Reading a yield curve to decide when a batch is finished
Most species peak at the first or second flush and decline. Knowing where the tail is tells you when to retire a batch and free up the space.
A yield curve plots the weight of each flush against flush number. For most species it rises to a peak in the first or second flush and then declines steadily as the substrate is depleted.
The retirement signal
A flush returning roughly a quarter or less of the first flush is the conventional point to retire a batch. Beyond that you tend to get small, low-quality fruit while occupying space and raising contamination risk.
What a flat tail tells you
A strong first flush followed by a collapse to near zero usually means the substrate was never fully hydrated, or ran out of accessible nutrition early. Both are visible as a flat tail on the curve, and both are fixable on the next run.
Try it with your own numbers
Mushroom.casa Grow Log records all of this as you go and works out the derived figures for you. Free for three active batches.