The beginning of the collection of porcini mushrooms. Map of mushroom places in the Moscow region

For lovers of “quiet” hunting, mushroom time begins early summer and lasts until late autumn. And rarely do they return home without a “catch.” The main thing is that the summer is not dry and hot, but periodically pleases them with drizzling rains.

Mushroom picker calendar

Everything in nature is interconnected. And even mushroom picking is no exception. The bird cherry blossoms - boletus mushrooms appear. The first thunderstorms will thunder, the rye will begin to sprout in the field, and boletuses will immediately jump out. When the fragrant linden blossoms and the aroma of honey spreads, a second, more diverse wave of mushrooms will appear. But the richest mushroom season is undoubtedly the end of summer and the beginning of autumn. But when are porcini mushrooms collected?

They grow from late June to October, but if the summer is humid and warm, they can be found earlier. Folk calendar says that the first boletus mushrooms are harvested when the rye begins to sprout. And when the linden blossomed, it was time for the second collection of boletus mushrooms.

Well done mushroom

Like most other mushrooms, it has many names: boletus, belovik, zhannik, hare, pechura, cowshed. The names do not reflect the beauty of this great mushroom. Dense and strong, with a dry, roundish cap in a variety of shades - from ocher-brown to brown-red - it seems to be intended only to be admired. It is not for nothing that many lovers of “quiet” hunting collect these mushrooms to count.

White mushrooms. Where to collect them

According to the place of growth, boletus species are divided into birch, oak, spruce and pine. For each pore, the porcini mushroom chooses its favorite place.

The first to appear in well-warmed places in early June are white birch mushrooms, along with boletus mushrooms and some other mushrooms. At this time, the grain in the field is heading, which is why people call them ears of corn. In July, in the first ten days, it is time for mushroom hunting in oak forests. White oak mushrooms friendly: whole families meet. Later, but also in July, white birches appear again. They are called "stubbers" because the harvest begins in the field. You need to look for such white ones in a sparse birch forest. In late July and early August, white spruce trees emerge from the ground. They are found in young plantings of fir trees, and also in places where there are a lot of birch and spruce trees. The spruce trees are followed by white pine trees and dark-headed pine trees - they are already growing before the end of the season, preferring edges or clearings with sparse ferns, overgrown with bushes and sparse pines.

So when are porcini mushrooms harvested? The harvesting times for various mushrooms are approximate. First of all, they depend on climatic conditions. Of course, warm and in moderation rainy weather will allow the mushrooms to appear earlier than average, and cold or too dry will delay the time of their collection.

White mushroom. When to collect it

With the morning dawn. It is good to pick mushrooms early in the morning, before the dew has fallen, and before the sun heats them up. Then the mushrooms are stored longer for a long time. Heated by the sun, placed in a thick layer in a basket or bucket, they begin to quickly deteriorate - they become wet and slippery, and emit an unpleasant odor. They are not suitable for recycling.

A few more tips on when to pick porcini mushrooms. Boletuses grow best in warm, steamy weather; the most suitable temperature for this is not lower than 16 and not higher than 25 degrees, when the soil is well saturated with moisture. Warm, drizzling rain promotes mushroom growth. By the way, the first mushrooms that pop up a couple of days after such rain are most often wormy, and real mushroom shoots, strong and pleasing to the eye, will appear a little later. So you need to know when porcini mushrooms are collected in order to return from a “quiet” hunt with a basket full of handsome boletus mushrooms.

The porcini mushroom (boletus) belongs to tubular mushrooms and belongs to the species Boletus edulis sensu lato of the Boletaceae family. Grows throughout the European part of Eurasia. In total, about 18 of its forms are known. In order not to make mistakes when collecting porcini mushrooms, you need to have some information about their appearance and elementary rules mushroom grower behavior.

Species

Spruce porcini mushroom (Boletus edulis f. edulis Fr.) is the most common. It is characterized by an elongated leg with thickening downwards. The hat is brown with a red-chestnut tint. The surface is smooth and dry. Grows in spruce forests.

