When growing mushrooms, if once your waiting to "fruit", and mold starts to appear...?

Question

will it affect the mushrooms at all?

its for the shiitake shroom.

cheers

Answer 1

I'm afraid it's had it.

Mushrooms need to be grown in extremely sterile conditions.

The mold is competing with the mycelium of your mushroom for nutrients you have provided and in the case the mold is winning.

The mold could potentially be dangerous if eaten and so I recommend you start again.

Don't just scrape it off and continue, the mold will still be there and you really could make yourself or others ill.

All steps in mushroom cultivation have to be completely free of competing organisms, this means taking great care through all steps of the cultivation process. It's not easy but practice makes perfect, as it does not take too long to grow shrooms don't let this defeat you.

It's even a good idea practicing the sterile techniques with just a petri dish of agar, this will show you how easy it is for your grow to become contaminated.