“Most fungi are obligate aerobes, requiring oxygen to survive, however some species, such as the Chytridiomycota that reside in the rumen of cattle, are obligate anaerobes; for these species, anaerobic respiration is used because oxygen will disrupt their metabolism or kill them.” – Georgia Tech
Aerobe is a fancy way of saying ‘Breathes air’.
Anaerobe, is a fancy way of saying ‘Not Breath Air’.
Most Fungi Breath in Oxygen and breath out Carbon Dioxide.
Fungi breath via a gas exchange through their pores.
Meaning that Mushrooms provide a source of Carbon Dioxide for Plants and trees and would be helpful in the biodiversity and ecosystem for plant growth. A mutually beneficial gas exchange for symbiosis and ecology. Generally speaking, of course.
Some Fungi, like Yeast normally breath in Oxygen. When there is no Oxygen, Yeast anaerobically gets their oxygen from decomposing things such as sugars. The process of decomposing sugars for nutrients and oxygen is called fermentation. Getting Oxygen from fermentation is called ‘Facultative Anaerobes’ or ‘facultative fermentatives’. So Yeast can be both Aerobic and Anerobic.
A Refrigerator tip;
You could, in theory, place mushrooms in your fridge to breath oxygen and make it a CO2 heavy atmosphere. Oxygen, as it turns out, oxidizes and helps things ferment or rot quicker. Placing Mushrooms in your fridge could theoretically extend the freshness of food by reducing the oxidation potential/rate, by lowering the oxygen concentrations.
Some Grow tips;
People try to grow mushrooms indoors in closed spaces like bags or jars or boxes or tubs.
Some people have noticed a significant difference in the growth of a colony that is well established, by opening their container and fanning some air into the container, then closing the container. So if your colony is 50% of the way established and may be stagnant in growth, perhaps giving them some ‘fresh’ air is what could help spur the growth.
It’s not recommended to leave the lid open, door ajar, or the container breached, because that could expose too much of the environment into your small, contained space. This may also lead to contamination from foreign entities, which could hurt your grow, more than help it.
Some people write that they may ‘crack’ their lid open for their grows.
So Experiment with this, just know that your mushrooms would need to breath eventually, and find what works for you.
Knowing that Mushrooms breath Oxygen and breath out Carbon Dioxide, you can use a Carbon Dioxide monitor to monitor not only your health, but the health of your mushrooms. Additionally, you can use an Oxygen monitor as a way to also help gauge health. Just be careful with how you connect these additional monitors, you don’t want to contaminate or risk exposing more of your grow than necessary.
A Cooking thought;
This is totally a thought experiment. A Hypothesis if you will;
Since Yeast is Fungus and can breathe oxygen or get oxygen from sugars. It’s possible that you could grow yeast faster by either;
- Giving yeast more oxygen,
-Or- - Depriving yeast of oxygen and giving it more sugar to eat.
One of the two scenarios ought to increase the growth rate of Yeast. This is, of course, a guess. So let me know what works for you, if you try it out.
Just know that adding more sugar to yeast for any recipe, will effect it’s sweetness and overall flavor.
Thank you for reading
As always, comment down below if you have ideas, tips, or tricks. Contribute where you can and perhaps that can help someone in the future. Feel free to send an email under the contact, if you have any questions or ideas.