Oak porcini mushroom (Boletus edulis f. quercicola) is distinguished by a gray-brown cap, which is occasionally covered with light spots. The pulp is looser. Grows in oak groves and forests.

Birch white mushroom (Boletus betulicolus or Boletus edulis f. Betulicola) is characterized by a beige cap. Grows under birch trees.

The pine porcini mushroom (Boletus pinophilus) is characterized by a large dark cap, often of a purple hue. The color of the pulp is brown-red.

The main difference between the lemon-yellow porcini mushroom (Boletus edulis f. citrinus) is the lemon-yellow or bright yellow color of the cap. Grows in spruce-pine forests.

The smooth-stalked white mushroom (Boletus edulis f. laevipes) is distinguished by the absence of a mesh on the stalk. Grows in birch forests.

External signs

The porcini mushroom has a smooth and dry surface. The diameter of the boletus cap reaches 25 cm. When it is small, the cap is hemispherical, and after maturation it becomes cushion-shaped. The color of the cap can vary from beige to brown. The pulp is white and does not change color when cut. The length of the leg is up to 17 cm, the thickness is about 2-6 cm. The leg is oval, thickens from bottom to bottom, covered with a mesh pattern on top white. Whites grow unusually quickly, gaining about 4 cm in length per day.

Doubles

It is important to collect carefully, since very often baskets contain inedible white doubles, which are also called “false whites.” Therefore, you should know their features.

The gall mushroom (Tylopilus felleus) or bitterling from the genus Tylopil has external resemblance with young oak boletus. It has the same convex cap of a brownish or brownish color. The leg is oval-shaped, thickened at the base and covered with a mesh pattern. The color of the finely porous tubular layer is not typical for boletus mushrooms; it is pink or off-white. But the main difference is the very bitter taste, which even repels insects. Therefore, the double always looks flawless.

Satanic mushroom(Boletus satanas) also represents the genus Boletus. It has a cushion-shaped cap and a barrel-shaped stem. The cap is grayish-white, olive or brownish. The tubular layer is orange or any shades of red. Characteristic signs: The mesh leg in the middle has a rich red color, and when cut within five minutes the flesh turns blue. Old individuals have the smell of rotting onions.

Collection time

When to collect boletus mushrooms? When going into the forest to pick mushrooms, it is important to know when to pick them and where. Since the optimal temperature for the growth of porcini mushrooms lasts a long time in July and August, this is the time to look for them. The greater the temperature and humidity changes, the less boletus fruiting bodies develop. The best climatic conditions short-term thunderstorms with foggy, warm nights are recognized. The collection begins before sunrise, since at this time of day they are much more visible. You need to walk slowly, carefully examining your surroundings. Boletus mushrooms grow in well-drained, moist sandy or loamy soils.

If the summer is wet, you need to look for boletus away from trees on dry, well-warmed hills, clearings, and edges. And if the summer is dry, it is better to look under trees, in thick grass - where moisture is well retained. In addition, it is believed that boletus mushrooms grow more often where morels grow.

The favorite delicacy of worms is fresh porcini mushrooms. Pests are especially active in hot weather. There is such a peculiarity for white ones that grow in an open place: the root is clean, but the cap turns out to be wormy. Worms make their way into the cap from below; the worm passages and the bottom of the cap are brown. Such mushrooms need to be cut in half and cleaned of wormholes.

Mature boletus is not afraid of frost. Therefore, if the collection was carried out after a severe frost, the thawed whites will have their normal look and taste.

The mushroom season begins in mid-April - early May. On the northern slopes of ravines, in forest thickets, where the sun rarely peeks, there is still snow, and on the edges of broad-leaved and deciduous forests, warmed by the sun, morels appear in clearings and along forest roads. Massive growth of morels is observed from the first to the third ten days of May. At the same time, you can collect the lines. These mushrooms love pine forests and settle in clearings and roadsides on sandy soil.

Morels and lines in fresh poisonous. Before eating, they are carefully processed: boiled 2-3 times, draining the broth, or dried.

