Wine Cap

Stropharia rugoso-annulata

Wine Cap features a white stalk with a port wine colored cap. These crisp, slightly nutty flavored mushrooms are great for braising, sauteing, grilling and pickling. Besides being a choice edible, Wine Cap is also a natural soil builder, weed suppressor and attractive landscape ornamental. They can quickly be grown as an annual on straw, or as a short lived perennial if planted on a denser woody substrate such as wood chips. Wine Cap can fruit throughout the growing season, especially after a heavy rainfall or change in temperature. Beds can often produce more than you can eat!

Cultivation on Wood Chips: Our certified organic Wine Cap sawdust or peg spawn can be used with this method. Choose an area, preferably partially shaded. The bed should have a soil floor or mulched surface, preferably free from weeds and sod. One large (5.5 lb.) bag of sawdust spawn will plant a 50 sq. ft. bed, 6" deep. Use hardwood chips for best results. 50 sq. ft. Alternatively, to plant one cubic yard of wood chips, you will need roughly 9-12 pounds of sawdust spawn. Locations that have been mulched like shrub beds, asparagus rows, blueberry beds, or under apple trees all work well. To plant, spawn is simply layered between wood chips.

Cultivation on Straw: Only sawdust spawn should be used for this method, NOT peg spawn. First, select a bale of wheat or oat straw that is as clean and weed-free as possible. The straw must be soaked in water for several days to hydrate and condition it. The result is a fully moistened and slightly fermented substrate that allows for proper growth of the Wine Cap mycelium. Select a bed location that is preferably at least partially shaded. Plant by sprinkling spawn between layers of spawn. Straw beds should be 6-10" deep.

More Information and Tips for Growing Wine Cap Mushrooms

If you don't have access to wood chips we highly recommend checking out ChipDrop. Just sign up at getchipdrop.com and they will deliver chips to you FOR FREE!