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Abstract: Experiments on the nutrition of the mushroom crop, when conducted with composts, are to a large extent empirical in nature because little or no direct information is obtained on the exact nature of the nutritional requirements which can be directly related to the formation of fruit-bodies. This is partly due to the complex nature of (a) composting itself and (b) the subsequent utilization of the compost in supporting mycelial growth and the formation of the mushroom fruit-bodies. In addition, the casing soil is now known to influence the nutritional status of the culture as a whole. Improved experimental techniques such as the controlled environment composting technique Rändle and Hayes (1972) and the Petri-plate technique described by Hume and Hayes (1972) although more precise than conventional methods do not further our knowledge of absolute nutritional requirements for fruit-body formation. The pioneer work of Till (1962) in the use of autoclaved substrates for mushroom production suggested to us an experimental approach to bridge the gap between Petri-plate techniques which relate to primordium formation only and those techniques which use compost to furnish nutrients for the further development of these primordia into fruit-bodies. Two laboratory methods were devised in which mushroom fruit-bodies were grown on autoclaved substrates.
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