In early June, the mushroom picker will encounter the first russula. There are many varieties of russula. These are the most productive mushrooms and can be collected until late autumn. Russulas are easy prey; in other parts of the forest there are a lot of them, and it seems that extraordinary flowers of the most varied colors and shades have grown in the emerald greenery.

In June you need to look into the birch forests if you want the basket to be filled with the first boletuses, and in the sparse, light pine forests you can collect boletus. At this time, green moss mushrooms are also common in the forest. From the second half of June, the growth of mushrooms increases noticeably: more than 15 species of cap mushrooms can already be found in the forest.

IN pine forests, overgrown with heather, aspen and often birch forests, very noticeable mushrooms appear - aspen boletuses. Their red hat is visible from a distance on the green carpet. These mushrooms grow until late autumn, but most of them occur from the first ten days of August to the second ten days of October. In June, when the first warm rains pass, chanterelles will appear in abundance, settling in cheerful flocks in grassy and mossy forest clearings. At this time you can search in the light pine forest and the king of mushrooms - boletus, and in early July porcini mushrooms appear in birch forests.

In June, pigs are found, mushrooms are found in forest clearings and edges, and in July, families of milk mushrooms begin to be found in coniferous and birch forests. You need to take a closer look at the hummocks, because under a layer of last year’s needles and leaves, the mushroom often hides from the eyes of the mushroom picker.

August is considered the most mushroom month, of course, and its best gift is saffron milk caps. From the first days of the month they pour out in the young growth of spruce and pine forests. Second half of August and first ten days of September - golden time for a mushroom picker: just have time to collect bountiful harvests valuable for drying, salting and pickling mushrooms. At this time there are a lot of boletus, boletus, boletus, saffron milk caps, and milk mushrooms. Less valuable mushrooms also grow - volnushki, ryadovki, podgruzdki. In August you can find autumn honey mushrooms, but their time has not yet come. There are many honey mushrooms in September, when other mushrooms begin to disappear. The sky is frowning more and more often, watering the thinned forest with fine cold rain. Fallen leaves are everywhere - a flowery outfit of autumn, among which it is already difficult to find a mushroom, but honey mushrooms are in plain sight. Having surrounded the stump, they climb up in a crowd, as if they were damp and cold on the ground. Before the first snow, you can carry baskets full of these tasty and clean mushrooms from the forest.

The mushroom calendar is capricious. Not one year coincides with another in terms of the number of types of mushrooms and their yield. Only the order in which mushrooms appear is almost constant.

A real mushroom picker meets the sun in the forest with trophies in a basket. Early in the morning, when there are still no slanting sun rays, the mushroom is more visible. Those who are late can only get overgrown mushrooms and trimmed mushroom stems. Walk slowly through the forest, some will run around it and return home with an empty basket, but mushrooms love to play hide and seek. Under a thick branch, in moss, among a heap of leaves, they often hide from the eyes of mushroom pickers, especially after a summer dry wind. IN rainy summer mushrooms settle in clearings and along forest edges. If you find a mushroom, then circle around: mushrooms often grow in groups. There is no need to pull the mushroom out of the ground by the roots; it is better to cut it with a knife without scattering it forest floor. If you preserve the mycelium, you will get a good harvest in the future.

The Russian writer S. T. Aksakov wrote that mushrooms have favorite places where they will certainly be born every year in larger or smaller quantities. And he had such places in mind; he would not come from the forest without mushrooms. “I always have a lot of noticeable mushrooms, mostly white,” said Aksakov, “and I take them at the age that I need, or leave them to reach their full development and beauty.”

(S. T. Aksakov. Collected works, vol. 4. M., ed. art literature, 1956, pp. 594-595.)

It is best to collect mushrooms in baskets made of willow twigs, placing them with their caps down or sideways if the mushrooms have long stems. In buckets due to lack of inflow fresh air mushrooms can “burn” and spoil. You cannot collect mushrooms in backpacks and bags - in these containers they wrinkle and crumble.

