Macrolepiota procera

Growing Procedure

Over grain brood on a special substrate of oak leaves, straw, peat and cattle or horse manure Macrolepiota procera thrives.

For fruiting, Macrolepiota procera needs a cover soil in which a specific bacterium must be present. Conventional cover soils of coco, vermiculite or treated garden soil have not been successful for me so far. The only method that has worked so far has been to bury fully colonized pre-cultures outdoors. For experimentally established pouch or tub cultures, covering with a fresh sod is conceivable.

A well-draining soil is required; no Parasol likes to grow in mud. Buried cultures benefit from rootstocks of recyclable material such as fermented lawn clippings, oak leaves, and felled hardwood.

Growing

Agar Culture Media: MYPA, MEA,PDA
Cropping:
Containers for fruiting:
Biological efficience: –
Substrates: (Straw, 0.5% urea, 1% lime, 2% gypsum, 0.2% MgSO4, 4% wheat, Straw:Peat (1:1), Commercial compost, Rye Berries, grain mix, Bran, Oak

PH: 4,0 – 5,5

Growing Characteristics

Secondary decomposers, single, no large clusters

Natural Habitat

Macrolepiota procera can be found in almost all mesophilous forest communities as well as in open grassland on loamy, fresh soils. It prefers sparse beech, oak and oak-hornbeam forests on nutrient-rich subsoil as well as corresponding spruce forests, meadows and pastures, parks, roadsides and forest edges. The ecological requirements are very similar to those of the wood anemone. On acid or sandy substrates the fungus occurs only sporadically and then with nutrient richness. In humid areas it is hardly found. The Parasol mushroom is found mainly in middle-aged and older forests. It can be found from planar to subalpine altitudes.

The Parasol lives saprobiontic. The fruiting bodies appear from July to November, occasionally earlier or delayed. In Mediterranean Europe they can be found already from May. They occur solitary to gregarious, sometimes in witch rings.

Mixed forests, forest edges, forest roads and heaths, early summer to late autumn.

Gourmet

Macrolepiota procera’s nutty aroma and sheer size of the cap make it attractive to collectors. Only the cap is used, it is suitable for burgers or for breading. Unfortunately, the mushroom often grows along field edges and is then considered inedible by many, as it is often contaminated with glyphosate. On markets as a wild mushroom often of Polish origin offered, but as a cultivated mushroom (yet) not available.

Flesh

Smooth, light brown, reddish, white, staggered on stem

Taste

sweet, mild, a bit moldy, green nuts

Smell

nut-like, mushroom-like

Nutritional content

contain vitamin D, iron, zinc, copper, selenium, fiber, amino acids

other names

other names

‘Macrolepiotaprocera, Mastocephalus procerus, lepiotaprocera, lepiotophyllum procerum, macrolepiota permixta, macrolepiota procera f. Fuliginosa, Parasol, Riesenschirmling, riesenschirmpilz, paukenschläger, paukenschleger, gemeiner riesenschirmling, gugermukken, dunkler parasol, schulmeisterpilz, eulchen, großer schirmling