Mushroom aborts

Why mushroom caps turned black and stop growing?

What are mushroom aborts?

Aborts are mushrooms that stop growing. Aborted mushrooms never become full-grown and never produce spores.

How to identify mushroom aborts?

🔴 Distinctive feature of mushroom aborts are totally black caps or dark-blue caps

🔴 The growth of such mushrooms stops completely. In 2-4 days you'll notice that size of mushrooms doesn't change at all

🔴 Mushroom aborts is often found on cakes with stroma and overlay. They usually form on the sides of the mushroom cake with overlay

🔴 Recommended article: Overlay aka Stroma in mushroom cultivation

Main causes of mushroom aborts

Single abortions in mushroom cultivation are absolutely normal case. Even so, more than 20% of aborted shrooms is a symptom of improper fruiting conditions. It can be any sudden changes in growing parameters.

Let's figure out main causes of mushroom aborts:

⛔️ sharp and/or frequent temperature changes during fruiting period (more than 10°C)

⛔️ drafts

⛔️ high CO₂ concentration, lack of fresh air exchange

⛔️ aborts can occur due to overlay (aka stroma)

⛔️ genetic changes and strain mutations

⛔️ competition for nutritions between fungi colonies or between mushrooms in the same cluster

⛔️ lack of nutritions (usually on the last flushes)

⛔️ small amount of abortions often appear after rehydration due to a sharp changes of temperature

⛔️ numerous aborts can occur after rehydration with extreme cold shocking

🔴 Recommended article about temperature shock: All you need to know about cold shock for magic mushrooms

Are mushroom aborts safe to take or not?

✅ Mushroom abort is NOT a contamination! Aborts don't spread contamination on the substrate, safe for neighboring healthy mushrooms. They are harvested with the rest mature mushrooms.

⛔️ It is considered mushroom aborts is a common point of origin for cobweb mold. There is a clear correlation between the development of cobweb mold and the presence aborts. However, it is hard to say that the aborts are the direct cause of cobweb disease or even if the cobweb mold was the underlying cause of the aborts. Remove all mushroom aborts any time you are harvesting mushrooms.

🔴 Recommended article: How to identify and get rid of Cobweb Mold

✅ Abortions can be dried and stored with mature healthy mushrooms.

✅ Mushroom aborts are safe for both microdosing and trips. Moreover, such aborted shrooms are usually more potent than mature mushrooms. In fact, every single mushroom has different psychoactivity, but these small guys are really powerful. Take it into account!