Mushroom pickers get ready: experts talk about a second mushroom wave in October

It is better for beginners not to collect talkers and autumn honey mushrooms – they can easily be confused with poisonous ones

There is no need to talk about the weather norm – every year is abnormal. September turned out to be such an incomparable month – there was practically no precipitation, and day and night temperatures broke all records. Autumn has given us another summer month, but what should mushroom pickers expect from the vagaries of the weather – when will the autumn honey mushrooms begin?

“Why wonder about autumn mushrooms when summer mushrooms are not over yet. Last Sunday I collected two full baskets: honey mushrooms, white mushrooms, and boletuses,” says avid mushroom picker Valery Gennadievich Martynov from Ramenskoye.

He is echoed by Ekaterina from Noginsk, she also has a rich catch: “We went around the spruce forest next to the dacha, collected 19 white boletuses, countless boletus mushrooms, we only collected caps.”

But in the south of the Moscow region, it seems that mushrooms are already running out. “The boletuses are leaving, the honey mushrooms have outgrown,” Maria from Serpukhov reports on her social media page. Biologist Sergei Matyushin also agrees with her; according to him, after such rapid fruiting as this year, the mycelium needs a period of rest. Does this mean that the silent hunting season is closing this year?

“Now honey mushroom families look like compositions of dried flowers, just as fluffy and dry. But if next week there is heavy rain and at the same time it gets sharply colder, then the mycelium will receive a new stimulus for growth. And the forest will delight us with its gifts in October, and maybe even a significant part of November. The main thing is that there are no severe frosts,” says Sergei.

In normal times (if September, as it should be, was rainy and cool), in the Moscow region in October you can collect boletus mushrooms, white and autumn honey mushrooms, saffron milk mushrooms, bitter mushrooms and greenfinches, talkers and garlic mushrooms, late boletus, in November oyster mushrooms and black mushrooms will come milk mushrooms

In general, many avid mushroom pickers believe that October is an excellent time for quiet hunting, because autumn mushrooms are better stored in winter than summer ones. Just look for them not in clearings and forest edges, but in forest thickets, under trees and on stumps, experts advise.

“In our forestry you can collect full baskets of mushrooms right up to the frost: a lot of white mushrooms, moss mushrooms, boletus mushrooms, honey mushrooms in general – they grow until the very cold, until they are covered with snow,” says Matvey Verevkin from Taldom.

He also reminded that when picking mushrooms one should not forget about caution, and for the sake of safety one should take only well-known mushrooms.

“Galerina fringe, one of the most poisonous mushrooms, in the excitement of the hunt and turmoil can easily be confused with honey fungus. The same applies to talkers, among them there are both edible and poisonous. Therefore, I would not advise beginners to collect them at all, unless you go into the forest in the company of experienced mushroom pickers who will help you distinguish an edible mushroom from a poisonous one,” the expert warned.

And yet, when can we expect a new mushroom wave? All experts answer this question unanimously: after it gets sharply cold (temperature fluctuations of several degrees do not count), and as soon as it rains, you need to count three weeks and only then go into the forest for new mushrooms.

And in conclusion, a life hack from our experts on mushroom places in the Moscow region: the forests in the west and south of the Moscow region are considered the most productive. The western direction starts from Zvenigorod and further, and the southern direction is Serpukhov and its environs. We wish you happy hunting!