jjd said:

hey guys. so i'm curious to get others' input on this. i've read countless times on shroomery and plenty of other places that mushrooms don't grow like plants. while this is obvious because of their inability to photosynthesize, i've still noticed an interesting phenomena. i only use natural light for my little buddies because i've got plenty of sunlight in my house. for a while i kept them in the path of direct sunlight. while this has never seemed to pose any problem for me, plenty of people on here say that's a no no. so i've recently been keeping them in a well lit  room out of direct sunlight. here's the weird part, when they're not getting direct sunlight, the mushrooms always grow towards it.  they reach out for it like growing plants. if i try turning the tub around, by the next day they've all reversed direction to reach towards the sunlight again. why is this? if they don't need sunlight then why do they so desperately try and grow towards it?

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BeefSupremeJr said:

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Timboslice said:

Oh nah brother, it was not my intent to insult, though i see how one cud take it that way. I guess the piece of information that you were not in on was that i had to look that shit up lol. Fucking spend hours studying this shit, and im not even that good yet.

And omg 50 books a year. I fucking hate reading. I hate it. Prolly read 5 books in their entirety in my whole life.

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Kizzle said:

I think the most obvious advantage is if you're trying to protect sensitive spore producing cells in the gills from UV radiation you would want the cap tilted in a way that minimizes the amount of light that hits them.

Light doesn't just affect the orientation of the cap though. It's also promotes cap development and causes spores to be produced more readily. That might suggest light is used to benefit spore production or dispersal in some way. Maybe it helps create a temperature gradient or increases evaporation, both of which could create air currents that help carry away spores once they leave the cap.

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RogerRabbit said:

Mushrooms grown with sufficient light will be larger, meatier, carry more actives and be more desirable than mushrooms grown with insufficient light.  Mycelium from a colonized substrate will pin much more prolific with proper lighting than without.  Developing mushrooms will orient themselves towards light.  I question the spore-protective nature of orienting caps towards light because once ejaculated, those spores are exposed to direct sunlight.

Exactly what the science behind that is. . .I don't pretend to have a clue.  However, it's important not to fall into traps such as 'photosynthesis' being the only way living organisms can use light for energy.
RR

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Quote:

The effect of light on growth of Pleurotus was found to be concerned with both cell mechanism and medium: light probably inhibits inside the cell the synthesis of one or more substances essential for growth and at the same time it favors the breakdown in the medium of one or more substances required for growth.

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