Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1890-03-01
MUSHROOMS IN THE OPEN AIR.
They Can 10 Successfully Grown in This
Way-The Process Is Attended with
Much Risk.

They Can 10 Successfully Grown in This
Way-The Process Is Attended with
Much Risk.
1 have previously reported some linn
tied experiments in growing mush-
rooms in open fields, writes b. f. j., in
the Country Gentleman. In September,
1888, brick of the spawn was planted
in field of rich pasture land, the opera
tion being the simple act of raising the
sod with spade, dropping into the cav
ity piece of the spawn as large as q
walnut and pressing the sod back again.
Seeing nothing of mushrooms in tho
spring of 1889, late in June / made q
second experiment with the mycelium
of different character, obtained from
the famous seed house of Nine. Viii
morin, Paris, France
The patch, a few rods square, after
planting as above, was covered with five
or six inches of good COW manure.
Heavy rain fell after the planting and
the soil was saturated. Some time in
July, when the bluegrass had come for
ward and covered the surface with
thick mass of vegetation, it was mown
and carried off, leaving the naked sward
exposed.
During the summer and September L
watched both fields closely, but saw no
signs of mushrooms and had pretty
nearly given up the experiment as a
failure, either from imperfect spawn or
improper method of handling-and
thinking perhaps drouth and heat had
interfered in tho business-when on tho
morning of the I'd of October / was
rewarded by the sight of my first mush-
room on the field planted in 1888. At
first | thought it to be the ordinary puff
ball-so round, white and large was it
swo inches in diameter at least in tho
button form. The following day
gathered seven more close by, two
thirds the size of the first, but mono
afterward. / may say few days previ-
Gus to the date named there had been
a light rain, a day temperature between
sixty-fve and seventy-five degrees, a
moist atmosphere and low barometer.
When these weather conditions return
/ shall look for more and not till then,
and none from the second sown piece
before the spring of 1890.
From my experience so far conclude
that the spawn or the germ of the mush-
room Agaricus campcStris and A. eduhs,
once in rich soil, resists for months high
or low temperature, drouth and satura-
tion but the mycelium does not develop
into the perfect mushroom that pushes
above ground except under certain soil
and weather conditions of heat, moisture
and temperature sustained for some days
between 90 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
Days with these characteristics are most
apt to occur in May and October for
these latitudes and sometimes in un-
usually cool seasons in the summer
months.
Judging from what have observed SC
far, l conclude there is no difficulty In
growing mushrooms on land as rich in
nitrogen and the phosphates as the
black-soil prairie, but the intense feat
ures of the climate so much restrict the
season of harvest and sometimes abolish
altogether that the crop must needs be
precarious one. Let me add in conclu.
sion that 1 forgot or neglected in both
cases when planting to fertilize and re-
inforce each piece of spawn with, say, Q
teaspoonful of nitrate of potash, as c
complement to the soil which Baron
Hooghvorts, a Belgian specialist in
mushroom culture, regards as essential
to success.