natural vs. artificial light

[silver.assasin]

i sterilized my first batch of substrate today. i will be inoculating in the morning. <<fingers crossed>>

the question is:
for fruiting, is artificial light effective (incandescent bulbs)?
what about natural light vs. grow lights?
thx
~L

[mrpanda]

You dont need any special lighting for shrooms. Indirect sunlight will work so will normal light in a room. I think any special lighting setup for the small time home grower is a waste of time and money.

[camMyco]

IME any light will do but I think shrooms prefer indirect sunlight the best.

[bb4]

i've always been a closet grower until recently, i've finally got a yard now....

in the past months i would say that natural light is the way to go!

i'm basing this on mushrooms grown indoors with window light vs solely the closet light (which has always been CFL). in the case of the edibles i'm actually growing outside in my new yard, they all produce much better than the ones previously grown with artificial lighting, though i'm sure the fresh air and natural 90%+ humidity has a lot to do with that...

[joystik]

I agree. I bought some artificial lighting for my shrooms when i started growing, but now I only use Indirect sunlight. It was a waste of money for sure. The simpler the better.

[warriorsoul]

mushrooms use light differently than plants.
all that is needed is enough light to trigger fruiting.

if you can see in the room,
thats enough light for the mushrooms to start pinning.
there will be no increase in growth by giving them more light.

[TVCasualty]

Originally Posted by warriorsoul

mushrooms use light differently than plants.
all that is needed is enough light to trigger fruiting.

if you can see in the room,
thats enough light for the mushrooms to start pinning.
there will be no increase in growth by giving them more light.

Having only my subjective judgement to go on, I'd have to say that there must be some kind of minimum threshold for light intensity (and frequency/color temp) to get the best pinsets and development. I got better results from bright but indirect window light than cool white fluorescent bulbs. Bulbs for reptile aquariums initiated much better pinsets than cool whites, about as good as indirect sunlight, so spectrum is important if using only artificial light. I believe there is also a minimum intensity needed for achieving optimum results, so lighting is not a major issue so long as these minimums are met.

I've seen bulbs for terrariums that advertise 4% UVA and 6% UVB light, and I am curious if the UV would have beneficial effects like inhibiting contamination and stimulating better pinsets. I haven't bought any because they are too expensive to try out just for the hell of it. I've read about studies that show the vitamin D content of Maitake increased around 1000% when the fruitbodies were exposed to certain frequencies of UV light (the high ones that are dangerous to our eyes and skin), and a lot of experienced weed growers who grow under all fluoros throw one or two of these bulbs in the mix because they say it makes their buds better (in terms of the high). Basically, the presence of high-energy UV stimulates chemical reactions, and I'm curious if there might be some benefit in it for home mycology. Many years ago, I had an old print from Hawaii (a Pan. species). I knew it had gotten too old for me to do anything with (my myco skills in 1994 were not very good), but I was just out of college at the time so gave it to a friend in the microbiology department. Using a major research institution's equipment, he got the spores to sprout after 3 (or was it 4?) years in a drawer. He said he used UV light, but I got no more details. It's on my list of things to look into, but that is a looong list...

[warriorsoul]

There is a minimum, if you can see thats enough.
a 1 watt led few hours a day is enough.
Light more in the blue spectrum may get you more pins
but remember your substrate will contain only so much food.
so you can have alot of small mushrooms or less mushrooms but larger specimans.The end weight will be about the same
To much UV is bad and can cause mutations.


You can always drink more milk if your not getting enough vitamin D.

[silver.assasin]

they're in my windowless bathroom right now, and you know how bright those fixtures can be. i have 2 free growlights sitting in my garage right now, but i'm thinking that i might save them for my next "science project".
i knocked up 15 jars today, so maybe i'll do half in the natural and half bulb, just to see. i'm concerned about the temp though, it's much easier to keep my bathroom above 70 than any other room.
thanks for the advice, i have alot to think about and about 2 weeks to come up with something.
~L

[TVCasualty]

Originally Posted by warriorsoul

Light more in the blue spectrum may get you more pins
but remember your substrate will contain only so much food.
so you can have alot of small mushrooms or less mushrooms but larger specimans.The end weight will be about the same

I saw that happening; getting either lots of little ones or fewer bigger ones, but by bumping up the light intensity and trying bulbs of different color temps helped give me more bigger ones, which is to say a larger percentage of the total yield was harvested from the first flush. That, and making sure the sub is very well hydrated stopped the problem of lots of little ones. So, I keep the light turned up so the substrate blazes with two good flushes then it's out to the yard. It's cool to get 4,5, or 6 flushes from a substrate, but obviously what counts is yield and I prefer to get it over with. I am sacrificing a few dried grams I suppose (I probably get 80-90% of total potential yield), but waiting around while keeping a space clean and warm and hidden for a couple weeks isn't worth the few (wet) ounces I'd get from later flushes when instead a new tray could be producing a few (wet) pounds.

For me, more light is part of the way I do it since it helps give me the results I'm after, and I notice a difference when I use less.

To much UV is bad and can cause mutations.
You can always drink more milk if your not getting enough vitamin D.

True, but the intensity and percentages of UV listed on the bulbs I mentioned are for reptile terrariums that people would be able to look at, so they are probably not intense enough to cause problematic mutations in the mushrooms, yet still might initiate reactions that might be beneficial (i.e. synthesize more psilo).

For what it's worth, vitamin D deficiency is actually a huge problem outside the tropics, and would be here too if we didn't get it in supplements (in fact, lots of us are deficient anyway, one sign is osteoporosis). Milk is not an option for me, though, since the D3 in it is derived from animal leftovers such as sheep and pig skin, pig brains, fish, and other choice sources (not to mention the hormones, bacteria, pus, fecal matter, etc all within FDA limits of course) and so it makes me ill to even think about milk. I'm not a calf needing to gain 300 pounds in a year, either, which is what milk is for.

I think it's great that some species of mushrooms (esp. maitake), if harvested and exposed to strong UV light (in the germicidal range) for only 5 minutes, produce 2700+ IU's of vitamin D2. More is produced for longer exposures. It's one of the only non-animal sources available, and might help reduce the widespread nutrient deficiencies found in many parts of the world.

[Hippie3]

i tend to agree with the observation that indirect sunlight gives the strongest pinning response.