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Growth
Requirements
It's not easy to simplify the growth requirements of 80,000 complex
organisms, but suffice to say, our indoor environments provide suitable
conditions for many types of fungi.
Granted,
there are fungal organisms that require specific light/dark cycles, temperature, nitrogen/oxygen levels,
nutritional constituents, moisture levels, etc.
for optimum growth and reproduction, however, our focus is on the types of
fungi likely to occur in indoor environments.
For many of these
organisms growth can be simplified to three significant
factors;
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Mold
Spores
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Organic
Food
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Water
envirochex
uses the 'Mold Growth Triangle' to illustrate this relationship and serve
as a simplified overview of growth requirements. When a mold spore
locates a suitable food source with sufficient moisture, growth
occurs. Simple as that. |
The
Mold Growth Triangle |
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Growth Cycle
Growth starts
when the Mold Triangle is formed...
Spores
provided with sufficient moisture and suitable food form microscopic, branched,
thread-like filaments called hyphae (hi-fee). Continued
hyphal growth forms a mass called a mycelium (my-sill-ee-um) which often
becomes visible within 24-48 hours.
As
the organism grows, reproductive spores are formed and released as part of
it's continuing life cycle.
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