If you want to succeed in mushroom farming then knowing the details is important. One such detail is the optimum spawn rate.
Mushrooms are known for their excellent taste and nutritional values, but they are perishable. This is due to their high-water content of up to 98%. They have, therefore, to some extent, a short shelf life. Today’s research project focuses on the improvement of preservation through the use of modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) and chemical treatments.
In one of my last videos, I talked about the uptake of caffeine by the mushrooms. As this is an interesting topic to explore, I will talk today about a research project which investigated the fortification of zinc and selenium by Pleurotus eryngii, known as the king oyster mushroom. Fortification or more precise, the “Food fortification has been defined as the addition of one or more essential nutrients to a food.”
If you are buying spawn or even if you are making your own spawn, you may be asked yourself: “How long can I store the spawn before it is losing its vitality?” This question is asked not only by you but by researchers as well. Today’s research project tries to answer this question. The authors found out that the number of fruit bodies will be influenced by the spawn age. If the spawn age is young (15 days), the number of smaller fruit bodies (below 3 cm) is low. The number then increases after 30 days before it drops down until it hits a minimum after 51 to 58 days. At this mark, the number of fruit bodies starts to increase again. Interestingly, if you want to have larger fruit bodies, the older the spawn age, you will get more and larger ones (greater than 3 cm). But the correlation between the larger fruit bodies is small, especially compared to the correlation between the smaller fruit bodies and the spawn age. Besides the size of the mushrooms, the yield is affected, too. The lowest yield with 158g could be found at a spawn age of 15 days. While the highest yield at a spawn age of 61 days. Which is also indicated by the correlation factor between the two parameters. Now, after we know what the authors found out, let us look at how they did it. The authors use the following ingredients for their substrate.