Brought home fresh mushrooms They must be immediately sorted, cleaned and processed; they cannot be stored.

Who, in an exciting mushroom hunt, has not had to wander through an unfamiliar forest, looking for the way to home! Of course, it’s good to have a compass with you, but it’s not always at hand. Therefore, when picking mushrooms, you should often pay attention to the features of the area: a noticeable tree, clearings, bends in the road, etc. It is useful to look back from time to time in order to remember the way back from the forest.

At night it is easy to navigate by the moon. Full moon opposes the sun, which means that at 7 o'clock. it is in the west, at midnight - in the south and at 19 o'clock. - in the east. A straight line drawn through the two outermost stars Ursa Major, having the shape of a bucket, will pass to the bright Polar Star, which is always in the north in our hemisphere.

It's lonely standing tree the crown is always thicker and more luxuriant on the south side. On sections of stumps, the thickness of annual rings is wider towards the south. Resin appears on the trunks of pine trees on the southern side, and moss and lichens grow on stones and trees on the northern side. Anthills are usually located on the south side of a tree or stump.

The sides of the horizon can be easily determined using a watch. To do this, the hour hand is directed towards the sun.

A line running from the center of the clock through the middle of the angle formed by the hour hand and the direction of the number 1 will indicate where north and south are. Before lunch, south will be to the right of the clockwise direction, and after lunch, to the left. Exactly at 13 o'clock. the sun is in the south. The minute hand is not taken into account. The watch should be kept in a horizontal position.

Nature can help the mushroom picker determine the weather for the coming days. Before bad weather, wood sorrel and wood groats are drooping, meadow clover is folding its leaves, sweet clover is smelling strongly, and the flowers of dandelion, thistle and coltsfoot are closing. Yellow acacia flowers usually have a strong scent in the evening. If their aroma is felt on a sunny morning, it means a thunderstorm.

When going to the forest to pick mushrooms, pay attention to your flower garden. Morning glory, mallow, and marigolds have folded their petals and seem to have withered - which means it will rain and you need to put on rubber boots and take a raincoat with you.

With the onset of mushroom season, hunters for these gifts rush into the forests. Some people prefer redheads; Some people prefer boletus or russula, boletus or boletus, but almost everyone wants to find porcini mushroom. Therefore, all mushroom pickers want to know how to properly look for the places where porcini mushrooms grow and by what signs they can be identified.

It is important to understand and be able to determine the time when the mycelium is ready to produce the greatest harvest, how to properly look for porcini mushrooms so that the search is crowned with success.

Before deciding where to collect porcini mushrooms, you should understand what this trophy looks like quiet hunt. There are several main versions, but they all agree on one thing: this mushroom is popularly called white because it does not change its color when processed. In nature, mushrooms are called boletus mushrooms, and they grow mainly in colonies.

Experts say that their appearance directly depends on where this porcini mushroom grows.

1. Birch mushroom is different in that it can grow singly or in groups. They often grow in birch forests and are distinguished by the fact that the cap is white or light yellow in color, and the leg is pale brown. Unlike other species, this mushroom can be distinguished by a characteristic light mesh near the cap.
2. The oak species is large in size and is located mainly near oak plantings. The stem of this mushroom has a coffee tint or other light brown tones and a velvety skin. A brown mesh covers the entire stem of the mushroom.
3. The pine species differs from others in its bright color and impressive size: the cap reaches up to 20 cm in diameter and has a red wine color. The leg is painted olive color, covered with a red mesh.

Depending on the forest in which porcini mushrooms grow, their appearance changes. Experienced mushroom pickers also know how to correctly determine the beginning mushroom season and hunting specifically for this variety.

The white mushroom itself is a capricious species. Its qualitative and quantitative growth requires special conditions that take into account its increased sensitivity to meteorological changes and other climatic parameters. Loves this one little king shade and moisture, is suspicious of direct sun rays and drought.

