Gray Chanterelle is an edible mushroom, consumed as a delicacy, either fresh (boiled for about 10-15 minutes) or dried (the flesh lightens), used in soups and as seasoning (in powder form). It grows: (massively from mid-August to mid-September) in deciduous and mixed forests, in moist areas, in clusters or colonies, rarely.
Cap: 3-5 cm in diameter, funnel-shaped, with a curled, wavy, uneven edge. Inside, fibrous and wrinkled, brown-black or nearly black, brownish-gray in dry weather, gray-brown on the outside, with large folds, waxy, with a coating. Stem: 5-7 cm long and about 1 cm in diameter, tubular, hollow, tapering toward the base, gray, brownish or black-brown, firm. Flesh: thin, brittle, odorless, membranous, gray (after boiling — black).
Cultivation of Gray Chanterelle follows the general rules applied to mycorrhizal fungi. The fungus can be introduced to its tree partner using parts of fruiting bodies, spore tea, compost, and mushroom seedlings, as well as using so-called forest soil as seed material.
Forest soil consists of forest litter and the upper humus layer, i.e., the environment where mycorrhizal fungi live. The bulk of this soil comprises organic matter (partially decomposed plant remains). It is rich in various acids, enzymes, vitamins, and growth substances. Numerous active ends of tree roots emerge into the forest soil layers, with most of them forming mycorrhizal networks.
Here, there are also abundant free-living hyphae of mycorrhizal fungi. When collected, forest soil remains as a piece of the natural habitat of fungi, preserving all the advantages of the already inhabited space. Therefore, it is obvious that introducing the mycelium to a new location will occur in sufficient comfort.
