We’ll showcase our innovative solutions at NAMC and ISMS Conference in the USA. Meet us there!
Visit us and connect with the GROWTIME team Booth 703

We’re thrilled to announce our participation in the upcoming 26th North American Mushroom Conference (NAMC) and the 20th Congress of the International Society for Mushroom Science (ISMS). We hope to see you there!

GROWTIME will participate as an American Mushroom member.

These prestigious events are scheduled to take place from February 26-29, 2024, at the JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort & Spa, offering a unique platform for industry professionals to connect, collaborate, and learn from each other.

As a certified member of the American Mushroom Institute, GROWTIME is excited to be part of a conference jointly presented by this esteemed organization and the International Society for Mushroom Science.

This conference is not just an event but a landmark occasion in the mushroom industry, marking the first commercial conference in over five years. It promises an invaluable opportunity for mushroom farm owners, shippers, suppliers, researchers, and scientists from around the globe to share insights and innovations. We can’t wait to connect with them!

Visit us and connect with the GROWTIME team.

GROWTIME is all set to showcase its latest products and innovative solutions at the conference. Visitors to our stand will have the opportunity to meet our team of experts, who are eager to share their knowledge and insights on mushroom growing. Our participation underscores our commitment to being at the forefront of industry advancements and our dedication to supporting the growth and success of mushroom farms and suppliers.

The conference agenda is packed with business sessions over four days, including meals, access to the Expo floor, and scheduled receptions. Attendees will have the unique chance to listen to leading experts and learn about new trends and innovations in the field of mushroom growing. This event is a must-attend for anyone looking to expand their network, gain valuable insights, and explore potential business opportunities in the mushroom industry.

Registration for the conference is now open, and we encourage all industry stakeholders to sign up and visit us there. For more information and to register, please visit https://mushroomconference.org.

Join us at this significant gathering to explore new horizons in mushroom growing and connect with the GROWTIME team. We look forward to meeting you at the JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort & Spa and sharing our passion for innovation and excellence in the mushroom industry. See you in Las Vegas!

GROWTIME, an expert in the area of increasing the productivity of mushroom farms, is developing its flagship products: the PASCAL and NEWTON mushroom picking lorries are getting even better.
For people who have not yet had contact with GROWTIME’s mushroom picking lorries, it's worth mentioning that they are high-end devices that increase the profitability of mushroom farms by automating, facilitating and accelerating mushroom picking.

New product features include:
● Green energy – an innovative system for recovering electricity by charging batteries while braking the drives (thus creating the so-called green energy).
● Controller temperature monitoring system – a solution that controls the temperature of electronic components controlling the device, which guarantees their protection from potential damage.
● Incident communication system – a system informing (through the remote control and the control box) about the arising situation related to, for example, overload of a given drive or low battery charge, etc.

If you have not yet explored the possibilities of GROWTIME’s mushroom picking lorries, we encourage you to visit their product pages:
● PASCAL mushroom picking lorry – https://growtime.eu/en/produkt/pascal-picking-trolley/
● NEWTON mushroom picking lorry – https://growtime.eu/en/produkt/newton-picking-lorry/

Find out how such solutions can increase the profitability of your mushroom farm as well!

AMGA 2022 Conference

The AMGA conference is held every two years and is the principal meeting point for professionals involved in the mushroom growing industry in Australasia and welcomes numerous guests from overseas.
The conference is made up of suppliers, growers, farm owners and well respected national and international speakers. It’s the perfect occasion to gain pragmatic advice from the speakers, connect with other professionals through genuine networking opportunities, and to increase your knowledge of the industry.

One of our appreciated advertisers, GROWTIME, is also present on this conference with a stand. Please find their invitation here below:

Visit us at the 44th Australian Mushroom Growers' Conference
Are you part of the mushroom industry? You are invited to the 44th Australian Mushroom Growers’ Conference, which will be held from October 26 to 28 at the Crowne Plaza Adelaide Hotel. Come up to us and let's talk about the profitability of your mushroom farm!
Where can you find us? Below you will see our location on the floor plan of the event. See you there!

