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Yesterday my friend Ryan visited to my place for lunch. After lunch, I went to show him my garden where I grow my fruits and vegetables. Then he saw my glass box placed in a dark corner, were I grow my own Mushrooms. He was wondering, how my mushroom are growing so beautifully ? how its bulb is so clear and flourishing? Then he mentioned that, Several times he tried to grow them but, could not succeed. Every time his mushrooms died. All his labor went in vain. He invested hundreds of dollars in buying mushroom growing kits and but none of them bring any success to him.

He wanted to grow them, but feared, as there was no one who can help him doing so. I offered him to support and asked to go to his place and find what the problem is.

At Ryan’s place, I saw the site was prefect, the way he explained the steps he followed for the cultivation was also correct. He mentioned that, He read some book or instructional booklet and follow the steps written there. I requested for the booklet he was following. The booklet has all the instructions written was proper. The only thing it missing was, the list of precautions which can stop contaminating the crop. I Promised Ryan to give him easy instructional steps to minimize the contamination which was killing his mushrooms. Few of those points I have explained here in the post. If you would like to receive complete instructions in detail, please request for free booklet of “Mushroom contaminations and steps to control it” by sending email to anand@enukkad.com. Please subscribe my newsletter to receive tips on mushroom growing and related topics.

Pathway of Contaminations:

Contamination while cultivating mushroom mycelium can happen in many ways. I divided this in five categories.

1 By The grower itself.

2. By Air or other media.

3. By the Tools used.

4. By The inoculums.

5. By Other contamination Carriers.

Here I am going detail out the points by which the contamination travels.

1) Through Grower or Cultivators itself:

The human body teems with populations of micro-organisms. Diverse species of fungi (including yeast), bacteria and viruses call your body their home. When you are healthy, the populations of these microorganisms achieve equilibrium. When you are ill, one or more of these groups proliferate out of control. Hence, unhealthy people should not be in a sterile laboratory, lest their disease organisms escape and proliferate to dangerous proportions.

Most frequently, contaminants are spread via touch or breath. Also, the flaking of the skin is a direct cause. The best way to minimize the contamination is to wear gloves. Clean your hands with antibacterial soap in every 25-30 minutes.

2) The Air and Culture medium:

Air can be described as a sea of microorganisms, hosting invisible contaminants that directly contaminate sterilized media once exposed. Many particulates remain suspended. When a person walks into the sterile laboratory, he not only brings in contaminants that will become airborne, but his movement disturbs the contaminant-laden floor, re-releasing contaminants into the lab’s atmosphere.

Small cultivators, please disinfect the place where you do the inoculation. Make use of aerosol sprays—either commercial disinfectants to remove contaminants floating in air.

Commercial cultivator who maintains spawn rooms, proper ventilation is required. Without the exchange of fresh air, carbon dioxide levels will naturally rise from out-gassing by the mushroom mycelium. As carbon dioxide levels elevate, contaminants are triggered into growth. Unless the air is exchanged, the lab becomes stifling and contamination-prone. Since the only way to exchange air without introducing contaminants is by filtering, the combination of fans and micron filters is the only recourse.

Often the medium upon which a culture is grown becomes the source of contamination. Insufficient sterilization is usually the cause. Standard sterilization time for most liquid media is only 15-20 minutes at

15 psi or 250° F. (1210 C.). I recommend at least 60 minutes at 15 psi of sterilization will be enough to remove contamination due to medium.

3) Tools used:

Insufficient sterilization of tools can be direct reason for contaminations. If the scalpel, syringes, Pressure cooker etc. are not steralized properly, can uses serious contaminations to your cultivation.

Do Flame-sterilizing scalpels or syringes. It is the most effective and proffered method to remove contamination.

4) The inoculums:

The inoculum is the tissue that is being transferred, whether this tissue is a part of a living mushroom, mycelium from another Petri dish, or spores. Bacteria and molds can infect the mushroom tissue and be carried with it every time a transfer is made. Isolation of the inoculums from the

Mushroom mycelium can be frustrating, for many of these contaminant organisms grow faster than the newly emerging mushroom mycelium. There are several techniques can purify contaminated mycelium but the best method which I prefer is to use new Petridis or a spore which is not infected from bacteria or moulds.

5) Other contamination Carriers. Other contamination carriers are the organisms that carry and spread contaminants. Examples: Ants, Flies, Mites etc. These living micro-organisms act as vehicles spreading contaminants from one site to another.

Mites are the most difficult of these to control. Their minute size, their preference for fungi (both molds and mushroom mycelium) as food, and their penchant for travel, make them a spawn manager’s worst nightmare come true.

Once mite contamination levels exceed 10%, the demise of the laboratory is only one generation away. All cultures must be removed, including Petri dishes, spawn jars, etc. The laboratory should then be thoroughly cleansed several times.

All of these vectors are universally affected by one other variable: Time of Exposure. The longer the exposure of any of the aforementioned vectors of contamination, the more significant their impact. Controlling the time of exposure can have a drastic impact on the quality of cultivation.

Attached Below is the overview of techniques of growing mushrooms.

Image Source: GROWING GOURMET AND MEDICINAL MUSHROOMS by Paul Stamets

You can visit http://www.shroomery.org/5294/Contamination to watch Photos of  the contaminations your mushroom might have.

Anand mallik.

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