Trying to Grow Wood Blewits in the Garden

So earlier this evening, I did my usual walk and, though I thought my previous blewit find was just luck due to the autumn-like weather (as they can sometimes appear briefly), on my walk today I found more. I could go on and on about this mushroom; I don’t just love its colour, I also love its texture and taste.

This one looks cosy under the twigs and leaf litter, on its own little space.

Although it is a little bit past its best, I decided to pick it and see if I could try growing it. I’ve heard that they are very forgiving mushrooms and can grow in garden settings because they naturally grow in leaf litter, twigs, and other decomposing organic matter.

I have included the mycelium.

Some fungal colony also seemed to be growing on the stem

This little one is just poking out of the leaf litter.

So I harvested a couple I found.

At home, I examined my mushroom, and this is definitely a wood blewit, with violet, lilac, and pinkish colours. The gills are crowded, partly attached to the stem, and some are not. It smells like a mixture of floral, fruity, and mushroomy notes.

The stem is fibrous and filled with cottony material, although if you don't use a knife to cut it, it can appear hollow, as the material inside can deflate when it is pinched, which confuses some foragers during identification.

I cut them into pieces ready for outdoor inoculation.

I looked for a place in the garden with the right conditions: cool, damp, and constantly shaded. I chose under the hedges, where the sun can get through a little, but it stays cool.

As I looked under the hedges, where I thought was the best place, I found a piece of log with oyster mushrooms that had already dried up. This showed me that the environment is good for mushrooms.