Poplar Mushroom
Pioppino
Agrocybe aegerita
Available as
Mother cultures (Petri dish)
Grain spawn
Sawdust spawn
Plug spawn
About this strain
The poplar mushroom, known in Italian cooking as pioppino, grows in dense clusters on poplar and willow trunks. It has small brown caps 3–5 cm across that lighten with age, and slender, creamy, crunchy stems. The flavour is slightly sweet with a nutty note, and it stays firm when cooked — great in risotto, sauces and pasta dishes.
It can be grown indoors on sawdust or straw, as well as on poplar, willow or alder stumps and logs inoculated with plugs. The mushrooms are picked young, before the caps open.
How to grow it
Preparation
- Substrate
- hardwood sawdust (fine and coarse) with approx. 20% supplement, e.g. bran, sterilised; or pasteurised straw; moisture approx. 60–65%
- Spawn rate
- 1–2% on sterilised sawdust, 3–5% on straw
Growing stages
Spawn run (incubation)
- Temperature
- 21–25°C (substrate approx. 25°C)
- Duration
- 15–20 days
Primordia formation
- Temperature
- day–night swings of 18–24°C
- Humidity
- approx. 95%
- CO₂
- 500–1,000 ppm
- Fresh air
- 4–8 per hour
- Light
- 500–1,000 lx
Pinning is triggered by day–night temperature swings, high humidity and fresh air.
Fruiting
- Temperature
- 18–25°C
- Humidity
- 85–90%
- CO₂
- <1,000 ppm
- Fresh air
- 4–5 per hour
- Light
- 500–1,000 lx
Harvest
- Flushes
- 2
- Between flushes
- approx. 2 weeks
Harvest whole clusters while the caps are still domed, before they start shedding spores. Between flushes raise humidity to approx. 95%. The mushroom attracts flies — indoors it is worth covering air inlets with mesh. Yield: approx. 18–20% of fresh substrate weight.
Please note: these growing parameters bring together the experience of practising growers — a starting point, not a guarantee of results. Every grow has its own substrate, climate and equipment, and even small differences can noticeably change the yield. Adjust these values to your own conditions.
Available products
Prices are set individually — tell us what you need and how much, and we will send a quote including delivery.
Mother cultures (Petri dish)
- 1 pc.
Grain spawn
- 5 l
Sawdust spawn
- 5 l
Plug spawn
6 × 30 mm
- 30 pcs.
- 1000 pcs.
Want to order this spawn?
Tell us what you need — we will reply with a quote and a shipping date.