After encountering a case of brown plaster mould (a subject looked at in last month's edition by David Seaby) one compost rep hit upon a potential problem for growers. Can you trust your temperature probe readings? The basic answer to that is yes – if you are using the probe correctly.
Said rep discovered that the temperature probes used in this particular instance were giving temperature readings of 30ºC when in fact the bag temperature was 37ºC. Higher temperatures encourage BPM in spawn run!
It turned out that the probe was being stuck too far into the bag – right through to ground level, hence giving an anomalous reading to the unwitting grower who thought everything was peachy!
The lesson then is to use the temperature probe correctly, for accuracy depends upon that. Otherwise, it seems, one may as well stick the probe where the sun don't shine - for all the good it will do.
