Formation of oyster mushroom primordia - features and photos

When to start fruiting mushrooms

It seems that this is a topic for beginners, but I advise everyone to read: maybe you will find new information.

There are people who have been growing oyster mushrooms for a long time, but they did not know:

  • why bunches can be loose,
  •  why there is condensation on bags that have just been taken out of the incubator.

Primordia is formed when the substrate is completely overgrown.

When is mycelium ready to fruit

First, a white seal (a small roller) appears around the slot on the mushroom blocks.

It is called a primordial roller or ring and indicates that mushroom pins will appear in a day or two.

On round holes, it is very clearly visible (photo on the left).

On holes of a different shape, it can be just a white mass, quite dense, well overgrown (right).

primordial roller or ring
зарастание отверстий в блоке вешенки

If you have a single-zone system, start gradually changing the climate to growing conditions at the primordial ring stage.

If you have a two-zone system, take the batch out of the incubator when one or two rudiments appear on several blocks, they are called signal primordia.

Оyster mushroom growth stages

In different countries, the appearance of white fluff from the slot and the further development of the oyster mushroom fruiting bodies are called by different words. That is, there is no single concept and name for the stages of oyster mushroom development.

Below I will describe the sequence of origin and development of fruiting bodies, with a description of their appearance and call them by the words that are accepted in our country.

What does primordia look like

At first, primordials look like foam with barely visible dots - this is the “pin stage” or some people say “semolina”. The next stage is the appearance of small individual white balls.

The gray or gray-brown shade of growing mushrooms appears a little later, about a day later.

The photo on the left shows the division into individual mushrooms and it is in this state that they must be transferred.

If the blocks are moved later - in the form as in the next photo - some of the mushrooms may die due to condensate.

mushroom pins
what does primordia look like

Will condensate settle on the primordia or not - depends on the conditions in your chamber.

If the chamber is 12-13 degrees, and in the incubator 20-21C, in addition, the humidity in the chamber is 10-12% higher than in the incubator - the condensate is deposited on small caps and they suffocate.

Primordia color

The color is related to the strain. If the brown color of the oyster mushroom cap is characteristic of the strain, the pins are practically never white - they immediately come out of the slot in cream shades.

In strains of the K and P lines, they are white for the first day, then gray.

When it's cold, they are so dark that they appear black. Lighten to dark gray as they grow.

The color should be uniform.

Any plaque, scales or growths mean a violation of the microclimate in the later stages of incubation or a sharp change in conditions when transferred from the incubator to the growing room.

How long does it take for primordia to appear on the block?

The timing of the appearance of primordia depends on two reasons:

  1. compliance with incubation conditions - read about the microclimate here and  here
  2. biology of mycelium growth:
    - Overgrowing of the substrate occurs faster on a substrate containing sunflower husks. Consequently, the crop begins to ripen on it 2-3, or even 4 days earlier than on the straw mixture.
    - If the mycelium rate is increased to 4.5-5% of the weight of the substrate block, then the primordia in this batch will appear a couple of days earlier than where the mycelium dose is 3%.
    - From the strain - there are early ripening varieties that produce fruiting bodies 12-13 days after sowing. For example, pulmonaris.
    - Substrate humidity also plays a role. Deviations from the optimum - both waterlogging and lack of moisture - inhibit the appearance of primordia.

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