Phase 2
Spawnable compost

Phase 2, the sweating process, involves pasteurisation and conditioning.

Pasteurisation: the compost is heated to terminate the germs and vermin that survived phase 1. This takes place in closed tunnels in which the substrate is kept at a temperature of 60°C for eight hours.

Conditioning: to develop thermophile microflora, all the compost is kept under optimal conditions for four days to make it more selective for the mushrooms.

To achieve this, the left-over ammonia is cleared, partly because of its presence in microflora as useful proteins and partly because it dissolves in the air.