Gathering and marketing is an important point in the cultivation of mushrooms, and should be attended to with painstaking discretion. When mushrooms are fit to pick depends upon several conditions; for instance, whether for market or for home use. For fresh and attractive appearance and best appreciation in the market, pick them when they are plump and fresh and just before the frill connecting the cap with the stem breaks apart. The French mushrooms should always be gathered before the frill bursts; the English mushrooms also look best when gathered at this time, but they are admissible if gathered when the frill begins to burst and before the cap has opened out flat. If the mushrooms display a tendency to produce long stems, pick them somewhat earlier, soon enough to get them with short shanks, for long stems are disliked in market; so, too, are dark or discolored or old mushrooms of any sort.
Sometimes we may not have enough mushrooms ready at one gathering to make it worthwhile bending them to market, and are tempted to let them stay un gathered until tomorrow, when they have grown larger and many more shall have grown big enough to gather. This should never be done. It will give an unfavorable, unequal lot, some big, some little, some old, some young. Far better to pick every one the moment it is ready to gather, and keep all safe in a cool place and covered until some more are ready for use, and in this way have a uniform appearing lot of young produce.
In picking, always pull the mushrooms out by the root, and never, if avoidable, cut them over with a knife. In gathering, take hold of the mushrooms and give them a sharp but gentle twist, pressing them down at the same time, and they generally part from the bed without any trouble; then place them in the baskets, root end down, so as to keep them perfectly clean and free from grit. Sometimes when several mushrooms are joined together in one root stock and it is impossible to remove one without disturbing the whole, cut it rather than pull it out. In the case of dumps of young mushrooms, where one cannot be pulled out without displacing some of the others also, cut it out rather than pull it.
The advantages of pulling over cutting are several: It benefits the bed.
If we cut over a mushroom and leave its stump in the ground, in a few days decay sets in and a fluffy or spongy substance grows around the old butt, which destroys many of the little mushrooms around it, as well as every thread of mycelium that comes in contact with it. One should be particular to scoop out these stumps with a knife before this condition takes place, and go over the beds every few days to fill up the holes, made in scooping out the old stumps, with fresh loam.
Pulled mushrooms always keep fresh longer than do those that have been cut. In the interest of the market grower they have another advantage. Mushrooms are bought and sold by weight, and as the stems are always retained to the caps all are weighed together; if part of the stems had been cut off the weight would have been reduced, and, in like proportion, the price; but if the stems are retained entire not only are the mushrooms benefited, but the weight, and with it the price, is also increased.
Author Resource:
Jackson Forrest is a mushroom growing enthusiast and runs the popular http://www.MushroomGrowingSecrets.com website where he offers the best-selling ebook "How to Grow Mushrooms for Fun and Profit". Get your copy today!
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