Jumbo Meadow Mushrooms (Agaricus campebella) that are dried in a carefully controlled environment to preserve the viability of the spawn. Instructions to extract spores are included. (Kit includes a metal tin of dried spawn, and instructions for creating the appropriate substrate and for growing indoors or in the field or lawn.) This product is a larger Hybridized Agaricus species which grows true (Wind and Roses Strain), and it has features of both Campestris and Bisporus, but is also divergent.
Produces caps 2-8" across, and nice meaty button mushrooms. Has a slightly firmer texture than Meadow Mushrooms, and strongly pink gills well into the mature stage.
A good quality edible mushroom, can be eaten raw or cooked. Requires less cooking than other white buttons. All Agaricus mushrooms are fine edibles provided they do not have a phenolic toxin in them, and this one does not. Medicinally it helps the body to compensate for chemical exposure due to contemporary living, and may help balance the immune system. This strain may or may not be a red stainer (some Meadow mushrooms stain red, others do not).
This is a white button type mushroom which naturalizes more easily than commercial (A. bisporus) mushrooms. The cap is more flattened than commercial button mushrooms, and is about the same size. It has light pink gills when young, which brighten to a deep pink and then darken to a deep brown as the spores mature. The spores are brown in color. The mushroom has a fragile partial veil, which creates a tattered dissolving ring on the stalk when the cap bottom edge separates from the stem, but the ring will reabsorb into the stem as the mushroom grows, so it may not be easy to see in older mushrooms. This will also have ragged veil remnants around the cap edge which also absorb. The cap is white in moist weather, but may discolor some to a brownish or grayish color in dryer weather.
Meadow mushrooms like disturbed pasture or lawns which have occasional manure applications (they like heavily grazed pastures for that reason). This strain will grow in thicker lawns than smaller strains will grow in. They like an area that receives full or partial sun, and will fruit on warm days just after heavy rains, spring or fall (or during cool summers). They naturalize well and will form fairy rings. May be grown in containment on compost like other white button mushrooms. They will also grow well in container gardens, but require larger pots of 15" or larger and a heavy layer of compost and mulch on the top.
Meadow Mushrooms are a prevalent mushroom which may be grown indoors or outdoors across most of the US. This strain requires more mycellial mass to fruit than smaller strains, so it is most suited to larger containers, or sizable yards or fields.
May be used to culture into compost to create spawn, or can be direct sown into substrates or into the soil using several simple non-sterile methods.
Each order of dried spawning mushroom contains enough to create two batches of active spores, which may be cultured and expanded, and then sown into the desired substrates.
Dried Spawn is EASY to use! Just reconstitute in water, and either finely chop or use a blender, and pour the resulting spore and mushroom mixture over your substrate or onto the ground where they need to be sown.
Packaged in metal tins for longest storage and viability. We do not use plastic in handling this product (plastic leaches chlorides, which are fungicidal in effect), and our products are not exposed to chlorine or other harmful chemicals during growth, processing, or handling on our property. You may be assured of the highest quality and maximum growth potential.
NOTE: Dried spawning mushrooms must be selected and handled correctly to produce viable spores. They must also be used correctly to extract spores, and then to culture the spores into the receiving medium. Our proprietary methods ensure viable spores, and we give you instructions for culturing them in a non-sterile environment. (If cultured improperly in a non-sterile environment, things go terribly wrong.) You are not only paying for the mushroom spores, you are paying for our expertise in both the processes we carry out before you see the product, and the instructions we give you for using the spawning mushroom.
Cross contaminations DO occur with non-sterile mushroom spawn (they seem to occur with alarming frequency with supposed sterile spawn as well!). In general, these contaminations are harmless, they may produce other non-edible, or other edible mushrooms, but for the most part, the mushroom you paid for will outnumber the contaminations by many times, and will not establish ahead of the desired mushroom.
Additionally, when using non-sterile methods to culture in natural materials, prior colonizations of unwanted fungus may occur, resulting in the fruiting of unexpected, random mushroom types. This is not at all a disaster, and normally does not cause problems. These mushrooms will typically be inedible, and may be ignored - in our experience, the cultured mushroom still establishes well and will produce well in spite of the interlopers! The chance that a poisonous look-alike would grow instead is virtually non-existent - because dangerous look-alikes don't grow in the same environment as visually similar edible species.
We do advise that you KNOW YOUR MUSHROOM - and that you know what it looks like, so you correctly identify anything coming up. This is wise in every instance, because even when you are using "sterile" kits or materials, rogue mushrooms may grow.
Please refer to our disclaimer in the right sidebar of this website.