GROWING GOURMET - Anto2ni.it

118 EVALUATING A MUSHROOM
Once familiar with a particular culture, variations
from the norm alert the cultivator to
possible genetic decline or mutation.When differences
in expression occur, not attributable to
environmental factors such as habitat (substrate)
or air quality, the cultivator should be
alarmed. One of the first features in the tell-tale
decline of a strain is "mushroom aborts".
Aborting mushrooms represent failures in the
mushroom colony, as a singular organism, to
sustain total yield of all of its members to full
maturity. The next classic symptom witnessed
with a failing strain is the decline in the population
of primordia. Fewer and fewer primordia
appear. Those which do form are often dwarfs
with deformed caps. These are just some of the
features to be wary of should your strain not perform
to proven standards.
A good strain is easy to keep, and difficult or
impossible to regain once it senesces. Do not
underestimate the importance ofstock cultures.
And do not underestimate the mutability of a
mushroom strain once it has been developed. I
use the following check-list of 28 features for
evaluating and developing a mushroom strain.
Most of these features can be observed with the
naked eye.
28 Features for Evaluating
and Selecting a Mushroom
Strain
The strain of mushroom, its unique
sensitivities, yield
expressions—is the foundation of any
mushroom farm. When a strain goes bad, production
precipitously declines, typically
followed by a proliferation of disease organisms
.Theref ore, cultivators must continuously
scrutinize new strains to find candidates worthy
of production. Once a strain has been
STRAIN --
Figure 95. Grain spawn 3 days and 8 days after
inoculation. Visible recovery of spawn two days after
inoculation is considered good, one day is
considered excellent.
developed, multiple back-ups are made in the
form of test tube slants. Test tube slants insure
long term storage for future use. The cold storage
of test tube slants limits the rate of cell
divisions, protecting the strain from mutation
and senescence factors.
Although this list is not all inclusive, and
can be expanded by any knowledgeable cultivator,
it reveals much about the goals
cultivators ultimately seek in bringing a
strain into culture. However, the following
list arises from a uniquely human, self-serving
perspective: creating food for human
consumption. From an ecological perspective,
this list would be considerably altered.
1. Recovery The time for a mushroom
strain to recover from the concussion of inocu-
PDF compression, OCR, web-optimization with CVISION's PdfCompressor