Application of pulsed power to mushroom culturing

Recently pulsed power has been broadly applied to biology. In this work we used pulsed power in order to generate more mushrooms as electrical stimulation to mushroom culturing. The aim of this paper is to report the results of three experiments to prove the effectiveness of the application of pulsed power technology to mushroom culturing. The first experiment was carried out as an attempt to increase the yields of shiitake mushrooms. The pulsed high voltage up to 140 kV was applied to logs for mushroom culturing. The result showed that the yield of shiitake mushrooms to which the pulsed high voltage was applied was twice as many as that of shiitake mushrooms to which the pulsed high voltage was not applied. The second experiment was performed to examine the effect of electrical stimulation on the growth of shiitake hyphae. The effect was estimated by the spreading ratios of shiitake hyphae on the surface and cut-ends of logs. That experimental result showed little influence on the growth of shiitake hyphae. However, before declaration of this result further experiment under other experimental conditions will be required. The third experiment was carried out as an attempt to control the growth of unwanted fungus. Trichoderma fungus was used as an unwanted one. The experimental result showed that there is a possibility that this method can reduce the growth of unwanted fungus without any damage to shiitake mushroom fungus.