altenate Posted June 30, 2011 Is, say, town or tap water detrimental to mushrooms growing? in home or outdoors cultivation? Any research or personal experience out there would be appreciated. Chlorine kills lotsa stuff so does it affect mushroom spore? I think chlorine evaporates reasonably quickly, but its uses have been wide & varied through out the last century or so.... Say if there was an outdoor patch down the road & someone started hosing/irrigating with town water would this have some effect on what was potentially once growing there? Say if someone was trying to expand some mycelium would the chlorine in town water have any negative effects? I read somewhere that by letting water stand at room temp for a certain amount of time the chlorine evaporates & am sure that rainwater is far superior, Fresh rain being most superior, ( personally cant control that one though) then tank water but what about town water?? Come to think about it this query might suit another forum or 2 but shall post here for now. Thanks Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tripsis Posted June 30, 2011 I've never had any problems using tap water for mushroom cultivation. It might be better not to use chlorinated water, but it doesn't seem to have enough of an negative effect, if at all, to bother using anything else. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
theuserformallyknownasd00d Posted June 30, 2011 when ive watered outdoor grow areas ive always used water straight out of the yard tap, a few weeks ago from the exact area we got around 300 mushrooms, in saying this ive read on various forums that some edible cultures are near impossible to grow unless you have boiled your water in advance Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
obtuse Posted June 30, 2011 I've had no problems either, but im probably not the best person to comment as the water here is amazingly clean. If i was in Adelaide i wouldnt go there. i would think that unless it reeks of chlorine, it should be fine. Fungi are pretty hardy, and will tolerate a wide pH range. Some of the teks out there require the use of dilute hydrogen peroxide and bleach, so im sure a little chlorine wouldnt hurt too much. Cheers, Obtuse Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
theuserformallyknownasd00d Posted June 30, 2011 should have mentioned im on some pretty shocking hard water where i am too, the type i water ( ) are tolerant buggas! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
altenate Posted June 30, 2011 Thanks for the replies all. Yeah tassie water would be sweet as, Adelaide not so sure on, Sydney water - who knows is it desal or dam storage? I guess commercial mushroom cultivation would utilise town water & they still manage... Water is water isnt it??? Just interesting how ones seedlings, plants etc put on a good new growth after rain in comparision to watering. Curious if mushrooms are affected the same way...Which I guess they are due to the nitrogen/oxygenation(? - or whatever it is - its good) content of fresh rain. Do people add any seaweed extract or other ferts , biodynamic principles like cow horn or other hippy like extracts? (ie chammomile, comfrey, yarrow etc). etc to watering an outdoor or even indoor patch of any type of mushroom? (edibles or other).I have heard one type of shroom benefits from companion planting but does any one have much first hand obs on this? say P.something & a phalaris or something similiar? I think of one question that was reasonably straight forwrd but now I have say like 50 questions....Its all waters fault. Guess we cant live without it. Was just a passing thought as I noticed an patch nearby that used to spring up fairly consistently that doesnt any more. They love their garden at that place & love using heaps of town water. Could be the age of the patch or some other thing besides the watering of. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
migraineur Posted June 30, 2011 If I were making spore syringes or liquid cultures then I would use distilled water. However, for everything else tap water is fine. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Distracted Posted July 1, 2011 From experience Adelaide water is fine for spore syringes, liquid cultures, pressure cooking, rinsing grain, moisturising a substrate, etc etc etc never had a single problem. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GiugnoTark Posted April 26, 2017 I have more than 7 year experience, you to use spore syringes, liquid cultures for your mushrooms grow. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cue Posted April 28, 2017 This is an old thread, but I'll bite. I try not to use my tap water to hydrate substrate, because my tap water has a 6.0pH. Instead I try to use rainwater. When it hasn't rained for a while I use catch the condensation from the A/C or buy spring water. I don't worry so much about steeping grains, because I always add pickling lime. For LCs and spore solution I use distilled water. Distilled helps keep the carmelization down when PCing LCs. And I use it for spore solution, because its already sterilized (did I mention that I'm lazy?). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
satyr Posted May 6, 2017 In commercial Mushroom growing OPs (A bisporus), case waters after flushes are done with "Town Water" with a an added free chlorine content of up to 150ppm and pH of around 5.5. So yeah using tap-water for outdoor watering/casing hydration/humidity totally fine. For spore syringes I wld use sterilized water for injection or aqua dest. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites