Field mushrooms on farmland

keryl

Hi

Has anyone come across button mushrooms/the white ones.. in any fields that they would usually find them in and if so do you know what fertiliser was put out.

FYM
Slurry
bag

Thanks

lab man

Weather too wet for them

charolais0153

I had one way back in july /june time. Not mild enoug for tgem

Floki

You need a really dry summer with the ground cracking open to allow oxygen get down deep to allow the fungi down to feed on the oul anaerobic bacteria that would usually be unavailable or that the fungi can't survive in anaerobic conditions and suddenly this area of soil becomes aerobic allowing the fungi survive and eat the anaerobic bacteria and also some previously unavailable nutrients.
Then you need to give the fungi a good shock to get them to fruit and spore.
A change to cooler wetter conditions above ground is usually the catalyst to make this happen.

I think it's not so much the fertilizer but making sure the ground is aerobic and getting enough oxygen and not compacted too much by animals, machinery, etc.
Then actually having bacteria and nutrients for them to feed on and not having the ground sprayed with pesticides, fungicides or weedkillers.
Then also I suppose actually having the ground seeded from spores in the previous season.

ganmo

No button mushrooms here, bigger saucer types were around about a month ago in a few spots only bag spread

Birdnuts

Best areas I find for edible field mushrooms are old pastures that get the odd bit of FYM(manure) only.

keryl

Thanks for the replies.

interesting to hear people's theories. I feel lack of fungi in the soil due to anerobic conditions may well be a large factor.

Base price

We normally get a good crop of them most years but very few so far which I assume has to do with the weather. As Birdnuts said old pasture is the best place to find them and we only spread fym and slurry here.

wiggy123

see no sign of them yet this year

Gravelly

Floki wrote: »

You need a really dry summer with the ground cracking open to allow oxygen get down deep to allow the fungi down to feed on the oul anaerobic bacteria that would usually be unavailable or that the fungi can't survive in anaerobic conditions and suddenly this area of soil becomes aerobic allowing the fungi survive and eat the anaerobic bacteria and also some previously unavailable nutrients.
Then you need to give the fungi a good shock to get them to fruit and spore.
A change to cooler wetter conditions above ground is usually the catalyst to make this happen.

I think it's not so much the fertilizer but making sure the ground is aerobic and getting enough oxygen and not compacted too much by animals, machinery, etc.
Then actually having bacteria and nutrients for them to feed on and not having the ground sprayed with pesticides, fungicides or weedkillers.
Then also I suppose actually having the ground seeded from spores in the previous season.

Interesting. We used to have loads of them in the fields around where I live years ago, but haven't had any for the last twenty years or more. I was always told it was due to the use of fertilizers, but a lot of the fields around me never get any fertilizer, only fym. The ground does get more compacted these days by heavy machinery though, which may feed into your theory.

yosemitesam1

Base price wrote: »

We normally get a good crop of them most years but very few so far which I assume has to do with the weather. As Birdnuts said old pasture is the best place to find them and we only spread fym and slurry here.

Most of the modern grasses and crops have been selected to cut off fungi altogether, artificial fert makes this worse

Cattlepen

keryl wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.

interesting to hear people's theories. I feel lack of fungi in the soil due to anerobic conditions may well be a large factor.

This so true for the whole country. Heavier machinery and more intensive stocking through paddock grazing etc has the soil compacted and holding water so all the good bugs in the soil can't do their job. Pan busting is the only remedy. Slurry is also contributing to anerobic conditions by smothering the ground

Floki

Cattlepen wrote: »

This so true for the whole country. Heavier machinery and more intensive stocking through paddock grazing etc has the soil compacted and holding water so all the good bugs in the soil can't do their job. Pan busting is the only remedy. Slurry is also contributing to anerobic conditions by smothering the ground

I'm glad someone brought up about the slurry. It's like someone putting a layer of clingfilm on the ground.
This is where injecting and the swivel spout has the advantage.

Gradually people will learn the benefits of the importance of aerobic bacteria and fungi in feeding plants.

Cattlepen

Floki wrote: »

I'm glad someone brought up about the slurry. It's like someone putting a layer of clingfilm on the ground.
This is where injecting and the swivel spout has the advantage.

Gradually people will learn the benefits of the importance of aerobic bacteria and fungi in feeding plants.

I think slurry is just to concentrated. Even though I have slatted tanks myself, I really think fym is a much better nutrient/conditioner. The top layer of soil gets kind of foamy with to much slurry. Excuse my lay mans terms

Floki

Cattlepen wrote: »

I think slurry is just to concentrated. Even though I have slatted tanks myself, I really think fym is a much better nutrient/conditioner. The top layer of soil gets kind of foamy with to much slurry. Excuse my lay mans terms

You should look up Elaine Ingham on the net/YouTube.
Even just to get a different view from the mainstream.

Just don't drink any tea at her place.:pac:

keryl

Yes she's excellent. Lots to learn.

Has anyone experimented with teas on the land? I think it's the next natural progression.