GROWTIME business is rapidly expanding. Within the last two months our products (mushroom picking lorries) reached many countries, such as Canada, United Kingdom and Israel.

Due to new, large contracts, we are looking for experienced specialists to help produce our mushroom equipment, including our flagship product - mushroom picking lorries.

We are specifically searching for:
- TIG welders
- fitters

The position is offered in our Polish factory in Grudziadz (Lotnicza 21).

If you are interested in working for GROWTIME, please contact:

Michał
+48 513 129 339
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

or fill in the contact form on the website:

https://growtime.eu/en/contact/

GROWTIME business is rapidly expanding. Within the last two months our products (mushroom picking lorries) reached many countries, such as Canada, United Kingdom and Israel.

Due to new, large contracts, we are looking for experienced specialists to help produce our mushroom equipment, including our flagship product - mushroom picking lorries.

We are specifically searching for:
- TIG welders
- fitters

The position is offered in our Polish factory in Grudziadz (Lotnicza 21).

If you are interested in working for GROWTIME, please contact:

Michał
+48 513 129 339
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

or fill in the contact form on the website:

https://growtime.eu/en/contact/

Are you planning, building or equipping a professional mushroom growing farm? At each of these stages, most investors are looking for answers to the question: whether to look for a general contractor who will take care of the whole investment or whether there is such a scope of this investment, where it’s worth finding an expert in a narrow area.

Why do we look for a general contractor?

The undoubted advantage of choosing a comprehensive contractor who will advise, build and equip the mushroom growing farm with all the necessary elements for the production of mushrooms is saving time and some ease in communication. You don’t need to test a dozen or so subcontractors, but establish good cooperation with only one. The trust that will appear along with the subsequent stages of a properly executed investment will give you peace of mind and space to plan the next steps, such as employment, logistics, sales and marketing. Fewer worries and more time. However, the most important benefit resulting from the choice of a single contractor is usually considered to be the savings obtained by buying everything in one place. After all, it has been known for a long time that by buying a package of services or materials “potentially” we should get lower rates and prices.

On the other hand, probably each of us has heard the saying that if someone declares that he is good at everything, then most often in practice it turns out that some areas of the offer are implemented averagely or even very poorly. Numerous owners of mushroom growing farms will confirm that they encountered or heard about such problems during the implementation of the investment.

In what cases is it worth looking for better solutions?

The key to achieving the high profitability of a thriving mushroom growing farm is to understand what affects the long-term viability of the business and that the devil is in the details. Despite the enormous automation, the largest costs of maintaining leading mushroom growing farms in 2022 are still the employment costs, and even achieving a significant saving on materials for the construction of the facility can only be apparent and will not compensate for the losses sustained in the long term due to the lack of selection of the optimal solutions, which can translate into lower employment costs, higher harvesting efficiency and, consequently, high profitability of the entire mushroom growing farm.

So what is worth paying attention to?

In the beginning, it is worth deepening the knowledge about the equipment for mushroom growing farms that is available on the market. Understanding the principle of operation, the purposefulness of the materials and technologies used will allow us to assess whether and which products available on the market will give us an advantage and facilitate long-term profitability. At the investment planning stage, it’s worth already delving into such products and areas as:

● shelving for mushrooms
● growing nets
● mushroom picking trolleys
● watering systems
● growing tunnel covers (in case of tunnel-like structure)
● lighting
● climate control

Each of the above elements is offered on the market in the form of products based on different quality and methods of execution (materials, technologies, construction, functions, etc.).
Let's use growing nets as the first example. The use of lower-quality materials can most often be noticed after the net becomes narrower after a few months of use and, as a consequence, the compost falls off its edges during transport. In such a case, a frequent and inevitable scenario is a net breakage, which leads to the need to stop loading, collect the substrate and replace the net. In our experience, the weakest nets break down after just a few months, and solid, good-quality products can last 10 or even 15 years.

