Data underlying the publication “Feeding growing mushrooms”.

Button mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) are cultivated on a substrate prepared of composted wheat straw, chicken and/or horst manure and gypsum. <br>This manuscript describes a number of experiments indicating that in a harvesting strategy towards quality mushrooms there is a fixed amount <br>of nutrients prepared/available to feed two flushes. The increase of mycelial biomass in the substrate after venting and especially during the <br>development of flush one indicates that likely a branching of mycelium occurs during this period, leading to a substantial number of growing <br>hyphal tips excreting lignocellulolytic enzymes that degrade substrate and make nutrients available during flush one which are utilised in <br>flush one and two. The presently used substrate seems to have reached its limits and there are hardly opportunities for further improvement. <br>Research on alternative, more energy dense, substrates are needed to improve the efficiency of the present production system.