The water requirement of the mushroom crop

Experiments are described in which it was attempted to quantify the water requirement of the mushroom crop for maximum yield.The amount of water applied was positively correlated with crop weight from about the second week of cropping and increasing the amount of water applied reduced the drying of the compost and casing during cropping. The watering treatments affected the character of the mushroom mycelium developing in the casing layer.The amount of water required to maintain the percentage water content of compost and casing unchanged throughout cropping can be calculated from an equation representing the overall balance of water applied to, and lost from, the mushroom trays.