Glossary
Glossary
Abort: A mushroom that for some odd reason ceases to grow; never reaches maturity. Aborts can be of varying sizes. Common occurrence. See Pinning
Cap: The top part of a mushroom. Often conical or saucer-shaped, at least in the varieties generally discussed round here
Casing: A layer of water retentive materials applied to a substrate to encourage and enhance fruit body production.
Clean Room: A room with a low dust and contaminant count.
Cobweb Mold: Common name for Dactylium, a mold that is commonly seen on the casing soil or parasitizing the mushroom. It is cobweb-like in appearance and first shows up in small, scattered patches and then quickly runs over the entire surface of the casing soil. It then overwhelms any and all mushrooms in its path.
Cold Shock: The practice of lowering the temperature of a PF Cake or a Cased Bed to promote Pinning.
Colonize: To establish a colony in. The process of the mushroom root network growing.
Colony: A circumscribed mass of microorganisms usually growing in or on a solid medium.
Compost: Decayed organic matter/manure.
Contaminant: Something that contaminates. Undesirable Mold, Yeast, or Bacteria.
Desiccant: A water absorbing chemical salt, usually calcium or silica gel based, used to dry shrooms.
Distilled Water: Water that is purified by boiling the water into steam and cooling the steam back into liquid water. Distilled water has no dissolved impurities or salts of any kind. It is pure water.
Flush: The collective formation and development of mushrooms within a short period of time, often occurring in a rhythmic manner.
Fruitbody, Fruiting Body: The part of the mushroom that grows above ground. The sexual reproductive body of the mushroom plant.
Gills: The tiny segments on the underside of the cap. This is where the spores come from.
Grow Chamber: An enclosure for growing mushrooms indoors.
Harvesting: The time to pick the mushrooms when the veil breaks.
HEPA Filter: A filter that has the highest level of filtration levels, typically less than .02 microns
Hygrometer: An instrument for measuring Humidity
Inoculating: The process of introducing sterile spores or into a sterile culture.
Incubation: The process of gently warming a culture to a steady temperature and humidity to promote rapid growth.
Liquid Culture: A technique of germinating spores and growing out cloned mycelium for use as inoculant.
Mycelium: The portion of the mushroom that grows underground.
Overlay: A condition of the casing layer where mycelium has been allowed to completely cover the surface. Overlay is caused by is caused by prolonged vegetative growth temperatures, high CO2, and excessive humidity. Overlay, if overwatered, becomes matted.
Pasteurization: A process by which bulk materials are partially sterilized by contact with live steam, hot water, or dry heat at temperatures between 140- 160 degrees F for 1 to 1.5 hours
Phototropic: Grows toward Light
Pin, Primordia, Pinning: The first recognizable but undifferentiated mass of hyphae that develops into a mushroom fruitbody.
Rhizomorphic: A word used to describe the strand or cord-like characteristics of desirable mycelium sectors.
RO Water: Reverse Osmosis processed Water
Spawn: Fully colonized substrate material used to inoculate bulk substrates.
Spores: What mushrooms have instead of seeds. Microscopic, but produced by the millions by each and every mushroom.
Spore Syringe: Many of the techniques for growing mushrooms indoors involve mixing up a spore print with some water and injecting the result into a sterile container full of something the spores can infect, produce mycelium in, and eat.
Stem: The stem, or stalk of a growing mushroom.
Stipe: The stem of a mushroom.
Stroma: A dense, cushion like growth of mycelium that forms on the surface of composts or casings and is indicative of vegetative growth.
Substrate: Substrate is any material on which mushrooms can grow.
Trichoderma: Green Mold
Veil: A tissue covering mushrooms as they develop. When a mushroom is growing the edges of the cap are joined to the stem. As the mushroom grows larger, the cap spreads and the edges tear away, often leaving a very thin veil of material hanging from the stem.
White Fuzz: A normal white fuzzy mycelial growth, sometimes caused by too high humidity levels.
