Button mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) are cultivated on a substrate prepared of composted wheat straw, chicken and/or horst manure and gypsum.
This manuscript describes a number of experiments indicating that in a harvesting strategy towards quality mushrooms there is a fixed amount
of nutrients prepared/available to feed two flushes. The increase of mycelial biomass in the substrate after venting and especially during the
development of flush one indicates that likely a branching of mycelium occurs during this period, leading to a substantial number of growing
hyphal tips excreting lignocellulolytic enzymes that degrade substrate and make nutrients available during flush one which are utilised in
flush one and two. The presently used substrate seems to have reached its limits and there are hardly opportunities for further improvement.
Research on alternative, more energy dense, substrates are needed to improve the efficiency of the present production system.
- agaricus bisporus
- mushroom quality
- mushroom substrate
- mycelial biomass
- fruiting body mass
- flush yield
- substrate limitation