GROWING GOURMET - Anto2ni.it

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GROWTH PARAMETERS
on its conquest of nutrients, and fruitings are
delayed until colonization is complete. Substrates
that are carefully and evenly inoculated
colonize faster, responding readily to the four
environmental stimuli described above. When
the rapidly growing mycelium is forced to stop
because of natural borders or contact with
competitors the mycelium shifts gears—
biologically speaking—from conquest to
consoli-dation. The mycelium consolidates its
hold of the substrate by the infinite microscopic
branching of hyphae. Concurrent with
this phase change, the mycelium and the substrate
cools. For Oyster mushroom cultivators,
this period of declining temperature leads directly
to primordia formation. At this juncture,
the cultivator adjusts the surrounding environment—introducing
light, dropping temperature,
100
96
T
e
92
m 88
p
e 84
r
80
a
t 76
U
r
e
(°F)
72
68
64
60
• Bed Temperature e Air Temperature
exchanging air, and increasing moisture—to
stimulate the greatest number of primordia.
Some mycologists take a different view of
what causes this shift to fruiting in the mushroom
life cycle. They describe the sudden lack of food
for the mycelium asnutrientdeprivation. The best
example of this is the Morel. Once the scierotia
have formed remote from the nutrient base, the
nutrient base is physically separated from the
sclerotial colonies, and this loss ofnutrition is one
of the triggers stimulating fruitbody formation.
(This is basically the pivotal technique upon
which the patent was awarded for growing motels—see
Oweret at, 1978). In my mind, this is a
clear case of tme nutrient deprivation. However,
substrate separation techniques are not generally
used in the cultivation of Oyster, Shlitake, Enoki,
Lion's Mane, Maitake, Wood Ear and many of the
Initiation Temperature Chart
Days after Inoculation
Figure 191. Chart of air ys. substrate ("bed") temperature during colonization. Note that bed temperature
naturally declines as colonization is completed while air tempeature remains constant. An initiation strategy
(i.e. dropping temperature, adding moisture,
increasing light and exchanging air) is instigated to augment the
mycelium's natural progression to fruiting.
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