Uploaded April 2017 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
The thaw has arrived and so it is time to propagate some spawn of Winecap Mushroom (King Stropharia- Stropharia ruosa annulata). Taking mycelium-inocculated chips from our Winecap bed in the woodlot, we are propagating it on a substrate blend of fresh wood chips from the Axe Cordwood Challenge, some freshly chopped ramial willow chips, and soaked cardboard. This tub of spawn will grow out in our greenhouse and act as the spawn inoculant for a new bed of Winecaps to utilize the chips from the Challenge.
Ideally, in a month or two this bin will be fully colonized by Stropharia mycelium, which will give me a very large dose of spawn to rapidly expand into the chip bed from the challenge.
This method I am using is obviously low tech, and NON-STERILE. There's lots of very good information on the web and in books for sterile mushroom propagation, but winecap is vigorous and aggressive and can be propagated easily with quick and dirty techniques like this without worrying overly much about contamination from other micro-organisms and fungi species.
I'm pretty directly copying this technique from Sean at Edible Acres, from this video. youtube.com/watch?v=kNMMr9PsTrg
He's also got a pretty extensive playlist on low tech, DIY mushroom cultivation, here. youtube.com/playlist?list=PLihFHKqj6JerqOGegzgVgGHu3z7VBNlJF
The thaw has arrived and so it is time to propagate some spawn of Winecap Mushroom (King Stropharia- Stropharia ruosa annulata). Taking mycelium-inocculated chips from our Winecap bed in the woodlot, we are propagating it on a substrate blend of fresh wood chips from the Axe Cordwood Challenge, some freshly chopped ramial willow chips, and soaked cardboard. This tub of spawn will grow out in our greenhouse and act as the spawn inoculant for a new bed of Winecaps to utilize the chips from the Challenge.
Ideally, in a month or two this bin will be fully colonized by Stropharia mycelium, which will give me a very large dose of spawn to rapidly expand into the chip bed from the challenge.
This method I am using is obviously low tech, and NON-STERILE. There's lots of very good information on the web and in books for sterile mushroom propagation, but winecap is vigorous and aggressive and can be propagated easily with quick and dirty techniques like this without worrying overly much about contamination from other micro-organisms and fungi species.
I'm pretty directly copying this technique from Sean at Edible Acres, from this video. youtube.com/watch?v=kNMMr9PsTrg
He's also got a pretty extensive playlist on low tech, DIY mushroom cultivation, here. youtube.com/playlist?list=PLihFHKqj6JerqOGegzgVgGHu3z7VBNlJF
