The function of the Fungi

This is mostly a wet/dry question - but I'm curious to hear about it from a mushrooms viewpoint

Soils obviously get waterlogged and dry out pretty regularly - So do mushroom spawn runs if you forget about them for awhile or leave an improperly sealed container out in the rain.

Since mushrooms are primarily chiton which is pretty tuff stuff - I'm wondering how much these guys can take as far as moisture saturation goes. Like will dried mummified mycelium go dormant only to spring back to life when wetted? Will waterlogged mycelium drown or hang in there and start to surge once the soil starts to dry out?

This is a matter of degree. Paul Stamets describes dried mycelium as how you would feel in 100 degrees F in the desert without water: dying painfully. Just as we can survive given the situation, so could the mycelium....... maybe...... depending on how far it's gone. If I lived in an area like w. Washington with lots of rain....... oh wait, I do. I worry much less about mycelium in the rain than in the dry summer. If it has mostly shade, enough water and a substrate to eat, it will probably survive. Mycelium binds together usually to not rinse away in the rain, unless there is huge force in the water, like a flowing river.
John S
PDX OR

Interesting, What about in a situation where they are immersed in water? I know that cold shocking in water is a common technique - but I imagine after a certain point they will become oxygen starved. I have lots of Tupperware and Rubbermaids full of the stuff and some where iproperly sealed (flooded) while others I forgot about in some corner (drying out). I intend to play around with them a bit anyhow - just curious if someone with more know how can give me some insight into what to expect. Thanks John.

Well, yes, literally flooded in a container could lead to oxygen starvation, followed later by mold or contamination. I do think it would be easy to avoid that though.
John S
PDX OR

Yeah it will be easy to avoid in the future - I just had about a dozen containers laying around and a few of them weren't water tight. I lost track of a couple of them over the winter. They still look alive although like they've taken quite the beating - which is a shame because they were AMAZING this fall.