Time and location of boletus mushrooms

Borovik has rightfully taken the position of king of mushrooms and, like a real titled person, does not like to attract attention to himself. Perhaps this is why the answer to the question of where to look for them has many variations, except for one: never look for porcini mushrooms in open, steppe areas.

1. Boletuses grow on almost all continents, with the only exceptions being Australia and Antarctica. This king especially prefers areas where there are mosses, lichens, loamy or sandy soils.
2. In a pine, spruce or birch forest, the porcini mushroom is a frequent resident, especially if it old forest. In addition, in these places, boletus mushrooms mainly grow not singly, but in entire colonies, which attracts experienced mushroom pickers who want to collect whole baskets of forest gifts.
3. Ecologists argue that the more remote the forest area is from settlements, the greater the likelihood of encountering a good fungus that has not absorbed toxic waste and chemical decomposition products. You can safely eat such gifts without fear of harming your health.

Spruce and pine trees, under which last year's and the year before last's needles lie in a thick carpet, often serve as an indicator that porcini mushrooms grow in this particular forest.

When is the best time to collect boletus mushrooms?

Even children know that spring and winter are absolutely unsuitable seasons for quiet hunting. That is why experienced mushroom pickers are looking forward to summer time when you can pick mushrooms after the first warm rainy days.

The answer to the question of when to collect porcini mushrooms depends on the area in which the hunter is going to do it. There is no definite answer, but, according to many years of observations, it was concluded that in June this type of vegetable protein is already present in the forests.

1. An indicator that boletus mushrooms can already be found in the forests is, first of all, the weather. After warm rains against the backdrop of stable warmth, you can safely go wandering through the forests, since the king of mushrooms is most likely already waiting for the first amateur mushroom pickers.
2. IN autumn time You can also find such mushrooms, but the likelihood that they will be edible is too low. Such gifts grow very quickly; in 10 days they can outgrow their taste. In addition to humans, this mushroom is also favored by ants, worms and other insects, which is why it quickly becomes damaged by them and, accordingly, unsuitable for food.
3. If the street is consistently humid and warm weather, then this mushroom is in the forests from June to October, provided there are no early frosts. But the best time to collect boletus mushrooms is July and August, when summer rains give way to warm, hot days.

In dry summers, they look for this mushroom closer to the trees, where they hide in the shade from the scorching arid rays of the sun. During the wet summer season, on the contrary, it willingly grows in open areas, as it loves moisture, air and cloudy weather.

Collection rules

In order to be guaranteed to get a delicious forest trophy, it is important to follow the basic rules of collection. It is not enough to simply understand where it is best to look for boletus, it is also worth knowing and taking into account the time of day when this can be done productively and efficiently.

1. You should come for mushrooms after sunrise, since at this time of day they are most visible and practically do not hide from the hunter.
2. Particular care should be taken to inspect the soil with admixtures of sand and loam, and non-flooded areas.
3. Particular attention should be paid to small specimens with a cap diameter of no more than 4 cm. It is believed that this species is the most optimal for consumption, moreover, insects do not have time to penetrate it and do not spoil it from the inside.
4. The found mushroom is cut off carefully, avoiding damage to the mycelium. In the absence of a cutting tool, it is allowed to carefully twist the mushroom.
5. The trophy is examined and cleaned of possible pests if it is not possible to immediately select whole mushrooms.
6. If the trophy has a small or standard leg, then it is placed in the basket with the cap down. Mushrooms with long stems should be carefully placed on their sides.
7. It is not advisable to take specimens that are too large and overripe for processing; it is better to leave them on the ground.
8. Healthy boletus mushrooms are not afraid of frost, so small and strong mushrooms can be taken even after the first frost.

Collected mushrooms require processing within the next ten hours, otherwise they will lose some of the beneficial and taste qualities.

When collecting boletus mushrooms, it is also important to take into account the fact that in nature there is inedible mushroom called false white. This species differs from its healthy brother in its strong bitterness, so experienced mushroom pickers not only know how to distinguish it by appearance, but also due to strong bitterness.

