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close, damp building, is a very poor place for keeping spawn. If the spawn is perfectly dry and kept in a dry,
airy place, and not in large bulk, and covered, it will bear a high temperature with apparent impunity, but
whenever dampness, even of the atmosphere, is coupled with heat, the mycelium begins to grow, and this, in
the storeroom, is ruinous to the spawn. Judging from our natural mushroom crops, the spawn for which must
be alive in the ground in winter, one concludes that frost should not be injurious to the artificial spawn, still
CHAPTER X. 56
my experience is that hard frost destroys the vitality of both brick and flake spawn. And this is one reason
why I get our full supply of spawn in the fall and keep it myself rather than submit it to the mercy of the seed
store.
=New Versus Old Spawn.=--How long spawn may be kept without its vitality becoming impaired is an
unsettled question, but there is no doubt, if properly kept, it will remain good for several years. But I can not
impress too strongly upon the reader the importance of using fresh spawn. Do not use any old spawn at any
price; do not accept it gratis and ruin your prospect of success by using it. It takes three months from the time
when the manure is gathered for the beds until the mushrooms are harvested. Can you, therefore, afford to
spend this time, and undergo the care and trouble and expense, and court a failure by using old spawn? We
have risks enough with new spawn, let alone old spawn. I do not use any more old spawn, but I have used it
often and long enough to be convinced of its general worthlessness, unless preserved with the greatest care.
=How to Distinguish Good from Poor Spawn.=--This is a very difficult matter, notwithstanding what people
may say to the contrary. If we could positively tell good from bad spawn, we would never use bad spawn, and,
therefore, with ordinary care, have very few failures in mushroom-growing; for good spawn is the root of
success in this business. Spawn differs very much in its appearance; sometimes the bricks show very little
appearance of the presence of spawn, and still are perfectly good; and again, we may get bricks that are pretty
well interlaced and clouded with bluish white mold or fine threads, and this, too, is good. When the bricks are
freely pervaded with pronounced white threads this is no sign that the spawn is bad. Bricks dried as hard as a
board may be perfectly good; so, too, may be those that are comparatively soft. Mushroom spawn should have
a decided smell of mushrooms, and whatever cobweb-like mold may be apparent should be of a fresh bluish
white color, and the fine threads clear white. Prominent yellowish threads or veins are a sign that the
mycelium had started to grow and been killed. Distinct white mold patches on the surface of the bricks
indicate the presence of some other fungous parasite on the mushroom mycelium; the absence of any
mushroom smell in the spawn indicates its worthlessness and that the mycelium is dead. One familiar with
mushroom spawn can tell with considerable certainty "very living" spawn and "very dead" spawn, but I am far
from convinced that any one can decide unhesitatingly in the case of middling or weak spawn.
Mr. S. Henshaw, in Henderson's Handbook of Plants, tells us: "The quality of the spawn may be very easily
detected by the mushroom-like smell, ... and I should have no hesitation in picking out good spawn in the
dark." Sanguine, surely, but I have tried it and found the test wanting. M. Lachaume says that good spawn
shows "an abundance of bluish-white filaments well fitted together, and giving off a strongly marked odor of
mushrooms. All those portions which show traces of white or yellow mold or have a floury appearance,
should be rejected and destroyed." Mr. Wright says: "A brick may be a mass of moldiness, and yet be quite
worthless; and if the mold has a spotted appearance, as if fine white sand had been dredged on and through the
mass, it is certain there is no mushroom-growing power there.... If thick threads pass through the mass and
there are signs of miniature tubercles on them, then the spawn may be regarded as too far gone.... Clusters of
white specks on the spawn denote sterility."
Mr. A. D. Cowan, of New York, who has the reputation of being an excellent judge of mushroom spawn,
writes me: "To correctly judge the quality of brick spawn by its appearance requires experience in handling it,
and a trained eye which enables one quickly to detect good from bad, fair to middling. As two lots seldom
come exactly or nearly alike in appearance, it is hardly possible to give precise rules to follow, excepting the
never-failing requisite which the spawn must possess to be good, namely, the moldy appearance on the
surface, the more the better, without showing threads. Too many of these to a given space are a sure indication
of exhausted vitality, arising generally from the bricks being heaped together when in process of manufacture,
before they are sufficiently dried. Healthy bricks are usually of a dusty brown color, and of light weight.
Black colored spawn is to be avoided, as a rule, and when the black appearance is very prevalent in a cargo of
bricks it is a strong indication that the spawn has not run its course; and as it is not expected to do so after it
has reached the hands of the retailer it is economy to cast it aside. Some persons break a brick into several
pieces to see how it looks inside. To the experienced eye this is not necessary, or even to lay hands upon it, as
CHAPTER X. 57
the outward moldy appearance is the best of all evidence of its healthy vitality, and this never exists if the
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