Get Acquainted With the Casing Stage of Mushroom Cultivation
The casing is a top-dressing added to the compost where the mushroom Cubensis mycelium spawn runs and finally forms.
As casing, peat moss and ground limestone can be employed. Since the casing also serves as a water storage area and a location for rhizomorph formation, it does not require nutrients. Rhizomorphs are formed when the incredibly tiny mycelium fuses and resemble thick threads. Rhizomorphs are necessary for the formation of mushroom initials, primordia, or pins; hence, mushrooms cannot exist without rhizomorphs. Moisture should be able to stay inside the casing since a hard mushroom must grow. The casing layer’s primary roles are to provide water to the mycelium for growth and development, safeguard the compost from drying out, support growing mushrooms, and prevent structural collapse after repeated watering. The highest production potential is achieved by supplying as much water to the casing as soon as feasible without letting it seep into the compost beneath.
For casing, sphagnum peat moss is most frequently utilized. Sphagnum can vary in color from brown to black, and it may be treated in various ways at the location of the collection. Wet-dug peat is carried in a saturated state, whereas milled peat is partially dried before packaging and shipment. Wet-dug peat is preferred by certain farmers because it has a better water-holding capacity than milled peat. You can rely on our Cubensis.
A sterilized combination of peat, vermiculite, and wheat bran that has been infested with mushroom mycelium is called casing inoculum. It is used with casing to speed up the cropping cycle, make the mushroom bed more uniformly distributed, and make the mushrooms cleaner. As it combines with the compost’s underlying mycelium, the CI’s mycelium colonizes the casing layer. This enables additional crop splits or more harvests each year.
Earlier, the practice of adding nutrients at casing was first tested. The results demonstrated that nutrition additions during casing were far more effective than those at spawning, and that production increases were practically linearly related to nutrient additions. Although yield improvements of up to 100% are possible, supplementing at the casing has several potential drawbacks. When supplementing at the casing, the compost must be free of weed molds, nematodes, and pathogens. These organisms, which can proliferate quickly before the planet-of-mushrooms mushroom Cubensis mycelium resumes its growth, will be disseminated throughout the compost when it is broken up before supplementing.