Almond Agaricus - Agaricus subrufescens

I'm new to the site. I have been scoping it out for a while. I was wondering what substrate the Almond Agaricus likes to fruit on. I read that they like compost. Is it a good idea to put wood chips in with it? What brown material do they like? I have cedar wood shavings.

Any input would be appreciated.

I grow Almond Agaricus on fresh leached cow manure compost mixed with lime. I have a 100% success rate for this technique. Do not use cedar chips or sawdust- that won't work at all. Please see this old thread about Almond Agaricus:

https://permies.com/t/33807/fungi/Growing-Portabellows-wild

Good luck! You'll be glad you grew this one! These mushrooms are INCREDIBLY delicious!!!

Thank you so much for the reply. I have another question though. Does this species prefer horse or cow dung? I have horse dung, but to get cow I'd have to go out of town maybe.

Horse poo will be fine, just make sure that it is not totally saturated. And that its dried out before you use it, that is you need to rehydrate it. I ran into problems because I over hydrated it and the mycelium could not breathe. Oh, and this may be the most delicious mushroom Ever!

drake schutt wrote:Horse poo will be fine, just make sure that it is not totally saturated. I ran into problems because I over hydrated it and the mycelium could not breathe. Oh, and this may be the most delicious mushroom Ever!

I think A. subrufescens will breathe fine as long as I mix the horse poo with other things like perlite, rye grain and maybe biochar or cedar wood shavings. What do you all think?

I would not add any of the materials you listed- they'll probably just contaminate your project. And making the kind of high-quality horse manure compost required by agaricus can be difficult for a beginner. Many years ago, I had several failures trying to grow agaricus on horse manure compost or wood chips before I switched to leached dairy manure on a tip from a Paul Stamets book. That's why I always recommend fresh leached dairy cow manure compost straight from the bins. When it cools, add the lime, some water and the spawn- that's all you need. And if you live in a climate with warm, humid, wet summers, then you might be able to grow almond agaricus outdoors on mounds of cow manure compost. They grow similar species of agaricus in Brazil and Hawaii using this technique. Just my 2 cents...

Mound culture should work well. I think A. blazei and subfreunescens are the same species.

Yes, recent research by Richard Kerrigan shows that that A. blazei, A. subrufescens and A. brasiliensis are all the same species:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agaricus_subrufescens

Agaricus subrufescens is the oldest name of the three, so it gets priority and now they're all lumped together under this species name.