In 2001 I started first independent Phase 2 compost production in Russia. In 2012 my facility became the first to produce Phase 3 compost in Russia and CIS. Now this facility successfully produces about 20 000 tons of Phase 3 compost annually.

During years in the mushroom business I’ve built compost and mushroom enterprises and organized production in them.

The best western experts taught me and my chief compost technologist. This knowledge helped me to organized a consulting company engaged in planning, design, construction, technical equipment of compost and mushroom enterprises and the organization of production. I came to the mushroom business from the trading business and it allows me to look at projects both in terms of technology and in terms of economic efficiency.

Now I’ve been working with three new Russian projects with a total annual capacity of 100,000 tons of Phase 3 compost and 30,000 tons of mushrooms. In March 2019, production will begin at the first of these enterprises.

I will be happy to share news about the rapidly growing Russian mushroom industry with Mushroommatter.com readers/subscribers. Hope my experience will be useful in other countries.

Alexey Efremov

Masterchamp
masterchamp.ru

Mush Comb has welcomed a new sales member to their team, Emiel Lacet. He has more than 10 years of experience in the mushroom industry. With Emiel on board the focus on sales and opportunities will be intensified as well as diversified. Bob Holtermans owner of Mush Comb, has a clear vision on the companies roadmap. Bob will focus more on team management, market development, strategy and innovation.

As Mush Comb is continuously growing, other job openings are available as well. Please check their website for more information. https://www.mushcomb.com/vacancies

Why is casing soil used? There are two main reasons: 1. the Pseudomonas putida bacterium; 2. to regulate evaporation. Mushrooms will not grow without evaporation. The casing soil structure, through the depth of casing and on the surface, is the factor that determines how much water can absorbed and released. This is also known as the water buffer. How can growers influence this effect?

Properties
Casing soil is made up of peat. Peat consist of many small and larger pores which act as communicating structures that affect the flow of water. The very tiny (micro) pores absorb water very slowly, but retain it for a long time. The larger (macro) pores can absorb water faster but release it again very quickly. In good casing soil, both properties are necessary: rapid absorption of water: during mycelium growth and after harvesting, and slow release: during pinhead formation and out grow, and when the mushrooms are harvested.

Air
What is the secret of casing soil? Ensure that the moisture content of the casing soil is good. With “export” casing soil, you have to apply enough water and mix the casing with a loader or bobcat. Ask the supplier for instructions and follow them correctly. This has already been done with casing soil delivered in bulk and ready to use. Casing soil is sensitive to structure loss just before it is applied. If the casing soil is compacted or compressed, the “air” will be squeezed out. This effectively closes off the very crucial micro pores. The casing soil will feel harder. During transport and filling avoid compacting the casing soil too much, for example when using augers, over-filling the hopper on the filler or in front of the levelling axle during filling.

Soft
Casing soil should feel nice and soft. Straight after filling, push your finger into the casing soil. You should be able to plunge your finger in easily and without resistance. Experience will teach you how to feel the difference. A good layer of casing soil after filling is about 6 cm thick. The amount ordered is much less, around 4.5 cm. The rest is air, and these air pockets can largely be filled with the water necessary for the mushrooms to grow!

Mark den Ouden
Mushroom Office
Master class course Mushroom composting and growing is 18 – 23 February, there are still some seats available! Please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ASAP if you want to join! Next course will be 29 April – 4 May.

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.

Damaging mushrooms at picking is affecting the quality on the shelves and can be avoided by good training and supervision of the pickers. Especially at the start of the flush when the mushrooms need to be separated damage is easily done. At that stage it is important that the focus is on the quality of separation instead of the speed of picking. Separation needs time and the picking will be low. At some farms pickers are being paid at an hourly rate, which will get the pressure away of making the right amount of kilos and let the picker focus on the quality of the separation. As you can see on the picture below is what is commonly seen after separation.

With removing just a few mushrooms several others are damaged and will never grow to top quality anymore.

What is a good separation? Well, of course that depends on what kind of size of mushrooms you want and also on how many pins are developed. When you want big sized mushrooms of course you give them more space and when you aim for smaller sized mushrooms, leaving them a bit tighter will be more beneficial. What really matters is the way you do the separation.

In practice it happens often that too many small mushrooms are being picked to separate where they could have got the same result with picking less.

First rule for the separation is; always pick the mushroom in the middle of the tight area. When you do that you will see that with just picking one single mushroom you can create space for many others around. When you still see lack of space, of course you pick more but start from the middle and you will minimize the numbers of mushrooms you need to pick to separate. Which size is getting picked while separating is not the main thing, as long as you only pick from tight areas.

Once the space is created we have to allow the mushrooms to grow to their maximum size to get a good yield. However, that means we need to pick them exactly on time if not we will lose the quality. Therefore, many farms trained the pickers the selective picking method. That means selecting the right mushrooms to pick and leave the others to give them the change to develop more. That we can achieve by over picking rooms several times a day and every pass pick the biggest mushrooms away and create space where needed. Harvesting all day mushrooms of 60mm is achievable if done in perfection. A mushrooms doubles in size every 24 hours, and will grow in weight 4% every hour, in weight, not in size. Doing a pass every 2 hours can give stunning results and can be done a lot easier with electric picking trolleys. A good planning need to be made for every picking day to ensure to have the right amount of pickers. Short of pickers can cause quality loss, too many picking cost yield as the mushrooms don’t get the time to grow to their full potential. Make the right choice daily!!

Just to get an idea of the growth of the mushrooms. We all know they double in weight every 24 hours. That means that we get 4% extra every hour, look at table below how that develops with a single mushroom of 40mm, that on average weights 22 grams.

40 mm = 22 gram = 100 %
45 mm = 28 gram = EXTRA 27 %
50 mm = 34 gram = EXTRA 54 %
55 mm = 40 gram = EXTRA 82 %

So we get 27% more weight from each mushroom if you let it grow 5mm more. Looks clear to me that it will be beneficial to do more passes on a daily base and let the mushrooms, that have space and are still strong enough, grow. Of course only if you did the right separation at the start.

Making a good harvesting team is therefore very important and every farm needs a good leading example with eye for the details to lead that process. A good harvest management can make or break all the efforts from earlier stages. Training and a good system will bring you many advantages and a quality that stands out. Every farm should have a designated trainer that will train new pickers into perfection. Remember that it’s easier to train a new picker when you spend the time then retrain pickers with bad habits.

Erik de Groot

GLAGS Global Agriculture Services

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.