Strain products of EuroMycel

EuroMycel are experts in industrial microbiology applied to selecting and propagating mushroom mycelium cultures.
The company has several different strains in their product portfolio:

E58 Premium for the fresh market
E58 HD for the industrial market
E21 for the industrial market

E58 Premium for the fresh market

The E58 Premium is one of the most popular white bud mushroom strains worldwide. This dominant, mid-range, medium size, off-white mushroom strain is particularly relevant for the fresh market, because of its extensive spread of first flush and a long shelf life. It combines high density sporocarp with a thick cuticle, together with a high yield. The average size is 50 mm with great potential to produce larger mushrooms.

E58 HD for the industrial market

This off-white, hybrid strain is the perfect counterpart to the E58 premium. It combines a mixed profile, due to its bulbous stipe, and a higher productivity of first choice mushrooms. It is suitable, for either, the fresh market or an industrial, mechanical harvest.

 E21 for the industrial market

This is a highly productive, smooth, white, hybrid strain, ideal for the canning industry, with a quick mushroom tissue maturation process to supply a high performing, technical yield. It provides a good balance between the yields of first and second flush. It is acknowledged for ease and speed of harvesting, due to a homogenous pinhead formation and a straight cylindrical stem. Crop management can provide a high yield of homogeneous mushrooms, ranging in size from 35 to 80 mm.

The Mush Comb head-end filling machine phase3 Premium, is used for simultaneously filling mushroom shelves with an even surface of compost and / or casing soil as easy and fast as possible.

The head-end filling machine phase3 works in combination with 1 pulling winch and 2 feeding conveyors.

Supply of the compost and/or casing soil can be done by a hopper, wagon, container or trailer.

The Phase3 Premium model is perfect suitable for growing rooms big and small.

More Information to be found here.

Our 25 Watt, HACCP approved, LED lights are made of impact-resistant polycarbonate, come in a water- and gas-tight design (IP69K), and are highly resistant to chemicals and cleaning agents. The tubes are resistant to high temperatures during steaming and can withstand temperatures from -40 to +80 degrees Celsius when turned off. Available in 2 different colour ranges (4000 and 6000 Kelvin). And different lengths. The Standard length is 180cm Ceiling or wall mounting is ensured by integrated fixing slots in the endcaps. They can also be rotated or suspended using the clamps available as an accessory. The connecting cable is integrated as standard as a 2 x 1.5 mm2 PVC cable 6 metres in length. For mounting on the ceiling, it is recommended to use clamps. These can be ordered as an option. With a connection value from AC 90 - 285V, 50/60Hz and various certifications such as EC, ETLC, Din 10500, EAC - TR ZU 004/2011 and TR ZK 020/2011, these lamps really meet the needs and demands of the modern mushroom grower worldwide.

More information can be povided by the Mertens Mushroom Team.

Picture: The blue milk cap mushroom is a rich source of protein. laerke_lyhne , CC BY-SA

The conversion of forests to agricultural land is happening at a mind-boggling speed. Between 2015 and 2020, the rate of deforestation was estimated at around 10 million hectares every year.

Compared to 2012, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is predicting a massive increase in agricultural demand of 50% by 2050. In South America, around 71% of rainforest has been replaced by pasture and a further 14% has been lost to the production of animal feed. One of the key successes of COP26 was a pledge from world leaders to end deforestation by 2030.

From a climate and carbon point of view, we know that cutting down trees at this scale is devastating. But the impacts run deeper: 75% of the world’s accessible fresh water arises from forested watersheds. And with 80% of the world’s population facing a threat to their water security, trees play a very significant role in stemming desertification and preventing soil erosion. They also protect against flooding in coastal areas as well as being home to a huge number of species, many of which are important crop pollinators.

So what can we do? We know that different foods have different footprints. Reducing the quantity of animal-based products will have a huge impact. In fact, eating less meat is one of the most potent changes that people in the west can make to help save the planet.

