High-Voltage Methods for Mushroom Fruit-Body Developments

Abstract

High-voltage electrical stimulation is effective for promotion of fruit-body development in mushroom cultivation. The high voltage applying to cultivation bed of mushroom generates intense electric field inside the bed substrate. The intense electric field accelerates the hypha move owing to the electrostatic force. As a result, some parts of hyphae are cut and scratched. The cutting and scratching of hypha work as stimulation for promotion of the fruit-body development. The promotion effect of high-voltage stimulation to sawdust-based substrate of L. and natural logs hosting Lentinula edodes, Pholiota microspora and Hypholoma lateritium are confirmed through the experiment in the cultivation field. The fruit-body formation of mushrooms increases 1.3-2.0 times in terms of the total weight. The accumulated yield of L. edodes for four cultivation seasons is improved from 160 to 320 g by applying high voltage of 50 or 100 kV. However, the yield decreases from 320 to 240 g upon increasing applied voltage from 100 to 130 kV. The yield of the other types of mushrooms shows tendencies similar to those of L. edodes by applying high voltage. An optimal voltage exists for efficient fruiting body induction.

Development of Compact High-Voltage Power Supply for Stimulation to Promote Fruiting Body Formation in Mushroom Cultivation

“…When the frequency component of the applied pulse voltage is less than several MHz, the membrane of the cell, rather than the inside of the cell, is mainly subjected to the electric field [15]. The hyphae are accelerated and displaced according to the electric field by the electrostatic force such as a Coulomb force [16], which could induce a physical stress on the hyphae. It has been suggested that some genes encoding enzymes such as laccase and protease [17,18,19] could be upregulated by the physical stress [1,5] in the same manner as other physical stresses such as scrapping of surface hyphae, which induces fruit body formation [16,20].…”

“…The hyphae are accelerated and displaced according to the electric field by the electrostatic force such as a Coulomb force [16], which could induce a physical stress on the hyphae. It has been suggested that some genes encoding enzymes such as laccase and protease [17,18,19] could be upregulated by the physical stress [1,5] in the same manner as other physical stresses such as scrapping of surface hyphae, which induces fruit body formation [16,20]. Since the physical stress relates to the fruit body formation, the flush is accelerated and the amount of cropped fruitbody is increased in the seasons that the logs are stimulated by the voltage pulses as shown in Figure 10.…”

Cultivation of Edible Tropical Bolete, Phlebopus spongiosus, in Thailand and Yield Improvement by High-Voltage Pulsed Stimulation

“…The mechanisms of high-voltage pulsed stimulation that drive increases in fruiting body formation are not yet fully understood. However, two possible mechanisms have been explained in some previous studies [40][41][42][43][44]. One is that the mushroom mycelia were ruptured by the application of high-voltage pulses, and that physical damage to the mycelia could stimulate fruiting body formation [37,[41][42][43].…”

Stimulatory growth effect of lightning strikes applied in the vicinity of shiitake mushroom bed logs

“…In other words, lightning appears to have a specific influence on the growth of mushrooms. In efforts to replicate these occurrences, previous studies have applied artificial lightning via high voltages of 30-140 kV to bed logs inoculated with shiitake mushrooms [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. In those studies, using the surface or electrode, a large current was passed through the bed logs, resulting in shiitake mushroom growth.…”

“…without high voltage application). In addition, it has been confirmed that highvoltage electrical stimulation also positively influences shiitake mushroom growth rates [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12].…”