Wine Cap Mushroom Sawdust Spawn












Skill level | Beginner |
Grow location | Outdoors |
Spawn shelf life | 6 months (refrigerated) |
Flavor profile | Mild, nutty, earthy |
Bag weight | 5.5 lbs |
Wine Cap (Stropharia rugosoannulata) is a delicious mushroom with a mild, earthy, and nutty flavor (some even describe the flavor as a cross between artichokes and potatoes.) It is an ideal mushroom for beginners as it colonizes quickly and yields reliable flushes. Wine Caps are also good for commercial cultivation grown on straw or wood chips.
If inoculated in spring, Wine Cap can fruit in as little as two months and will produce in the same bed for several years. Fresh woody material can be added each year to maintain the health of the bed. Inoculated material from one bed can be used as spawn to inoculate new beds on your property.
Wine cap sawdust spawn is only recommended for use in outdoor beds or top-fruiting containers.
Wine cap does not grow on logs.
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Click here to download our pamphlet on outdoor bed cultivation using sawdust spawn. Be sure to use clean, untreated products when making outdoor beds.
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Wine Cap is a vigorous mushroom that grows naturally on outdoor beds of woody debris. It grows best on straw (not hay), hardwood chips or sawdust. Hardwood recommendations are soft maple, poplar, box elder, and magnolia. They can tolerate a mixture that includes some softwoods - generally no more than 25%. You can also mix different woody materials.
Wine Cap seems to do better if the beds have a variety of particle sizes, such as a mix of both sawdust and wood chips. Avoid branches or other very large pieces of wood as these take longer to colonize and can create too much air space in the bed. Freshly cut wood is preferred, though Wine Cap can also grow well on more aged materials. Many folks are having success with the chip mixes coming from roadside crews pruning under power lines -- and it's a free resource!
Wine Cap does best in partial shade but can tolerate some direct sun. Ideal locations would be at the edge of fields and woods, around the base of trees, in perennial gardens, or as part of the mulch in vegetable gardens, where annual veggies will provide some shade. Once established, Wine Cap beds require little maintenance. During dry periods, the bed can be watered but do not over-water, as excessive watering can suffocate the mycelium.
- In a suitable location, remove any leaves, etc., down to either bare ground or plain grass. No need to dig a trench, but the bed should be in contact with the soil. One bag of sawdust spawn is enough to inoculate approximately 16 square feet.
- Spread mixed woody material over the soil, about 1'' deep.
- Break up the Wine Cap sawdust spawn and evenly sprinkle the spawn on top of the layer of woody debris.
- Add a second layer of woody debris about 2-3'' thick.
- Thoroughly water the bed.
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- 2-4 months (outdoor beds and containers)
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If you don't plan to use immediately, refrigerate your Wine Cap sawdust spawn. Use within 6 months of receipt.
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Wine Cap mushrooms are best when braised, grilled, or sauteed. When young, Wine Cap mushrooms can be eaten with the stem and offer a tender yet crunchy texture when lightly cooked in oil. They can also be sliced and mixed into meat sauces or risotto, roasted or braised along with other fall vegetables and served with meat, fowl or fish, added to soups, or stuffed and baked. If using the larger, more mature mushrooms, it is recommended to remove the stems as they become stringy and to slice or chop the cap to ensure even cooking. Wine Cap mushrooms pair well with lemon juice, wine, ramps, nutmeg, fennel, polenta, pasta, quinoa, and rice.
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All our spawn is made using organic cultures from our own culture bank. Our sawdust spawn is handmade from a blend of locally sourced, all-natural, organic, and non-GMO woods and supplements from farms and forests in New England and North America.
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If you’re going to consume home-grown mushrooms, make sure to cook your fresh mushrooms thoroughly with heat. If it is your first time eating this species, it is best to start with a small amount to check for allergies, even if cooked.
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Wine cap bed success
I’m super excited to have put in this wine cap bed underneath of my elderberry trees. Waiting patiently without certainty of success has been the hardest part of the process. Although, the entire bed has not bloomed yet. I did squeal like a little girl when I saw my first wine caps popping up. I’m excited and encouraged about more growth in the future. North Spore made this process easy and the mycelium has done its job successfully. Yay and thank you North Spore!

Easy fast results
Easy, fast results on chopped, limewater soaked straw and woodchips layers. Tasty and best young before fully opened. Surprised me with a flush in plus 90 F heat.

So easy!
Bought this sawdust spawn in Feb and mixed it in some oak wood chip mulch from a tree my neighbor cut down. Didn’t use any straw. It started fruiting in June! The slugs love them too, but the mushrooms are delicious so I can’t blame them for that! Plenty for me to eat.

So easy and gratifying
I enjoy gardening, and was looking for a new challenge. Growing mushrooms seemed the next natural step. The garden bed videos that North Spore provided along with their other educational links made designing a successful location easy. I set up the location under a shady tree near a sprinkler, ordered the Wine Cap Spawn, and within a few weeks I noticed it had started to thrive in the location. As the weather changed the mushrooms started to flush. I chose Wine Cap Mushrooms because they are easy to grow and EASY TO IDENTIFY. They were also delicious. I have since started other beds in my yard with the same techniques using oyster mushrooms spawn from North Spore.

So Easy!!
As a beginner, I was looking for something easy to start with and this was just that! I inoculated my mulch beds in the spring and they began fruiting in the fall. It was a great, and tasty experience! I definitely recommend this for beginners.