Mushroom pickers also advise taking into account the peculiarities of the local fauna when collecting boletus mushrooms: this mushroom willingly coexists with blueberries, lingonberries, and heather. It does not ignore porcini mushrooms and anthills, but at the same time has an absolutely negative attitude towards ravines. Therefore, when searching for the king of mushrooms, it is recommended to safely avoid ravines.

Acquaintance with porcini mushrooms begins in... childhood. After all, it is the porcini mushroom that is most often depicted in children’s books, and in fairy tales the “old boletus” helps lost travelers in the forest. Boletus - one of the names of the porcini mushroom - just speaks of its place of growth.

The porcini mushroom is the king among other mushrooms. Because it is the most delicious, the healthiest, the most...

The very fact that the porcini mushroom does not change its color even when dried, remains white even in the form of mushroom powder, puts it at the highest level among other mushrooms.

And it’s not without reason that mushroom pickers, both experienced and beginners, dream of returning from a mushroom hunt with a bag full of porcini mushrooms.

But the white mushroom is cunning! Despite the fact that it is found everywhere - from the Volga to Far East, goes to the North, wedged almost into the Arctic latitudes, not everyone manages to find it.

Where to look for porcini mushroom

Its very name - boletus, birch, oak - indicates that the porcini mushroom grows in forests: pine, birch, oak, spruce. But not in every one, but only in those where there are old-time trees no younger than fifty years old. So finding a mushroom in a young spruce or birch grove will be problematic.

Porcini mushrooms do not grow densely. But if you come across a mushroom, you need to look for its friends and comrades.

White mushroom loves sunny places, so it can be found at the edge of the forest, clearings, among mighty trees, but with open crowns so that it gets as much light as possible.

The porcini mushroom grows on various soils - clayey, sandy, poor in humus, but these mushrooms do not grow on peat soil.

The porcini mushroom loves to grow among grass, lichens, ferns, and moss, but the porcini mushroom does not grow in dense forests or tall grass. But it is often found where the grass cover is interrupted by paths or where cattle are often driven. But on trampled soil without vegetation, this fungus is found in isolated cases.

White mushroom loves wet soils, but not swampy. Loves warmth, but cannot stand heat. Therefore, during frequent rains, it moves to drier elevations, and on hot, dry days it huddles closer to the trees, in the shade. The porcini mushroom grows well during periods when the temperature is between 10-18°C, but during frosts the mushrooms disappear completely, although the mycelium itself remains viable in both intense heat and bitter frost.

Experienced mushroom pickers also pay attention to secondary signs by which they can determine whether there is a boletus mushroom in the immediate environment or not. A phenological indicator of the presence of porcini mushrooms are... fly agaric mushrooms. And also valui and nigella. If here and there these mushrooms peek out from the grass, it means that a porcini mushroom is somewhere nearby.

When does the porcini mushroom grow?

The porcini mushroom, however, like the others, grows in “waves”, or as they call it in mycology – layers.

The first layer of mushrooms appears when the rye begins to ear. Approximately in June. Such mushrooms are called “spikelets”.

Early July a second layer of porcini mushrooms appears, which are called “stubbers”. It falls during the grain harvest.

The third layer of porcini mushrooms is for autumn - at the time of leaf fall. It is called “deciduous”.

All three periods of the appearance of porcini mushrooms are active in lowland forests. In high-mountain forests, the richest harvest of porcini mushrooms is in August.

IN northern forests The porcini mushroom grows small, with a cap up to 5 cm in diameter.

IN middle lane Porcini mushroom caps range from 3 to 20 cm in diameter. But there are truly giant mushrooms, whose weight reaches 3 kg. Once, near Vladimir, they found a white mushroom weighing 6 kg, and the cap of which was 46 cm in diameter!

But such huge mushrooms, of course, are wormy and cannot be collected.

What novice mushroom pickers should know

In the forests there are inedible and even poisonous mushrooms, which are very similar to porcini mushrooms. Therefore, you need to know the obvious signs of distinguishing porcini mushrooms from inedible ones.