Soil and Mushroom Substrates Archives - Electro-Steam Generator Corp. (2024)

Why Sterilize Soil and Mushroom Substrates With Steam

Posted by Electro-Steam on August 14, 2023 5:26 pm | Leave a Comment

For successful mushroom substrate cultivation, it’s important to implement soil steam sterilization. Soil steam sterilization is a low-pressure steam process that helps eliminate any potential pathogens, mold, contaminants, weeds, and insects from impeding the mushrooms’ growth. Here we’ll discuss the advantages and applications of this proven process.

A Time-Tested, Chemical-Free Solution

Originally begun over 100 years ago, soil steaming remains one of the most well-established and reliable soil treatments. Historically, it primarily helped eliminate weeds, but many applications now use it as an alternative method to chemical solutions to eliminate diseases, pests, and contaminants.

In the 1950s, chemicals took over in popularity as a solution to most agricultural problems. Farmers came to believe that synthetic chemicals could control any type of pest or disease, but in reality, these chemical solutions were harmful to organic life and unsustainable over the long term.

Using only heat and water, steam is chemical-free and far safer to use, and its applications extend beyond soil pasteurizing to sterilizing any growing pot, tray, bench, or other isolated container. Another advantage of soil steam sterilization is the fact that, unlike chemicals, the weeds eliminated through steaming won’t grow resistant to this treatment. Steam sterilization physically damages the weed’s capillaries to prevent photosynthesis.

Soil Health

Proper soil steaming does not completely sterilize the soil, killing off both beneficial and pathogenic microbes. Rather, it’s a pasteurization process that leaves the good microbes while killing off the pathogens and weeds. Soil steaming has few lasting effects on soil quality and microbe communities. Following steam pasteurization, biodiversity returns rapidly to the soil, akin to what occurs following a forest fire. This gives mushroom substrates the ideal environment to grow and propagate.