Base price

Cattlepen wrote: »

This so true for the whole country. Heavier machinery and more intensive stocking through paddock grazing etc has the soil compacted and holding water so all the good bugs in the soil can't do their job. Pan busting is the only remedy. Slurry is also contributing to anerobic conditions by smothering the ground

Floki wrote: »

I'm glad someone brought up about the slurry. It's like someone putting a layer of clingfilm on the ground.
This is where injecting and the swivel spout has the advantage.

Gradually people will learn the benefits of the importance of aerobic bacteria and fungi in feeding plants.

Cattlepen wrote: »

I think slurry is just to concentrated. Even though I have slatted tanks myself, I really think fym is a much better nutrient/conditioner. The top layer of soil gets kind of foamy with to much slurry. Excuse my lay mans terms

In our case I reckon the application of slurry isn't a problem as we have been spreading slurry from the lagoon for the past 8/9 years.
TBH I reckon the recent inclement weather is effecting mushroom growth. At this time of the year I enjoy picking field mushrooms and cooking them up with a couple of eggs and a fresh wood pigeon/wild duck breast. It'd keep you going till supper.

ganmo

keryl wrote: »

Yes she's excellent. Lots to learn.

Has anyone experimented with teas on the land? I think it's the next natural progression.

if the fungus isn't in the ground there won't be any mushrooms so get some spores would be the first step

Floki

Base price wrote: »

In our case I reckon the application of slurry isn't a problem as we have been spreading slurry from the lagoon for the past 8/9 years.
TBH I reckon the recent inclement weather is effecting mushroom growth. At this time of the year I enjoy picking field mushrooms and cooking them up with a couple of eggs and a fresh wood pigeon/wild duck breast. It'd keep you going till supper.

The word there is lagoon (watery).

I had a good few mushrooms this year but not on a field that I expected earlier on.
The fields that had mushrooms, some of those would have gotten dairy and parlour washings (watery slurry).
The field that I expected the mushrooms in had a cut of silage taken off. If you listen to E.Ingham the aerobic fungi need air in the soil for one but also need a green cover on the soil surface and by that I mean they don't like sunlight reaching the soil surface. Not really compatible then with modern open swards and tight grazing and cuts of silage or hay.

Base price

Floki wrote: »

The word there is lagoon (watery).

I had a good few mushrooms this year but not on a field that I expected earlier on.
The fields that had mushrooms, some of those would have gotten dairy and parlour washings (watery slurry).
The field that I expected the mushrooms in had a cut of silage taken off. If you listen to E.Ingham the aerobic fungi need air in the soil for one but also need a green cover on the soil surface and by that I mean they don't like sunlight reaching the soil surface. Not really compatible then with modern open swards and tight grazing and cuts of silage or hay.

I normally get a good annual crop of mushies in my place in NCD which is predominately an equine farm - no slurry spread only fym.
Not a mushie (even one riddled with maggots) to be seen after walking the fields this morning when I got home. We have had more than the usual rainfall here in the last 3 weeks which is indicative of the current weather pattern.

davidk1394

Spotted a few here yesterday growing around the trees. Meant to pick them but the sheep got there first.

huwboy

Only seen one or two here in Wales, not worth picking, normally see a few in late August/early September, I think the weather has been quite a strong factor this year.

ganmo

Spotted this over the weekend.
It's a treestump cut about 10 years ago, the first time I saw a display like this on it.

bogman_bass

Got a good crop of them on Saturday

wiggy123

must check in the morning or later this evening

Birdnuts

Anyone have those giant Puffballs on their land?? - mad looking yolks the size of footballs!!Not sure are they edible though

ganmo

The odd one
Mostly the brown powdery ones

Birdnuts

ganmo wrote: »

The odd one
Mostly the brown powdery ones

I think they go that colour when they fully mature - they then release literally millions of spores!!

Floki

Birdnuts wrote: »

Anyone have those giant Puffballs on their land?? - mad looking yolks the size of footballs!!Not sure are they edible though

I'm fairly sure those mushrooms are edible.
I haven't eaten one myself but I think I saw it on countyfile about those.

Yea looked it up. There's loads of recipes for giant puffballs.

I haven't seen any here though.

Birdnuts

Floki wrote: »

I'm fairly sure those mushrooms are edible.
I haven't eaten one myself but I think I saw it on countyfile about those.

Yea looked it up. There's loads of recipes for giant puffballs.

I haven't seen any here though.

Must look that up as a lad I know from my school days has them on his land in North Kildare. I recently had a wonderfull wild mushroom pizza on holidays. Some difference compared to the tasteless watery excuse for mushrooms you get in the supermarket!!

