Cropping
After completion of the spawn run, the bags were transferred onto
horizontal racks in a cropping house – a wooden-frame structure
covered with woven mats. The bags were then opened and the mats
were watered twice a day to increase the humidity and induce fruit
body formation. The interior of the house reached 26–28C and
90–95% RH. The number of days until the first appearance of
the mushroom was recorded. The biological efficiency (BE), i.e. the
weight of fresh mushrooms as a percentage of the dry weight of the
substrate was determined [5]. The experiment was replicated five
times for each by-product substrate.