The porcini mushroom season starts in June
Basically, you can collect fresh boletus mushrooms between May / June and November - provided the weather is good. A good boletus year begins with a damp spring. If it is too dry, however, the joy of collecting in autumn will very likely be clouded. Incidentally, the long season is due to the fact that there are different types of porcini mushrooms that can be found in the forest at different times.
also read
- Porcini mushroom turns blue - can you still eat it?
- Dry and store porcini mushrooms
- When does the sparaceous bush bloom?
Summer boletus heralds the season
The so-called summer boletus (Boletus reticulatus) is the beginning. In some places and with suitable weather, it can be collected as early as May on calcareous soils and preferably near beeches or oaks. In contrast to the spruce boletus, the summer boletus has a dull, sometimes finely scaly, torn cap skin. The stem, which is clearly marked with a net, is also much darker. It is one of the first boletus of the year and is often heavily infested with maggots. If autumn is mild and warm, it sometimes occurs in October.
Spruce and boletus will follow from July
From July and, depending on the weather, until November, you can finally go in search of the much better known spruce boletus (Boletus edulis). Very young specimens - which are also known as embryos in technical terms - are often sunk deep into the ground with their stems, so that only the white or brownish hat protrudes. You can recognize mature specimens by their yellow to olive-green tube mouths and the elongated stem. Near pines, you'll find the rare pine boletus (Boletus pinophilus) with a red-brown hat and stem. The also edible black boletus (Boletus aereus), on the other hand, has a noticeably dark, blackish hat.
Attention, risk of confusion!
Inexperienced collectors tend to confuse the boletus with the inedible boletus (Tylopilus felleus). However, this has a bitter taste and, if consumed in large quantities, can cause severe gastrointestinal complaints. You can distinguish it from the boletus by the following features:
| characteristics | Common Gallen Röhrling | Spruce boletus |
|---|---|---|
| cap | Surface matt, felty, color honey yellow, more or less light brown with gray tones | smooth to wrinkled, moist surface, whitish when young, then light brown to dark brown without red tones |
| Tubes | Mouths white when young, then pale to brownish pink, brownish on pressure | Mouths whitish when young, then yellow to olive green |
| stalk | Except for the lighter tip, hat-colored, with mostly coarse, brownish-yellow mesh. Cylindrical to club shape | white to light brownish, in the upper part with a distinct white, fine-meshed net; young mostly bulbous, then club-like |
| meat | white, hardly discolouring when cut | white and firm when young, brownish and spongy under the cap skin in old age |
| odor | pleasant, but very bitter taste | pleasant, nutty taste |
| Occurrence | July to October on lime-poor soils in the coniferous forest | July to November, in coniferous and deciduous forests |
Tips
The tubes of the supposed boletus change color blue on print, it is probably the also edible chestnut bolet.
