Want to Know a Little About Fungiculture?

A large proportion of our HEPA filters are bought by people and companies that grow mushrooms. These range from small enterprises where people are growing single varieties at home for friends and family to those growing larger volumes for their local population and businesses right through to those employing many people and growing vast quantities for distribution to supermarkets and food wholesalers. It doesn’t matter the size of the growing operation nor the type of mushroom being grown the air quality, within an indoor growing area, is very important and this is why our HEPA filters (also known as Absolute or Zero filters) are chosen as the main things to remember, when growing mushrooms, are temperature, humidity, and ventilation as mushrooms require a lot of fresh air so proper ventilation is vital for a successful crop.

As a little background we have decided to put together some information sheets on mushrooms/fungi that will hopefully be of interest and we have decided to start by going back in time to see the origins of certain words.

There are many words for the types of farms such as arable, if the fields are or can be ploughed, or livestock but the common name for growing mushrooms, especially if grown on a larger scale, just seems to be Mushroom Farming however Fungiculture is the proper term for the cultivation of mushrooms and other types of fungi which should not be confused with fungistatic which is to inhibit the growing of fungus. Mycology, which is derived from ancient Greek, is a word that is very commonly used when people say that they grow mushrooms but the definition of mycology is ‘the scientific study of fungi’ or ‘the fungi of a particular region’ neither of which refer to the growing of fungi. So if you study fungi then you would be classed as a mycologist. The only other word that we could find that is connected to mycology, and is not dealing with the anatomy of fungi, is mycophagy which is the eating of fungi.

Then we move on to the word mushroom. Why do we say mushroom when we are really talking about fungi, what is meant by mushroom? The definition of mushroom in the Collins dictionary is ‘edible spore-producing body of various fungi with a stem and domed cap, proverbial for its rapid growth’. This definition hasn’t mentioned the gills which form on the underside of the cap which are where the microscopic spores are produced. This definition starts to separate types of fungi so when we say mushroom we are really talking about the cultivated white button mushroom and others that share its characteristics. When etymology rears its head, especially with the English language, then confusion reigns but having had a good dig through in internet (especially Wikipedia) and various dictionaries the best we can come up with for the origin of the word mushroom is that it could have come from the French mousseron which is a type of flat cap mushroom common in France. Mousseron is very close to the French word for moss which is mousse which could relate to the areas in which the mushroom was originally found.

This is just a little bit of background information which we found interesting. We obviously haven’t touched on the different varieties of mushroom, how to grow them or how the growing can be assisted by the use of our HEPA filters. We will get to that on our next information sheet but in the meantime you can view our range of HEPA filters and if you would like any assistance or further information then all you need to do is contact us.