Nekarsulm

We went picking in the local Coillte forest last Sunday. Got a nice bag full, mainly Chanterells, Shaggy Inkcaps and a few puffballs ( although they were smaller than a tennis ball)
Fried up in butter, lovely.

coolshannagh28

Discovered last year from a Czech lad that helps me on the farm that the mushrooms growing around a stand of Scots Pines are actually Boletes and are incredible to eat, now he had to prove it to me by cooking and eating them but I had always ignored them prior to that as poisonous

Floki

coolshannagh28 wrote: »

Discovered last year from a Czech lad that helps me on the farm that the mushrooms growing around a stand of Scots Pines are actually Boletes and are incredible to eat, now he had to prove it to me by cooking and eating them but I had always ignored them prior to that as poisonous

Generalizing here but a lot of Europeans would teach you how to live.
They make people here seem so ignorant and backward with their knowledge of food and foraging.

Base price

Floki wrote: »

Generalizing here but a lot of Europeans would teach you how to live.
They make people here seem so ignorant and backward with their knowledge of food and foraging.

Friends of ours are originally from Latvia. The wife often forages around our farm for mushrooms, herbs (weeds!) and they bring their children to pick blackberries. She seems to be knowledgeable about different types of edible mushrooms. TBH I would be afraid.

Floki

Base price wrote: »

Friends of ours are originally from Latvia. The wife often forages around our farm for mushrooms, herbs (weeds!) and they bring their children to pick blackberries. She seems to be knowledgeable about different types of edible mushrooms. TBH I would be afraid.

This sounds terrible.

It's no wonder there was a famine in this country when people didn't know what to eat.

That famous French cuisine we often hear lauded came into being from necessity from various (other mainstream) food shortages and then persisted to the present day.

The man in red and black

Nekarsulm wrote: »

We went picking in the local Coillte forest last Sunday. Got a nice bag full, mainly Chanterells, Shaggy Inkcaps and a few puffballs ( although they were smaller than a tennis ball)
Fried up in butter, lovely.

Can you eat those puffballs? Some of them grow to like 12 inch diameter? We always get them in the same field every year. Usually just smash them for the craic and spread the spores for next year :pac:

Birdnuts

Nekarsulm wrote: »

We went picking in the local Coillte forest last Sunday. Got a nice bag full, mainly Chanterells, Shaggy Inkcaps and a few puffballs ( although they were smaller than a tennis ball)
Fried up in butter, lovely.

I must get a good guide to edible fungi to enjoy such things without running the risk of poisoning myself and those dear to me

Nekarsulm

The man in red and black wrote: »

Can you eat those puffballs? Some of them grow to like 12 inch diameter? We always get them in the same field every year. Usually just smash them for the craic and spread the spores for next year :pac:

Never ate them when they were gone big and powdery.

Puff balls and Ink caps.





That Inkcap is nearly gone too far, but still tasted OK.

Never wrestle with pigs

Were the inkcaps like normal mushrooms? I would have never ate one of them in a million years ha

Nekarsulm

Never wrestle with pigs wrote: »

Were the inkcaps like normal mushrooms? I would have never ate one of them in a million years ha

Just like any other mushroom. Half the flavour is from the butter, to be honest ......

White Clover

Was spreading fertilizer this morning, there was about 2 acres of one field with hundreds of mushrooms on it. This field last got fertilizer 14 days ago. It got a hammering from machinery in the spring, slurry, zero grazing etc and was well compacted. Fertility in the field would be good.
Does the fact that they are there mean that the weather has done it's job and alleviated the compaction allowing air down into the soil?

Say my name

White Clover wrote: »

Was spreading fertilizer this morning, there was about 2 acres of one field with hundreds of mushrooms on it. This field last got fertilizer 14 days ago. It got a hammering from machinery in the spring, slurry, zero grazing etc and was well compacted. Fertility in the field would be good.
Does the fact that they are there mean that the weather has done it's job and alleviated the compaction allowing air down into the soil?

Looks like it.

Fungi are part animal part plant needing as much oxygen as yourself.

severeoversteer

have a fine crop of mushrooms in a corner of the 2nd cut silage, big white yokes 8 or 10 inches diameter, they are growing in a normally wet but now bone dry corner of the field that got dowsed with slurry

Who2

I’ve the largest saucepan I could find here full to the top of mushrooms. My wee lady got better Craic out of picking them them than all the toys I ever got her. An onion a bit of celery and a pint of cream and butter and I should be sick of mushroom soup fairly quick.

igCorcaigh

Had a curious conversation with my mam a while back, they used to pick random mushrooms as kids and eat them.

I told her the most dangerous one looked just like the white button mushroom, she never knew.

Anyway, I've spent ages going through farmers fields, risking death by dog or electric fence, in search of liberty caps.

No longer; too old for that sh1t.

Some nice chanterelles would be welcome though.

tabby aspreme

Anyone know what these are, I see lots of them in September and October

igCorcaigh

No idea Tabby. They look pretty though.
Don't eat!

tabby aspreme

Definitely would not eat them, here's a better picture, no sign of any regular mushrooms here yet

Base price

tabby aspreme wrote: »

Definitely would not eat them, here's a better picture, no sign of any regular mushrooms here yet

They look like chanterelles but as said before - don't eat them!

Base price

https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/outdoors/watch-find-out-how-to-gather-the-right-mushrooms-for-eating-430098.html

bogman_bass

Anybody find any giant puffballs this year?