How to grow oil

The cultivation of oily mushrooms on an industrial scale is fraught with certain difficulties, since too much open area is needed to obtain a large crop. But in order to grow butter in the country, as practice shows, there are no obstacles. Having received mycelium from spores of forest mushrooms, you can sow a specially prepared area and in a year get the first crop.

Oil mushrooms belong to the Boletov family, which has about 250 different types of hat mushrooms. Several types of oils are widespread in nature, of which the most common late or recent grease nipple, larch nipple, soft nipple, yellow-brown nipple, and granular nipple are most common. All these species can be cultivated on personal plots or on specially organized mushroom farms depending on the conditions created, soil composition and the presence of host trees with which these species of fungi form mycorrhiza.

In the wild, oiler grows mainly in a forest zone with a temperate climate at the edges and clearings of coniferous forests, along roadsides, in young plantings of pine and spruce; larch oiler is found in larches. A widespread oil can in Europe and North America, lives in Asia and Australia. In Russia, oiler lives everywhere: from Arkhangelsk and Vologda in the north to the forest-steppe zone of the Saratov and Voronezh regions in the European part of the country; it is characteristic of the Urals, Siberia and the Far East.

Oil mushrooms are traditionally considered summer mushrooms, grow in coniferous forests from June to October, and in warm autumn in the southern regions are found until early November.

You will learn about how butter mushrooms look and how to grow them properly in this article.

Description of mushrooms oily

By the nature of the nutrition, the oilfish belong to the category of mycorrhizal fungi, or symbiotic fungi that form mycorrhiza with the roots of young conifers. In nature, the mycelium grows to its maximum fruiting for about 13-15 years, prefers light-structured sandy soils with a high content of limestone and rich in organic substances, grows mainly on coniferous litter.

The description of the butter is so characteristic that they are confused with any other mushrooms due to the characteristic oily hat, covered with a sticky layer on top, and a yellowish pulp. In most species, the oily film is easily separated from the pulp.

Look at how the butterfish look in these photos - the color of the mushroom cap is brown; depending on their type and soil characteristics, it can vary from yellowish-brown to red-brown or brown-olive:


The cap of the mushroom on average reaches 5–6 cm in diameter, however, it is often possible to meet mushrooms with a cap diameter of 8–12 cm. At the initial stage of the development of the fruiting body, the cap is either hemispherical or convex, and straightens and becomes flatter as the fungus grows. The height of the fungus is on average 6-10 cm, the stalk is more often cylindrical, in some species it may be club-shaped.

The mushroom has a harmonious taste, high nutritional value, can be subjected to any processing methods: from drying to boiling, frying or pickling.

Some types of oils, such as larch and grace, contain medicinal substances that can provide relief from severe headaches and alleviate an attack of gout. These properties are widely used in traditional medicine.

This photo selection shows how different types of oil look:

How to grow butter in the country

In industrial mushroom growing, oilers are bred to a limited extent due to the lack of a highly profitable technology for intensive indoor cultivation, which is why large areas with coniferous planting are required to create production plots. However, the cultivation of butter is characteristic of amateur mushroom farming due to the excellent quality of mushrooms, as well as the high fecundity of the mycelium.

To date, in the culture, butterwigs are grown by amateur mushroom growers according to the extensive method, as close as possible to the natural

Due to the characteristic feature of the fungi, to form mycorrhiza with the roots of young conifers for oil plantations, a site is selected with several young pine, cedar, larch or spruce, depending on the type of oiler and the growing conditions of the mycelium, from which the mycelium was obtained. The desired age of the trees is from 10 to 15 years, it is in this neighborhood that the mycelium grows most actively, as young trees take less nutrients from the soil and water, leaving more food to the mushrooms. Some types of oils taken from mixed forests can be grown under deciduous trees with which they can create symbiosis. Lubes love light penumbra, but they can also grow in sunny areas, prefer acidic soils, and are able to grow on enriched peatlands.

