(PhysOrg.com) -- Japanese farming folklore has it that lightning makes mushrooms multiply, and new research supports the idea. Mushrooms form a staple part of the diet in Japan, and the fungi are in such high demand that around 50,000 tons are imported annually, so scientists have been experimenting with artificial lightning to see if it could increase the crop.
A four-year study carried out at Iwate University in northern Japan on ten species of mushroom (so far) has shown that for eight of the 10 mushroom species a bolt of lightning-strength electricity could double the crop yield. The best improvements were found in the popular nameko and shiitake mushrooms. The experiments were carried out by seeding logs with mushroom spores and then applying high-voltage electricity pulses to the logs.
A direct hit by natural lightning would burn and kill mushrooms with up to a billion volts of electricity, so the researchers, led by Associate Professor of Engineering, Koichi Takaki, thought the increase in numbers of mushrooms, if it occurred at all, could be caused by exposure to a weakened charge that would travel through the soil after a nearby lightning strike. They therefore used less damaging pulses of electricity.
The experiments showed mushrooms react best when exposed to a ten-millionth of a second burst of electricity at 50-100,000 volts. Under the best conditions the nameko yield was 80% greater than the untreated control crop, while the shiitake crop yield doubled. Takaki said the mushrooms initially decrease the enzyme and protein secretions from the hyphae (tiny filaments that spread under the surface, acting like roots and giving rise to the fruiting bodies such as mushrooms), but then suddenly increase production.
The reason for the reaction is unknown and the subject of further investigations. One of the researchers, Yuichi Sakamoto of the Iwate Biotechnology Research Center, said it is possible the reaction is a response to danger, and the mushrooms react by giving themselves a reproductive boost and increase the number of fruiting bodies so their chance of survival is maximized.
Takaki and Sakamoto think the equipment they used could eventually be adapted for use by commercial mushroom growers.
The effects of artificial lightning are also being studied by Takaki’s team on daikon radishes, and by other researchers on beans, rapeseed plants and some lily varieties. So far the early results look promising.
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Tepp
3 / 5 (2) Apr 13, 2010The attack of the mushrooms.
skiguy
3 / 5 (2) Apr 13, 2010gopher65
5 / 5 (5) Apr 13, 2010That may be, but many folklore things that are "common knowledge" or "well known" turn out to be untrue or even (in rare cases) to have the opposite effect of what is claimed (IE, the "well known" healing properties of megadoses of lead and arsnic in oriental "medicine". Heh). So these things need to get studied.
I love the reaction to articles like this.
When the folklore turns out to be false, the comments are filled with the "Duh, of course it's false. It's just folklore. Silly scientists are wasting money studying this!"
When the folklore turns out to be true people comment "Well duh, of course it's true! Everyone knows that it's true. This been known for thousands of years! Silly scientists are wasting money studying this!"
It looks like the poor scientists can't win for trying:P.
CarolinaScotsman
not rated yet Apr 13, 2010gopher65 Arsenic was studied and has now been proven to successfully treat leukemia. http://www.physor...435.html
echoflower
1 / 5 (7) Apr 13, 2010HealingMindN
3 / 5 (2) Apr 13, 2010Vsha
1 / 5 (1) Apr 14, 2010echoflower
1 / 5 (4) Apr 14, 2010clipclop
not rated yet Apr 15, 2010You eat live things? You monster, I make sure they are dead first. Additionally I hope everything you said was a troll.Otherwise the world has no hope, just none.
sender
1 / 5 (1) Apr 19, 2010antialias
not rated yet Apr 19, 2010I remember my biology teacher coming in with a young pineapple plant and showing us how to make it bear fruit much earlier than it would under regular cultivation conditions: by smacking it around a lttle with a baseball bat.
It seems senisble that those plants that will bear fruit under stress early will gain an advantage over their more conservative competitors (which might not see fruit-bearing age if the danger persists)