Furious Fungi

It continues to amaze me how fast these mushrooms grow once they get started. The longest part of the growth cycle is the vegetative phase. That is when the mycelium is growing. It will continue to grow until it runs out of space to grow into or when it encounters a competitor. Then the mycelium will shut down vegetative growth, and make the transition into the fruiting phase.

After the first crop, or flush, of mushrooms the mycelium cake can be dried out, and then re-hydrated and it will give you a second and third flush and potentially a fourth by the time the substrate has been fully stripped of the nutrients the current mushroom is consuming. It can then be re-sterilized and used to grow a different species of mushroom that feeds on a different set of nutrients.

Here are some pictures of the progress of our shiitake mushroom patch.

 The Lamella or gills, can be seen on the first mushroom now.(Pictured above. The picture detail is too fuzzy to see it clearly though)  This is where the spores are dispersed from.
Spores form from little pods called basidia. Each basidia produces 4 spores. The gills are covered with basidia.
It should be noted that not all mushroom species share these characteristics. The fungal kingdom is a massively diverse subject that remains largely unknown to us.

And for me in particular who is only beginning a course of study on mycology the areas of ignorance are greater still.