But what if we could go further? What if, instead of having farming and forestry in direct conflict, we could develop a system that allows food production and forest on the same parcel of land?

Miraculous mushrooms

This is exactly what our latest research focuses on, looking at fungi that grow in partnership with trees, in a mutually beneficial arrangement. This is a common association and some species can produce large mushroom fruiting bodies, such as the highly prized truffle. Aside from this delicacy, cultivation of these species is a new and emerging field. But progress is especially being made in one group known as milk caps, that include a beautiful and unusually bright blue species known as Lactarius indigo, or the blue milk cap.

High in dietary fibre and essential fatty acids, this edible mushroom’s blue pigmentation means they are easy to identify safely. With extracts demonstrating antibacterial properties and an ability to kill cancer cells, the blue milk cap could also be a source of pharmacological potential. Paul Thomas/University of Stirling, Author provided

In our paper, we describe how to cultivate this species, from isolation in the lab to creating young tree saplings with roots inoculated with this symbiotic fungus. These trees can then be planted at scale in suitable climate zones ranging from Costa Rica to the US. As the tree and fungus’s partnership matures, they start to produce these incredible mushrooms packed with protein.

The agriculture on cleared forested land is dominated by pastoral beef production where around 4.76-6.99kg of protein per hectare per year is produced. But, if this system was replaced with planting trees hosting the milk cap fungus, the same parcel of land could produce 7.31kg of protein every year. The mushrooms can be consumed fresh, processed or the protein content can be extracted to produce other food items.

Please read the full article here.
Author of article: Paul W Thomas, Honorary Professor Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling
Source: The Conversation / NGO

A new study from the Culinary Institute of America and University of California-Davis, published in the Journal of Food Science, explored the flavor-enhancing properties of mushrooms and found that blending finely chopped mushrooms with ground meat enhances flavor and nutrition.

The study, Flavor-Enhancing Properties of Mushrooms in Meat-Based Dishes in Which Sodium Has Been Reduced and Meat Has Been Partially Substituted with Mushrooms, conducted by University of California Davis (UC Davis) and the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) was published in the Journal of Food Science.

Please read the full study overview here.

The hands that grew a brew are now raising fungus for survival in northern West Bengal. Sabitri Toppo and Mausumi Minj are among 700 plantation workers who lost their jobs when the Madhu Tea Estate in West Bengal’s Alipurduar district.

The tea estate is one of 26 in the district’s Kalchini block, many of them in a bad shape due to low yield, quality and labour issues.

“We formed a cluster of women from 50 families, some of them from the closed tea estate, and trained them in organic mushroom farming more than a fortnight ago. We also provided them a permanent mushroom-growing shed and home-delivered spawn,” Binoy Dhar, a farm specialist with the Assam-based Mushroom Development Foundation (MDF) told The Hindu from the Kalchini area.

Please read the full article here.

If you’re like most people, setting a new year’s resolution that involves health and wellness is something that was on top of your 2022 to-do list.

If you’ve found yourself failing at accomplishing these goals in the past, it may be time to move away from a detox type or other quick fix type dietary approaches, and instead embrace the steps needed to fill the fridge with real food and start eating in an intuitive way.

Detox and restrictive type diets simply don’t work, they are not sustainable and overlook the fact that your body’s liver, kidneys, skin and lungs are already doing the job needed to detox and eliminate waste on a continuous basis. Trying to shed weight quickly, via a drastic cut in your usual calories or kilojoules, will generally back-fire. As your body thinks you are starving or in a famine type scenario, it will try to fight back. This is done via slowdown in your metabolic rate (how fast you usually burn the food kilojoules or calories you eat). It also means any initial weight loss, will be regained a lot quicker and then a lot harder to take off the next time around. The bottom line is that you will go a lot further if you focus on habits that allow you to implement nutritious foods into your diet, rather than restricting and cutting out superfoods such as mushrooms.

Please read the full article here.
Source: AMGA / Australian Mushroom Growers´ Assoc.

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.

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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/