White Button Mushroom — a mushroom used fresh (boiled for about 10 minutes), for soups, sauces, main dishes, and also pickled. Grows: on rich, composted soil, in parks, gardens, vegetable patches, in grass, along streets, on lawns, on garbage piles, rarely. Cultivated in some countries. Cap: 6-10 cm in diameter, initially spherical, then flattened, with a rolled edge, cushion-like with a depressed center and curled edges, thick, smooth or slightly scaly near the edges, slightly yellowish. Gills: frequent, thin, initially dirty-pink, then brownish. Stem: 3-6 cm long and 2-4 cm in diameter, straight, firm, fibrous, solid. Flesh: dense, meaty, white, succulent with a pleasant mushroom aroma, turning pinkish when cut.
Cultivation indoors, in boxes or plastic bags: a 10-12 cm layer of soil is spread at the bottom, mycelium is sprinkled, then covered with compost at least 20 cm thick. In bags where fruiting bodies have started to form, cuts are made. White Button Mushrooms are grown indoors at a temperature of 12-30°C with natural or forced ventilation. For sowing, use ready-made or previously prepared compost. Compost composition: dry, unrotted straw — 12 kg, poultry manure, horse or cow dung (fresh) — 8 kg. Preparation time: 22-26 days.
The sign of ready compost is the disappearance of ammonia odor. Use fresh manure (preferably horse, 7-15 day-old), add chopped straw (previously soaked for 2-3 days). All components are moistened and piled up, compacted. On the 4th-5th day, the pile is turned over. Turning is repeated 5-6 times until the manure becomes soft and the straw turns into a brown, easily crumbly mass. The moisture content of the finished compost should be 65-70%, and pH 7.0-7.5.
Compost can be prepared quickly in 3-4 days. Mix wet (to 70%) straw, beer grain, peat, and lime (10:10:10:1) thoroughly and pasteurize with steam (temperature 60-65°C). The next day, reduce temperature to 53-55°C, then on the 3rd-4th day to 22-25°C. Then proceed to sow mycelium, mixing it with compost. The prepared mass is placed in containers (boxes, plastic bags) and compacted. Throughout the period, monitor moisture. Within a few days, white threads will appear, penetrating the substrate. At this stage, cover the substrate with soil mixed with peat in a 1:1 ratio, 2.0 cm thick.
Boxes or bags are kept in a dark place, maintaining air temperature at 18-20°C and compost temperature at 25-27°C. Approximately 20-30 days later, the first mushrooms will appear. At this point, reduce temperature to 14-16°C, and maintain air humidity at no less than 85%. Fruit formation occurs in waves and lasts for 6 weeks.
Cultivation of White Button Mushroom on a home plot: prepare 2.5–3 m² of soil, loosen it, sow mycelium (in holes 5–7 cm deep and 15–18 cm apart). Spread compost 5–7 cm deep on top. Water by drip irrigation, temperature regime 16–29°C. Fruiting begins after 2–2.5 months. After mycelium has spread (12–15 days), cover the bed with garden soil 2 cm thick. Once a year, spread a 1.5–2 cm layer of compost or dry plant residues on top as fertilizer.