Another example is the mushroom picking trolleys, the design and functionality of which significantly affect the long-term efficiency of harvesting. Machines based on poor quality materials are less durable and require frequent servicing, and when the mushroom picking trolley is not working, the employee's productivity drops dramatically. One of the most important factors affecting the efficiency of the trolley is the time of continuous operation (of the drive of the trolley) between the battery charging processes. Trolleys that run continuously for up to 30 hours or more are a much more cost-effective solution than devices that run for a maximum of 8, 10 or 15 hours. It’s also worth paying attention to the possibility of picking mushrooms from the bottom shelf. This is what most producers declare, but in practice, only some of the devices on the market allow for such picking in an easy way (they have an adequate amount of free access space for the 1st shelf and thus a very low platform placement, which makes the picking easy).

Summary

From our experience, a comprehensive (general) contractor in the mushroom growing industry often focuses on what the customer cares about - the lowest price. Very often, he provides a complete set of solutions, from the construction to the equipment of the mushroom growing farm, and the client accepts them based on trust and apparent savings. However, the cheap construction and equipment of the mushroom growing farm don’t mean long-term profitability for the business.

The profitability of a mushroom growing farm strictly depends on the solutions used in it and if a comprehensive contractor doesn’t offer solutions that are the most profitable (it’s difficult to specialize in every area), the only optimal way is to establish cooperation with a supplier who offers such solutions.

About the author:
GROWTIME is an international manufacturer of mushroom growing farm equipment.
GROWTIME specializes in the production of mushroom picking trolleys, with the focus on increasing the harvesting efficiency thanks to the solutions used in them. See the company's offer at growtime.eu.

More than 13 years of discussions with mushroom growing farm owners around the world convinced us to make one statement: one of the main factors generating significant costs for mushroom growing farms is workers' wages, and they work most efficiently (they pick faster and more with relatively less fatigue) when optimal working conditions are created for them.

It is no secret that the worker who picks mushrooms spends most of the day on the platform of a mushroom picking trolley, and its proper construction is the key to facilitating the daily work.

Below are some of the factors that determine, in large part, whether after a day of hard work your employees are still productive and will easily return to work the next day or whether they feel physically exhausted and their productivity is simply low.

1. The ease of reaching the mushrooms through a smooth, automatic movement up, down, right and left - the essence of the work of the person who picks the mushrooms is to reach the mushrooms which have grown to the right dimensions quickly and easily. The difference between manual, semi-automatic and automatic solutions is crucial: time and difficulty in moving. Automatic solutions (trolleys with a suitable platform) allow to reach the mushrooms more easily while saving energy of the picker.
2. Appropriate adjustment (height, inclination, distance) of the shelves for mushroom containers. In addition to reaching the right mushroom, it needs to be picked and then put in a container. Shelves for packaging / boxes should be properly adapted to the figure and range of motion of the person picking the mushrooms. Facilitating this activity means faster and less tiring picking, and we are talking about an activity that is repeated every day even thousands of times!
3. Seat adjustment. The height of the "seat" and the distance from the box/package shelves should be adjustable in order to be able to adjust it to the distance from the mushroom containers, but also above all to the height of the person who picks the mushrooms. Comfortable body placement means less fatigue and less fatigue means faster and more efficient work.
4. Perfect shape and thickness of profiles. Most mushroom carts have rails that not only protect against falling out, but above all should have a geometry that also facilitates the motion / movement of a person on the platform, facilitating movement on the platform, supporting the employee who repeatedly holds onto them while standing up or sitting down. Rails should be of adequate strength and preferably rounded, ergonomic shape to ensure safety and enable a solid hand grip.
5. Location of the pilot and brake. A modern picking trolley is controlled by an intuitive remote control, which should be placed in such a place that it is easy to access (without straining the body, without unnecessary movements) and allows controlling it with both hands.
6. Trolley components which are subject to maintenance and assembly/disassembly. Part of the daily work of the mushroom picker is also the preparation of the trolley for work by assembly or disassembly of the drive and washing and disinfection of the elements of the trolley. Good mushroom picking trolleys are designed for these activities to be performed quickly, easily (without requiring specialized personnel) and without undue impact on the wear of the trolley components.
7. Easy, possible picking from the bottom shelf of the shelving. Non-customized solutions (choosing the wrong design of the trolley) may result in the necessity of additionally strenuous, physical work on the picking of the mushrooms from the bottom shelf of the shelving or prevent any picking at all, because the floor of the trolley platform is located too high to be able to easily reach this shelf from the platform. It is worth choosing such trolleys that will enable ergonomic picking from all shelves of the shelving, including the last one.

