GROWING GOURMET - Anto2ni.it

444 TROUBLESHOOTING
vator has the over-riding influence on success or failure. I strongly encourage that, at every stage in
the cultivation process, the cultivator leaves one petri dish, spawnjar, sawdust bag, etc. uninoculated
to help determine whether or not ensuing contaminants are unique to the media preparation process
versus the inoculation method. The se"blanks" are extremely helpful in diagnosing the probable vector
of contamination.
Cultivators should note that when one error in the process occurs, many symptoms can be expressed.
For instance, diseases attacking mature mushrooms are to be expected if the humidity is
maintained at too-high levels during cropping. If the growing room is kept at 100% rH, the surfaces
of the mushrooms remain wet and become perfect environments for parasitic fungi and bacteria. Bacterial
blotch attacks developing mushrooms. Green molds proliferate. Mites eat mold spores. Flies
carry mites and spores. If these organisms spread to developing primordia, massive deformation and
contamination ensues. Those mushrooms which do survive have exaggeratedly short shelf lives after
harvest. So, in this instance, one problem—humidity being too high—results in multiple
symptoms. The lesson here: what is good for one contaminant is good for many! Controlling the
vector of contamination must be coupled with creating an environment more conducive to the growth
of mushrooms than competitors.
Population explosions of Sciarid and Phorid
flies defeat Oyster mushroomcultivators more
than any other competitor. Flycontrol measures
have ranged from simple sticky pads to the use
of pesticides, a recourse I abhor. The use of pesticides,
although rampant with many "old
school" cultivators, is totally unnecessary for
gourmet and medicinal mushroom cultivation
—given a balance of preventative measures.
Bug lights should be positioned at the entrance
of every door. The bug traps I find that work the
best are those which feature a circular black
light and centrally located fan that creates a
negative pressure vortex, features which greatly
extend their effective range. These bug lights
should also have sticky pads affixed below them
that trap "fly-bys" or "near-misses". (See Figure
384). Coupled with the frequent washing
down of the growing room, at least twice a day,
population explosions can be forestalled or pre- Figure 384. A highly effective bug trapper. The circular
light attacks flies to the vacuum-vortex which
cluded.
throws the flies into a clear plastic bag. By attaching
There is one final control measure I recom- "sticky paper" underneath the light, hovering flies
mend highly and which occurred naturally in are also captured. The clear bag allows the easy,
our growing rooms. For the past 5 years, our daily counting of flies, and helps predict
growing rooms have sustained a population of
impending
outbreaks.
PDF compression, OCR, web-optimization with CVISION's PdfCompressor