Shaggy Parasol Propagation?

[Pinecones]

I picked a nice heap of shaggies while picking wild plums.  They plucked up out of the ground very cleanly, and their bases came up with substrate and mycelium attached.  I trimmed all the bases off before drying and have them set aside, I've got them in a grocery bag all together right now.  I dried the lot of mushrooms (after confident identification) and we've been sampling them in meals and seem to tolerate them digestively and really enjoy them.  So I wonder about growing them at home here.  Any input on possibly propagating them from these bases I saved?  The only patterns I've seen with them is that they always seem to be near a plum or flowering plum in moist wood chips/woody debris.

We just started our fruit trees this year. They're still tiny.  We have 2 plums in a greenhouse, several pears in a greenhouse, plus a dozen apples and a few stone fruit outdoors.  The greenhouses are USDA zone 4, outside is zone 3.  We have several greenhouses available in different places and sizes, so if they need to be propagated strictly in the GH, we've got ample room for them. The outdoor fruit trees are planted in deep pockets of humus; rotted wood from the logging that happened about 20 years ago.  Lots of humus to go around here!  It's not quite the same as wood chips, but maybe even better?  Maybe not since it's already decayed?  Will they take to conifer wood debris?  Old conifer stumps?  Thoughts?

I've never succeeded in any lazy attempts to propagate my own mushrooms, but it's something I'd seriously enjoy learning for culinary shrooms!  We try to grow and forage as much of our own food as possible, and mushrooms to the alpine forest are like fruits to the tropical forest!  A boon of sustenance... if you know who's who

[vitog]

I've tried stem butt propation with shaggies in about a dozen different wooded locations near home, but only one of those has produced anything so far.  They are saprophytes; so, they don't form an association with any particular tree roots.  But they do have preferences regarding the type of decaying matter that they feed on.  One preference that I've noticed is a liking for soils that also support Stinging Nettles.  The only stem butt planting location that worked is also the only one that has stinging nettles, and quite a few places where I find shaggies also have Stinging Nettles.  The reason for that association may be just that they both like rich soils.

I also planted stem butts in my back yard in a row of raspberries mulched with compost and then covered with wood chips.  I tried this several times over a few years and then gave up.  A year or two later a couple of shaggies showed up in my neighbors lawn about 10 or 15 feet from that location, but only once.  However, the next couple of years 1 or 2 shaggies showed up in a flower bed in my front yard, perhaps 40 feet away.  But that was the end of it; I never saw any more.

I've also read and noticed some differences in the habitat preferences of the two main local species.  Chlorophyllum olivieri typically grows in a forest with rich soils (indicated by Stinging Nettles), and C. brunneum likes composting piles of dumped organic matter, especially conifer needles.  David Stamets, in Mycelium Running, says that he got shaggies (probably C. brunneum) to grow in piles of grass clippings.

[Pinecones]

Interesting information, thank you!  We do have stinging nettle patches that crop up around here, usually around the creeks and streams. About how deep ahve you planted the butts?  I have enough to seed in many different places and see if anything comes of it.  Are they fond of manure?  Or just plant matter as fertilizer?

[vitog]

I normally plant the stem butts just deep enough to stay moist during normal dry spells.  I haven't noticed anything about their relation to manure, but I suspect that it may be too rich for their liking.  C. brunneum seems to like fairly fresh rotting organic matter.  Where I worked, I found it regularly where people dumped their lawn and garden wastes into the adjacent woods.

[Pinecones]

Good info, thank you!  The closest I might have to that would be wet hay.  Best case scenario they establish.  Worst case they don't   Here's to trying!