Mushroom Growing for Amateurs. 169 



It should be a good, loamy, rich soil. The best to use is rotted sod, 

 since in the decaying roots and stems there is considerable fresh 

 organic material which is excellent food for the mushrooms. This 

 is the kind of soil used in the experiments described above. Any 

 good pasture sod or good sod by the roadside in rich earth will answer. 

 It is composted without the addition of any other material, and in 

 the course of two or three months composting in the summer it will 

 be ready for use. It should be worked up fine and screened from 

 coarse stone, sticks, etc. 



Planting the Spawn. 



When the beds are first made up, if the work has been properly 

 attended to, they will not be in a condition for spawning because the 

 temperature will run too high. If the manure in the pile was at a 

 temperature of about 100° when it was made into the bed, the tem- 

 perature in the bed is likely to rise higher, up to 115° or 120° F. 

 because of its being packed down so closely together. A thermometer 

 should be kept in some part of the bed and if the bed is large the 

 temperature should be tested at different places every day or so. 

 The temperature should be taken several inches below the surface. 

 The proper time to spawn is when the temperature is from 

 70° to 75° F. 



What mushroom spawn is. Mushroom spawn as it is found in the 

 market is either in the form of bricks and known as brick spawn, or it 

 is in the form of irregular chunks of manure with the fibrous growth 

 of the mushrooms, known as the vegetative part or mycelium, grow- 

 ing in it. This latter is known as French spawn. Suitable pieces 

 of spawn for planting are those about two inches in diameter. If 

 brick spawn is used, a single brick will make 9 to 10 or 12 such 

 pieces. These are planted according to the wishes of the operator 

 from 8 to 10 or 12 inches apart in the bed. The first row is 

 planted four or five or six inches from the edge of the bed. In the 

 second row the pieces may alternate with those in the first. A hole 

 is well made by a dibble or sharpened stick, which is thrust into the 

 bed and moved around in order to make a hole which will admit the 

 pieces of spawn. The hole should be small enough so that when the 

 spawn is pressed into it, it will fit very tightly. The spawn should be 

 planted from one to two inches below the surface of the bed and then 

 covered with the manure removed in making the hole. This should 

 then be packed down hard. The beds are then left in this condition 

 for about a week, and in the meantime may be covered loosely with 

 excelsior or straw to prevent too rapid evaporation of moisture and 

 also to prevent too rapid lowering of the temperature. 



