so hopefully I'll do better next year.

[@Dollapfin]

This is healthy for the soil. Quicker decomposition and more biomass means it will produce more.

[@PepperGuru]

NICE! LOVE IT

[@waynecribbs8853]

What a neat way to grow mushrooms. Thanks for your enthusiastic and informative video. :)

[@Albopepper]

Thanks Wayne! :-D

[@tkmccoywv]

If I can find a wood chip source, I may try this again. Thanks for the tips!

[@Albopepper]

Awesome! Thanks for watching Teresa. :-D

[@themusenextdoor]

I'm gonna have to add wine caps to my mushroom research list! I'm looking for a species that I can grow alongside potted fruit trees (the smallest pot is 20 gallons) without running the risk of inoculating someone's fence during a wet summer (pine is so popular here that even apartments sometimes use it).

[@Nocommenting]

Most species hate pines and cedars due to their anti fungal properties. They will only spread via direct contact (except native and very spore-prolific species) and odds are their fence is already colonised with a competitor species.

[@red_five1542]

And if you're HOA doesn't like it you can always go to the president's house with a borrowed truck and peel out on his lawn!

[@Albopepper]

LOL, that's one way to do it!

[@vickisgardenadventures14]

Did they come back again vickisGardenAdventures ?

[@JastaAdventures]

We purchased spawn last year and we are enjoying our first harvest this spring. Once they start fruiting, the ROI is a pretty quick payoff! Mushrooms are so expensive in the store. We’ve been harvesting over a pound every two days and have started to dry them in a dehydrator because we can’t keep up.

[@oneofakind6313]

i only buy the mushrooms in stores when 50 percent off. i cant afford them.. they go from 12 to over 20 dollars a pound. depending . I did shitake .. reishii .. blue and yellow oyster logs this year. have around 30 plus logs.. looking forward to future crops

[@davenooner2142]

Was that comfrey I saw there ?

[@Albopepper]

Yep! I have 4 plants on my lot. Russian Bocking 14.

[@davenooner2142]

Awesome, you know I know a lot about this stuff I hope. Krista just made a small led driven grow area to help her aloe and hen n chicks from lack of sunlight. I gave her a 15 foot roll of leds to start with.

[@burrichgrrl57]

So I put some in this spring and mushrooms are coming up all over now in September where we put the mycelium in. I was under the impression that these always had the "crown" or ruffle around the stem but many of them don't. Have you found that to be true? I really don't want to eat them if they are not winecaps. In all other respects it seems that they should be!

[@bjornmundt5801]

How long could you harvest them? September? October? How much in total? It looks great. Different food sources on the same piece of land. Food. Food. Food. Clean, green and healthy! Hope you will have many of them in the next years!

[@Nocommenting]

IDK about his area but wine caps generally fruit in spring but healthy populations can continue producing flushes until frost. (Northern Pacific Northwest)

[@Lizbeth120]

Fantastic video, thanks! We have full sun in our yard so I'm not sure we would have any success with mushrooms but I'd like to try.

[@cricketandfriends]

What did you find in cooking these, was your favorite way of serving them?

[@lumia_dayZ]

they protect you at night from zombies

[@nickzav]

Awesome video man! You should check out edible landscapes video on expanding your spawn indoors prior to moving it outdoors.

[@yangtse55]

"organic" as in carbon-based ? And even if you're using the woo woo meaning of the word, just what other way is there to grow wine caps ?

[@Albopepper]

These are organically grown mushrooms. Not all mushrooms are organically grown. There's a significant difference between organic and synthetic methods along with the resulting contaminants. _www.whatsonmyfood.org/food.jsp?food=MU_ So yeah, my terminology was quite appropriate.

[@joelegrand5903]

HoAs need to get a hobby!

[@Albopepper]

Yes indeed! They should get into mycology! ;-D

[@correctingcourse]

break down cellulose? don't you mean lignin?

[@Albopepper]

Efficient wood degradation is typically attributed to Agaricomycetes, the class of mushrooms to which wine caps belong. I don't have a degree in mycology. But to the best of my knowledge Stropharia rugoso-annualata mushrooms are categorized as "white rot fungi". White rot fungi depolymerize and mineralize all cell wall components including cellulose, hemicellulose, and the more recalcitrant lignin. So I guess the answer would be cellulose AND lignin.

[@correctingcourse]

Ah right on, I always associated white rot fungus in breaking down lignin and didn't really realise cellulose was also on their menu.

[@pauljones9150]

Video Thumbnail was a turnoff, but the video was very good

[@Albopepper]

What type of thumbnail would you prefer?

[@pauljones9150]

The thumbnail looks like the usual sensationalist click bait KZbin thumbnails. Anything else would be 10/10

[@Albopepper]

Thanks for the feedback Paul! I thought about the typical mushroom photo: showing a basic shot of some wine caps. But if you do a YT search for "wine cap mushrooms", the results are saturated with typical mushroom shots. Thus my reasoning for trying something different. It's not deceptive, just an alternative to the other generic thumbnails in this video category. I'm considering other options as well, which is why I appreciate any suggestions!

[@Albopepper]

OK Paul, I'm releasing a new video tomorrow so I figured I'd try experimenting with a new thumbnail for this existing video. I tried a totally different image. Let me know what your thoughts are!

[@pauljones9150]

AlboPepper - Drought Proof Urban Gardening Looks great Albo!

[@stephenriordan2616]

Great video!!