The key to optimizing the efficiency of harvesting in a mushroom growing farm is the choice of such devices that will actually speed up and facilitate the work of employees, because in the vast majority of mushroom growing farms around the world, it is the human resources that constitute one of the largest fixed costs of the mushroom growing farm's operation.

It is a common mistake to choose the cheapest trolleys, not the ones that are best thought out in terms of construction and enable the most ergonomic, and therefore efficient, work for our employees. By choosing a better, and therefore usually more expensive, solution, we can save a lot, because the process of mushroom picking will ultimately turn out to be much cheaper using the potential of the right devices.

—
The article’s author is GROWTIME (growtime.eu), a manufacturer of high-end mushroom picking trolleys used by leading mushroom growing farms around the world. If you are interested in mushroom picking trolleys, then check out our leading products:
● Mushroom picking trolley PASCAL - https://growtime.eu/en/produkt/pascal-picking-trolley/
● Mushroom picking trolley NEWTON - https://growtime.eu/en/produkt/newton-picking-lorry/

GROWTIME has been producing the highest quality equipment for mushroom growing farms for years. Recently, they have introduced unique Valor 1000 mushroom scales to their offer, which, among other things, don’t need to be charged for a very long period of time, i.e., one year or up to 1000-1500 hours.

What does no need to charge mean? Among other things, no need to connect to the electricity network, saving the pickers’ time and no potential damage to the chargers or their cables.

However, this is only a fraction of the advantages of these scales:

• standard scales include checkweighing options (useful sound signal support!), summation and quick unit change, which makes them ideal for any mushroom growing farm
• it is worth mentioning their usability: the scales have a very clear interface (bright, easily readable display) and simple operation with two buttons - this guarantees easy and fast work
• scales have compact dimensions and a durable, portable structure (removable stainless pan, housing made of ABS material), and its entirety can be very easily and quickly cleaned
• other important features are quick response time, easy leveling of the scale and accuracy of the indications thanks to high internal resolution.

Moreover, the scales are covered by a 2-year warranty period (exclusions for mechanical damage)!

Find out more about the new mushroom farm scales here.

PS. The manufacturer's offer also includes other scales with an ultra-high degree of protection IP68, which makes them almost completely waterproof (valid for Valor 2000 and Valor 4000 models).

We welcome GROWTIME on board of Mushroom Matter! We are very pleased with this international player in the mushroom industry on our platform.
GROWTIME is a Polish based company who specializes in commercial mushroom farm equipment, especially mushroom picking lorries.
They have years of experience in the area of building machines to support production processes.
Most of their expertise has been gained while working on technical solutions to support industrial scale mushroom farming and harvesting.

Their flagship products help automate harvesting processes, while their full product range includes standard, off-the-shelf designs as well as machines tailored to individual requirements and dimensions.
Their quest for the optimal solution never stops, while balancing efficiency with durability of each of their products.

To learn more about GROWTIME, please visit their website here!