Mushroom cultivation some recommendations for Beginners

INTRODUCTION

In mushroom cultivation it is important to distinguish two different stages: the preparation of substrates and the actual production of mushrooms.
The firms that carry out both these working stages are the so-called “closed loop mushroom farms”; they are normally quite wide and involve dozens, even hundreds of employees.
The preparation of the substrate is based on a very sophisticated and expensive system. In order to pay off production costs, such system needs to be best exploited, which would not be possible within small mushroom farms.
For this reason in Italy, as in whole Europe, it is taking place a consistent distinction between the preparation of substrates and the actual production of mushrooms.
Therefore new firms have risen, the so called “composting areas”, which specialize in the preparation of substrates. These firms provide substrate to middle-sized and family run farms, which literally live on the products of these “yards”.
For space issues, these pages are dedicated to those who intend to begin a small- to medium-sized mushroom cultivation; instead, if you are interested in opening a closed loop mushroom farm, contact us for further information.

FIELD MUSHROOM CULTIVATION

It is a common belief that only horse manure may be used for field mushroom cultivation.
For financial and availability issues, this type of material has been almost completely replaced with the so improperly called “synthetic substrate”.
This is obtained by mixing and manifacturing very common and easily available raw materials, such as wheat straw, battery manure, gypsum and water.
So far, both this mixture and horse manure have been worked on a cement platform in the open air through special machines and systems, which make them compost in a proper way, and render them a particularly suitable substrate for mushroom cultivation.
Nowadays, in some leading and “environmentally friendly” firms, a new revolutionary system has been invented, which permits to create a substrate inside a closed space, in order to prevent air pollution and have all processes standardized and supervised by a computer. This substrate is called “indoor compost”.
By the way, whatever is the working method of these raw materials - technically called “free fermentation” or “phase 1” - at the end of the working process such substrate is ready for the production of mushrooms, but also attracts the pathogenic microflora. In order to get rid of that, this substrate is subjected to a series of sudden changes in temperature, also called “phase 2” or pasteurization.
At the end of this process, when all microflora is dead, this substrate gest inoculated ( such phase is inappropriately called spawning ) with mushroom spawn.
Now you have your inoculated substrate.

Such inoculated substrate is then put inside blocks covered with plastic wrap and carried to the mushroom farm of the farmer, who then puts them inside cultivation rooms.
This substrate is then arranged on multi-level “cultivation beds” and kept at a temperature of 25°C for about 13-14 days.
During this period, new hypha or micelium threads ( improperly called by farmers roots or moulds ) grow out of small micelium agglomerates and start to invade the whole substrate, which is then subjected to a gradual change of colour ( from dark brown to a reddish colour ), and smell ( from an unpleasant smell of compost to a more delicate and pleasant smell of mushroom ). Such phase is called “incubation” or “phase 3”.
As the incubation advances, mushroom spawn has completely invaded the substrate; as a high performance result, its colour and smell change.
At this point, the compost gets smoothed, pressed and covered with some appropriate casing soil.
The substrate is then kept for a further 10 days at a temperature of 25°C for the incubation of the casing soil; during this process, it gets invaded by mushroom spawn. The soil incubation marks the passage from the vegetative to the reproductive phase.
It is the ideal moment to create the proper environmental conditions for the germination of the sporophores, i.e. that edible part we all know as “mushrooms”.
For this purpose the temperature of the room is lowered until the substrate reaches and keeps a temperature of 16°-18°C. In the meanwhile, it is important to ventilate with some fresh air, in order to get rid of the high carbon dioxide rate that is produced during the incubation phase.
Then, after a few days, what a surprise! Mushrooms start to grow, at last!
It should happen on the 36th day after the first spawning; mushrooms will repeatedly grow every 8 days, for about 4-5 total crop cycles, over a period of about 10 weeks.

