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Abstract: In present day research and growing some effort is being directed towards achieving the precision that is allied to the production of mushrooms in a predictable and controlled manner. There is at present a considerable store of knowledge which serves as an aid to achieving this objective. Temperature and the levels of carbon dioxide in the growing environment are known to be key factors in controlling the growth process. However, precise control over these environmental factors is not always practical and even when practical, as in experimental work, the degree of control over the growth process required for sound scientific investigation is not given, or indeed, the degree of control needed for the successful exploitation of mechanical harvesting in commerce cannot be achieved. The nutritional requirements of the cultivated strains of A. bisporus and also the methods by which we prepare and provide those requirements are at least equal in importance to environmental factors. The unpredictable nature of compost - the substrate - imposes a major limitation not only in growing, but also in experimentation, irrespective of whether experiments concern nutrition directly or other experiments concerned with disease, genetics, environment or physiology. Because of this, those facets of nutrition which are new and relevant to this theme of 'control over cropping' must be stressed. The artificial methods and techniques used by German, French and British experimenters in order to further our knowledge on the nutritional requirements of the crop, while relevant to conventional methods of composting are important and useful as indicators to future commercial methods and as aids to improved research techniques.
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