Before growing oil, you need to remove the top layer of earth in a selected area to a depth of 20 cm. This is necessary to create optimal soil for the development of mycelium. Nutrient soil is formed from several layers. The first, lower layer is made from plant materials - it can be mowed grass, fallen leaves, chopped wood, needles. It is desirable to create the second layer from the soil collected at the place where the mushrooms grow, in which case its acid-base balance will be as close to optimal as possible, but you can replace it with ordinary garden soil. The depleted garden soil must be enriched with humus. Mushroom mycelium is sown on prepared soil.

Today, most mushroom growers prefer to use spores of overripe mushrooms collected in the forest for planting, despite the fact that oil obtained in laboratory conditions is present in specialized online stores. This is primarily due to the nature of the nutrition of the fungus, which receives most of the organic matter from the tree, with which it forms a symbiosis. With this nutrition, the composition of the soil, as well as the type of trees with which the butterdish forms symbiosis, are of paramount importance. As a rule, in conditions that are very different from natural, in which the mycelium has developed earlier, fruiting bodies do not form, despite its successful development.

Propagated mycelium is planted to trees in spring. The substrate filled with mycelium is evenly distributed in a thin layer over the prepared site, after which it is covered with a layer of plant material from leaves or grass, a layer of garden or forest soil is added from above. The sown area is watered from sprinkler plants with fine spraying or by the drip method until the upper soil layer is moistened. From above the platform can also be covered with a thin layer of leaves protecting the soil from drying out. As the soil dries, it is necessary to moisten it.

Fruiting occurs a year after sowing, lasts in one place for up to 15 years.In autumn, beds sown with mycelium, it is desirable to additionally cover with straw, grass, leaves. In spring, the protective layer is removed, leaving a thin layer of plant material.

Unlike forest oils, garden oils almost never happen to be wormy, since there are no natural mushroom pests characteristic of the forest in garden soil.

As a rule, the first years the crop is insignificant, as the mycelium continues to develop for another 5–7 years, after which the number of fruiting bodies will increase significantly. Collect the oil by hand, twisting the mushrooms or cutting them to the root. After 10-15 years, with a decrease in fruiting, the mycelium can be replaced. To obtain stable yields on plantations, several sites with different ages of mycelium are created, which makes it possible to collect abundant mushroom crops annually. After cutting, butter can be used both for cooking and for future use - mushrooms need to be dried or pickled.

How to grow mycelium oil at home

As practice shows, you can grow mycelium oily and at home. For this, the collected mushrooms must be mixed with a specially selected substrate. The substrate for the development of mycelium is prepared on the basis of peat and coniferous sawdust, which help create a nutrient medium that is close to natural. To obtain sawdust, it is advisable to use those tree species near which mushrooms collected for cultivation grew. For multiplication of mycelium, ordinary three-liter jars are better suited. Thoroughly dried substrate is laid out in a jar, lightly tamped until the container is about half full.

Additional nutrition of the mycelium is provided by a special nutrient solution, which is prepared on the basis of sugar syrup with the addition of a yeast suspension at the rate of: 1 tsp for each liter of water. sugar and the same amount of yeast. For each three-liter jar, it is necessary to prepare 1.5 l of nutrient solution. It is brought to a boil, after which they pour peat laid in cans into it. Then, dried sawdust is added until the entire volume of the can is filled, tightly closed with a lid and left for 5 hours to saturate the substrate with nutrients. Then the remaining water is drained, the substrate is thoroughly mixed, punctures are made in several places with a thin stick and pieces of mushrooms with spores are placed in the holes made.

The jar is tightly covered with a lid with a hole made in it with a diameter of 1.5 cm, which is plugged with a foam plug and left for 3 months, maintaining the temperature in the room at 23–25 ° C. After the development of hyphae, the substrate with mycelium is harvested before sowing in a cold, dark room with a temperature of about 6 ° C.