Are some mushrooms impossible to grow? Here's why not all mushrooms can be cultivated

so last week we did a video on the 25 different types of mushrooms that are grown around the world for both food and medicine and we got a number of comments saying that we actually missed some of your favorite mushrooms but this was totally done on purpose you see last week's video was done on mushrooms that can be cultivated meaning growers have actually found reliable methods to produce these mushrooms on a commercial scale but there are a whole bunch of amazing mushrooms that have so far evaded our attempts at cultivation these mushrooms are much harder if not impossible to actually grow on purpose and that's why some of the most popular and beloved mushrooms in the world still need to be wild harvested but you might be wondering why are some mushrooms so hard to grow well mushrooms can be broken down into three broad categories we have saprophytic fungi parasitic fungi and michael arisal fungi the first group the saprophytic fungi are mushrooms that grow on dead or dying matter their release enzymes that can break down this dead matter like wood chips straw or mulch mimicking this natural process is pretty easy to do which is why most mushrooms that are cultivated around the world like oyster shiitake button mushrooms or enoki these are all saprophytic fungi the second group the parasitic fungi is just what it sounds like these are mushrooms that attack living organisms this ecology makes them much more difficult to cultivate parasitic fungi are mushrooms like cordyceps sinensis which attack ghost moths and honey mushrooms which attack living trees the third group Michael Raizel fungi are mushrooms that grow by forming a symbiotic relationship with other plants this relationship can get pretty complicated but put simply this works because of an exchange between the roots of the tree and the mushroom mycelium the mushroom provides the tree with water and nutrients and in exchange receives carbohydrates that it needs to grow from the tree these relationships are often complex and not yet totally understood making cultivation of mycorrhizal fungi very difficult to do unfortunately many of the best gourmet mushrooms in the world are mycorrhizal and can't yet be cultivated at scale the same way we cultivate other mushrooms so let's go over some of these mushrooms that are much harder if not impossible to grow first up is a chanterelle this prized edible fruits in late summer and fall and is definitely a favorite among mushroom hunters chanterelles are of course Mike arrival there are a number of species in chanterelle but they are pretty easy to identify if you know what you're looking for the chanterelle is usually yellow to golden it has ridges instead of gills and has a very distinct smell that's kind of reminiscent of apricots you'll find chanterelles in semi open areas with a lot of lichen and if you look closely you can see them poking through the ground if you see one shot trail be sure to look around because you're likely to see a whole bunch more they do often grow in bunches next up is the porcini otherwise known as boletus edulis or the king bleat in the Rocky Mountains which is where I've done most of my foraging for Puccini the actual species name is boletus ruber SEPs although that distinction is not that important porcini can be found in all different shapes and sizes from small little buttons to huge monsters you'll find them in pine forests often with their caps covered in ground cover or pine needles although there are lots of different species of belief the edible porcini are relatively easy to identify they have pores instead of gills they have a white bulbous stalk that is relatively smooth and they have usually a red to brown cap if you find the bigger ones make sure you cut them in half and check for bugs because quite often they can be bug eaten and no longer edible another honorable mention is the Aspen building which to the untrained eye might look really similar to porcini the major difference is that it has a rough stock and is sometimes referred to as escaper stas although this one is edible it's not nearly as delicious as porcini and can give some people digestive issues next up we have the lobster mushroom or hypo my sees lack the Florham believe it or not contrary to its name lobster mushroom is actually not a mushroom hypo my sees like the forum is a parasitic fungus that grows on other mushrooms turning them into this reddish brown orange fruit body that resembles the skin of a lobster it usually parasitizes lactarius and nourish ala mushrooms making the original mushroom completely unidentifiable luckily the end result is something that is much more delicious than the original mushroom ever could be lobster mushrooms are easy to identify and nothing else really looks quite like them you can look for them in the forest or better yet at your local farmers market in the summer and in the fall next up we have the Hedgehog mushroom which is another micro rival mushroom popular among foragers you can look for these in the summer and fall and leafy matter and deciduous forests hedgehogs kind of look like ash on trail but quick look will reveal that under the cap they have teeth instead of gills or ridges which makes them immediately recognizable of course if we're talking about valuable gourmet mushrooms we can't overlook the truffle another super unique Michel Raizel mushroom truffles grow underground at the base of trees and there are lots of different species and look-alikes since they grow underground they're really hard to find which is why you may have heard of truffle pigs or truffle dogs that are actually trained to sniff them out and teach people where to dig for them truffles actually can be cultivated although the process is much more complicated and time-consuming than most other cultivated mushrooms in general this is done by inoculating the roots of saplings with truffle mycelium eventually planting these trees and harvesting the truffles several years later finally we have morels which I did mention in the last video but that is because morels are actually starting to be cultivated in parts of the world the vast majority of morels in North America however are still wild harvested Morales can be found in the period of a few short weeks in early spring not long after the snow is melted they're super easy to identify and a great mushroom for beginners there are false morels but they really don't look like true morels at all I did a whole video on the difference between true morels and false morels and if you're interested you could check it out to learn more of course there are lots of other non cultivated gourmet mushrooms that I didn't cover here so if I missed any of your favorites be sure to let me know in the comments below thanks so much for watching if you learned something new or enjoy the video feel free to hit that like button and if you want to see more videos about mushrooms and my ecology feel free to 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Channel: FreshCap Mushrooms

Views: 62,596

Keywords: wild mushrooms, gourmet mushrooms, hedgehog mushrooms, bolete mushrooms, king bolete, porcini mushrooms, truffles, black truffles, lobster mushroom, hypomyces lactifluorum, chanterelle, growing chanterelles, growing morels, growing porcini, aspen bolete, growing wild mushrooms, growing cep, growing king bolete, boletus edulis, boletus rubriceps, can you grow chanterelles, mushrooms you can't grow, how to grow lobster mushrooms, mycorrhizal mushrooms, saprophytic mushrooms

Id: hHbgPmpFwQo

Length: 6min 0sec (360 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 05 2020