Agaricus bitorquis
Often called the pavement mushroom or the conifer agaricus, this mushroom is actually quite closely related to your standard, typical supermarket button mushroom. It tends to prefer warmer weather, although these were found fruiting below a stand of conifers breaking through a compacted layer of gravel in the middle of June.
Bright pink gills, a prominent annular ring and a solid, hard consistency were noted, with strong aromas and flavours of rich typical mushroom. In taste and smell this mushroom is quite similar to a meaty, more flavourful store-bought mushroom but its seems much more forgiving in terms of growing parameters and performance than other Agaricus species.
This mushroom has performed amazingly in culture and in 2.5 litre spawn bags of manure-based compost. Selby Shrooms will soon offer this mushroom in these 2.5 litre spawn bags for $40! Simply cased with peat moss this strain is ideal for beginners. It can even be grown outside a fruiting chamber in a simple tray with heavy moist casing!
Selby Shrooms have this mushroom available in petri dish culture for $25.
2.5 litre spawn/grow bags $40
Selby Shrooms flavour rating: very good, superior to standard button mushrooms.
Cultivation complexity – moderate.
the above were cloned and cultivated on compost cased with a thick moist layers of peat moss:
