To extremely summarize my DoE, I am looking to see if a dark treatment on the grow-it-yourself oyster mushroom kits Sarah is helping to develop will affect the wet weight of mushrooms. Many commercial growers colonize oyster mushrooms with a 24 hour dark treatment. We want to see if this will specifically work on this product. Through data of the mushroom wet weight, we will be able to determine if a dark treatment is better than a light treatment. Who doesn't want bigger mushrooms?
Courtney and Sarah already prepared substrate which they inoculated so I was able to dive into the regrind and packing parts. This step creates the shape of the final product, a block, and allows for the mycelium to settle into this shape. While I worked on packing parts, Courtney told me some more about her research. One project she is currently working on is finding a way to quantify mycelium. To do so, she is working closely with chemicals such as hormones, and their effect on the organisms.
These are bags of inoculation that Sarah and Courtney helped me make. These bags were given the light treatment.
I packed what was in the bags into parts like this. This is from a bag that is undergoing the dark treatment.
This contraption (rack, black pod cover, and duct tape) is where the dark treatment takes place.
After packing the parts, Courtney and I began discussing possibilities for an experiments that I myself would be interested in pursuing. She gave me ideas that involved topics from micro-nutrients to agar or liquid inoculation. While I am not working on this light treatment experiment, I will begin to research and find topics for my experiment. Ecovative has several mushroom publications which I am allowed to borrow and my mentors are helping me to find science articles to broaden my understanding of mushrooms.
