I have read conflicting evidence on length of daylight when growing mushrooms. In the past, I have always kept the light at 12 hours on, 12 off.

In my next batch, I am planning on keeping my fruiting chamber in my plant growing room, where the lights are on 18 hours a day. Would this negatively impact my mushies? I have heard UV light can decrease potency, and I also want nice healthy mushrooms.

Anyone have any thoughts or experience to offer?

I've always done 12hr cycles, that's what the resident mycologists over at the shroomery recommend. If you think about it, tropical climes where mushrooms are native may have closer to a 16hr daylight cycle.... So I doubt it would hurt. I'm always hesitant to experiment when I've gotten such good results from the tried and true methods.

I've got my mini shotgun mono colonizing right now, and I'll likely do a 12/12 cycle. Psyched! First grow since starting my dmt use, and a mushie\changa session is getting closer

You only need an hour or two of light per day for healthy fruit body formation.

yea, mushrooms don't need light like plants do... i just keep them in an area that catches ambient light, so their light hours revolve entirely around when i am awake or asleep (far from 12/12), they seem to enjoy it.

Yeah, I know they don't need light for growth, mostly just to know when to pin, and which way is up (though, some inevitably always seem to get lost anyway )

I just wanted to make sure increased hours wouldn't be detrimental to my fungal buddies. I have a good spot under a shelf I built that will be shaded, but still plenty of light.

I'll be doing some experiments this time around. One such I'm pretty interested in are these water polymer beads. You get them at a craft store, and the hold huge amounts of water. One little pack that fits in the palm of a hand makes 4 liters worth, when they're hydrated. I'm thinking they may be good to put a lay underneath the substrate. It may turbocharge the mushies with an abundance of available water! It may fail, too. I'll let you all know!

as long as the light is ambient they should be fine.

also cool idea about the water polymer beads, can't wait to hear your report on them.