Picking mushrooms is more than just removing them from the beds. The handling and picking the right mushrooms is vital. Creating space to allow them to grow bigger is not only for yield. A mushroom with enough space has better evaporation and will hold the quality better, longer and will have a better shelf life as well. Handling of mushrooms can affect quality and shelf life.

My previous blog described what the pH should do during the composting process. This blog examines the role of the raw materials, such as ammonium sulphate, gypsum and water.

It looks like we are not going to have any winter this season in Europe. On the contrary. It is very wet and humidity is very high.
This has its reflection on compost and casing.
If raw materials for compost are stored outside or under just a roof, they are evaporating less water and in the same time some materials get wet by the rain.

At the end of a year or at the start of a new one it is always a good thing to look back and forward. Look at it as an evaluation and re-focussing of targets. It is also a good time to give yourself and your team a feedback.
Looking back to 2021 it was a year of great challenges. We had our normal variations in compost and casing soil quality. It still is impossible to predict the weather so we still will have to cope with changes in raw materials due to the weather. And reacting to that always comes too late.