OYSTER MUSHROOM CULTIVATION

Even in oyster mushroom cultivation it is important to distinguish two different stages: the preparation of substrates and the actual production of mushrooms.
The raw materials needed for the preparation of the substrate are wheat straw and water. These two ingredients milled together and mixed are worked, pastorized and inoculated.
At the end of the spawning process, such inoculated substrate is put inside blocks covered with plastic wrap and carried to the mushroom farm of the farmer, who predisposes them to incubation.
This substrate, which has been arranged on the floor, is kept at a temperature of 28°C for about 13-14 days.
During this period of time, this substrate undergoes the same process of the field mushroom's substrate: in other words, new hypha or micelium threads grow out of small micelium agglomerates and start to invade the whole substrate, which is then subjected to a gradual change of colour ( from dark brown to a homogeneous white colour ), and smell ( from an unpleasant smell of compost to a more delicate and pleasant smell of mushroom ). Oyster mushroom undergoes incubation, as well.
As this process adavances, mushroom spawn has completely invaded the substrate; as a high performance result, its colour and smell change.
It is time now to create the proper environmental conditions for the germination of the sporophores, i.e. that edible part we all know as “mushrooms”.
For this purpose, the temperature of the room is lowered until the substrate reaches and keeps a temperature of 14°-16°C. In the meanwhile, it is important to ventilate with some fresh air.
Then, after a few days, what a surprise! Mushrooms start to grow, at last!
It happens between the 30th and the 45th day after the first spawning; mushrooms will repeatedly grow for about 3-5 total crop cycles, over a period of about 100 days.

WHAT MUSHROOMS SHOULD I CULTIVATE?

Field and oyster mushrooms are the two most common cultivated mushrooms in Italy.
Commercially speaking, field mushroom offers higher performance results, especially when relating the weight of the substrate to its performing time. Furthermore, field mushroom has a less risky and more regular trend than oyster mushroom. The latter requires less expensive working systems, a simpler cultivation process, few workers but also a shorter production period ( autumn – winter ), and a longer cultivation cycle. Although field and oyster mushrooms are the two most common cultivated mushrooms in Italy, we shall mention here the new emerging cultivation types, such as king mushroom, poplar mushroom, shii-take, golden mushroom and love mushroom.

GROWING ROOMS

Unlike what most people think, rooms such as stables, basements and barns are not suitable for mushroom cultivation, unless they are larger than 1500 mq in width.
Nowadays, mushrooms are cultivated through sophisticated mechanical systems, which, for technical reasons, are to be set inside a single room.
The most modern space where to start a mushroom cultivation is a mushroom farm; don't let yourself be tricked by that “old-fashioned” name: these farms are very sophisticated and highly technological areas.
Single- or multi-arched, these areas are covered with a double fibreglass plate alternating with glass wool or with a single plate and sprayed polyurethane.
The air conditioning and humification unit is controlled by the computer. If you are dealing with field mushroom, areas may also be provided with summer conditioning unit.
Field mushroom farms are also provided with 3 or 5 floor shelves as part of a bed system; their purpose is to operate mechanized loading and unloading of the substrate, as well as cut and crop of mushrooms.

GROWING ROOMS AND PRODUCTIVITY RATES

In order to guarantee a steady daily production and pay off system production costs, you must have 8-10 mushroom farms at your disposal.
If they are 8 m. high and 30 m. long, plus provided with 3 bed lines with 5 cultivation layers each, you can foresee a 15 quintals daily production.
You need from 10 to 14 mushroom farms to obtain a regular and steady oyster mushroom production.
By the way, mushroom production is seasonal and generally lasts thourgh three season, from autumn to spring. It changes then according to the weather conditions of all Italian regions.

WHOM SHOULD I CONTACT TO START A CULTIVATION?

All information you can gather from these pages are quite important but, if you want to start a serious mushroom cultivation, you will surely need some more.
For instance, if you contact constructors of mushroom farms, they might likely underline the costs of their products rather than overall costs, since they are not aware of these.
For this reason, we recommend that you contact a professional office with plenty of experience in this field, which will help you plan your own business.
In any case, do not hesitate to contact Funghi Mara: our technicians are at your complete disposal for any further information you may need!

 

Giuseppe Lanzi