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Lightning Makes Mushrooms Multiply

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Kazoo...

Kazoo...

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National Geographic News

Lightning makes mushrooms more plentiful, according to ongoing research that offers a solid scientific basis for Japanese farming lore.

For generations, Japanese farmers have welcomed storms over their fields based on the belief that lightning strikes provoke plentiful harvests of mushrooms, which are staples of Japanese cuisine.

Currently, mushroom demand is so high that dealers are increasingly turning to foreign suppliers. Japan imports about 50,000 tons of mushrooms a year, mainly from China and South Korea.

As part of a four-year study, scientists in northern Japan have been bombarding a variety of mushrooms in lab-based garden plots with artificially induced lightning to see if electricity actually makes the fungi multiply.


The latest results show that lightning-strength jolts of electricity can more than double the yield of certain mushroom species compared with conventional cultivation methods.

"We have tried these experiments with ten types of mushroom so far and have found that it is effective in eight species," said Koichi Takaki, an associate professor in engineering at Iwate University.

"We saw the best effects in shiitake and nameko mushrooms, while we also tested reishi mushrooms, which are not edible but are used in certain types of traditional Chinese medicine," he said.


Takaki's team has been applying high-voltage pulses to logs seeded with mushroom spores to try to stimulate mushroom growth.

Naturally occurring lightning can carry up to a billion volts of electricity, which get carried through the ground during a lightning strike. (Related: "'Upside Down' Lightning as Strong as Earth-bound Bolts.")

A direct hit with that much energy would fry the mushrooms. Instead, it's more likely mushrooms near the strike zone grow after being exposed to a weakened charge traveling through the soil, so the researchers have been using gentler bursts of electricity.

Repeated tests have shown that the fungi react best when they're exposed to between 50,000 and 100,000 volts for one ten-millionth of a second.

Given the right amount of electricity, the shiitake crop yielded double the amount harvested from logs not exposed to an energy burst. The amped-up nameko logs produced 80 percent more mushrooms.

"The reaction of the mushrooms to this sudden burst of energy is initially to decrease the proteins and enzymes secreted by their hyphae, followed by a sudden increase," Takaki said.

Hyphae are elongated cells that act like roots for mushrooms, anchoring the spores in the ground and taking in nutrients. The hyphae also give rise to new fruiting bodies, the fleshy, capped structures that produce spores and are harvested as crops.

The reason for the hyphae's reaction to lightning is still being studied. But it's possible the mushrooms are giving themselves a reproductive boost in response to danger, said Yuichi Sakamoto, chief researcher at the Iwate Biotechnology Research Center, who has been working with Takaki's team.

"For mushrooms, a lightning strike would be a very serious threat that could easily kill them off," Sakamoto said.

"I think they have the need to regenerate before they die, and when they sense lightning, they automatically accelerate their development" and produce more fruiting bodies, he said.

Lightning Also Sparks Radish Buds?

Based on the successes so far, Takaki and Sakamoto think machines for delivering lightning-like bursts could become a boon to commercial farmers—although first the team needs to make the technology more user-friendly.

"Right now, the equipment that we use to grow these mushrooms is very specialized and complicated, so I want to improve the design to make it easy to operate," Takaki said.

"We want to collaborate with commercial mushroom farmers and eventually commercialize this technology."

Takaki's team has also started similar experiments on daikon radishes, with early tests indicating that the species tends to bud earlier when exposed to artificial lightning.

Lightning tests are being conducted at other institutions on rapeseed plants, beans, and some varieties of lily, Takaki added.
Click to expand...

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Very interesting....

...Repeated tests have shown that the fungi react best when they're exposed to between 50,000 and 100,000 volts for one ten-millionth of a second...
Click to expand...

I was wondering whether I could do this at home to electrify my Cubes a bit :lol:
 
that is very cool. so its a survival mechanism to reproduce as much as it can before it dies. so, since shrooms have been around for millenias, they probably respond similarly to other forms of natural shocks/disasters as well.
The same effect can be achieved by bleach dunking and cooling (this is already currently practiced). But the yield is not 80% more. So how can the yield be increased? What other natural forms of shocks could we introduce to the mycelium for high yields and quick reproduction?
I have already tried adding a bit of physical pressure on top of the mycelium inoculated straw. The yields decreased, and flushes decreased. So that doesnt work.
Introducing bleach vapors inside the growing terrarium caused the mycelium to turn blue, and i'm pretty certain also decreased flushes and yields. So that doesn't work either.

has anyone here experimented around with this phenomenon of introducing natural disturbances to increase yields? if so, could you elaborate upon the results/outcome, etc.

Let's brainstorm a bit..

edit* people also scratch the top surface layer of the mycelium after dunking it before flushes.. with a fork, etc, to promote pinning. But again, the yields aren't increased by 80%..
 
This August we had a fierce thunder and lightning storm, dumping 4 inches of hard rain in less than six hours time. The next day or so, I noticed a seven foot diameter fairy ring of Amanita Alba mushrooms. Fourteen mushrooms in all, each one evenly spaced at exactly seven feet opposite the other. It looked like an Amanita clock.

Twas a fascinating week, observing their small spheroid forms swelling, blooming and eventual decay. BTW, in Vermont we have golden -orange Amanita Formosa, Albas and a brown variety (not sure which kind. Probably not Pantherinas). I would only munch on or smoke the yellers, though. :!:
 
I just wanted to show you folks what I meant. The fairy ring appeared less than 24 hours after the heavy downpour, and the thunder & lightning storm. The Albas didn't bloom at the same rate but over a 72 hour period of time, eventually filled the seven foot circle. These are some pics. :thumb_up:
 

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"Tlaloc’s other attributes are the serpentine-shaped lightning bolts. Lightning bolts are associated with the "one-legged gods" and believed to cause mushrooms to sprout when and where the lightning strikes the ground"

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They knew.
 
i think the theory of pan spermia says fungi survive on radiation and as such colonized earth when it was just a rock and brown the rock down into soil through its decomposition process of releasing acids.... it would make sense that lightning and other energies stimulate mushrooms if one were to subscribe to this notion
 
Absolutely intriguing, I wonder if there is any connection with the blue deer and lighting as it is said that peyote's grow where ever the blue deer has stepped.... Thank you ever so much for sharing this incredibly fascinating information. ;)


Much Peace and Happiness
 
Yeah, thanx for the link, jamie! A wonderful resource for those of us intrigued by Amanita Muscaria. You know, we that be beguiled, beshroomed and bedazzled!!! :thumb_up:
 
I have a few Tesla coils I have built. One puts out around 1,000,000 volts.

Should I give it a try?

I think I need to isolate a cube strain, grow it out in two separate tubs in identical substrate, and shock the hell out of one! It shouldn't harm them, I've touched the lightning and only received a mild sensation. I wouldn't do it for long, since that energy would supposedly travel nerves and veins and heat them up.

Perhaps FINALLY I've found a practical use for my coils! That is, besides picking up chicks.
....That's never happened....
 
^The article called for a very short pulse, though--about 100 nanoseconds, IIRC. I'd know how to produce that with, say, a hundred volts. But with a million I have no idea how that's done.
 
Well the coils I have run in the megahertz frequency, so each lightning strike is quite quick. But I was just thinking I could get it close. The coils put off enough of an electro-magnetic field to light up unplugged fluorescent light tubes from several yards away. And that's without an arc touching the tube, either. So it seems to me that field may be enough to get a response from the fungus.
The worst that happens? No shroomies.

The best?

SHROOMIIEEEEZZZZ!!!!

I'll be sure to post my results when I get around to this!
 
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