I recently bought a lionsmane growbag and it's doing realy well. So now i wonder....could i just sterilise some sawdust and mix it with some of the sawdust inside the growbag to multiply my mushroom production?
Loveall said:I think it is reccomended to pasteurize (not sterilize) the sawdust you will spawn into. I think the reason has to do with some not-so-bad surviving organisms helping keep a balance. Going off memory so I could be wrong.
I can say that in practice I have spawend grain to pasteurized substrated and that has worked.
Conclusion as I understand it: when spanning (usually a non sterile process), pasteurization should be used instead of sterilization, otherwise any introduced spores will have an easier time taking over. The authors also observed that pasteurizing at 140F gave them better results than at 176F.María Belén Colavolpe said:It is supposed that S treatment due to high temperature and the cooking effect, released nutrients that benefited the green mold. It is also considered that the reduction of the natural microbial flora of the substrate by the sterilization action increases Trichoderma sp opportunities to colonize the substrate because of a lower presence of competitive micro flora which reduces the possibility of mycelial growth. Bacterial strains can inhibit the growth of Trichoderma sp by production of volatile organic compounds (Mackie and Whetley, 1999) or by releasing antibiotics (Nielsen et al., 2000).