On Friday 13 April 2018, His Majesty King Willem-Alexander has opened CNC Grondstoffen's new Indoor Fresh Compost factory in Milsbeek, the Netherlands.

Indoor Fresh Compost is a high quality and environmentally friendly ingredient for phase III compost. All 32 tunnels at the new factory started operating at the end of December 2017, so that all phase III compost currently produced by CNC Grondstoffen is based on the Indoor Fresh Compost procedure with an optimal process duration.

CNC Grondstoffen processes more than 600,000 tons of horse manure, chicken manure and gypsum annually to create high quality compost, or substrate, used to grow mushrooms. CNC Grondstoffen is one of the five companies that form CNC Holding. This group of companies has eight branches in the Netherlands and Poland and sells substrates for mushroom growing in more than 30 countries.  

Circular economy

The production process that transforms manure into substrate is environmentally friendly. By fully reusing manure – which is actually a waste product –  as an input resource CNC Grondstoffen contributes to the circular economy. During the production process, air scrubbers remove ammonia emissions. The ammonia recovered in this way is reused in the production processes. To neutralise the odour of manure, CNC Grondstoffen uses bark-filled biobeds which contain micro-organisms that absorb the odours. The end product is a sustainable, high quality substrate for mushroom growing. The location of the factory, which facilitates fewer road transport kilometres, also reduces CO2 emissions by two million kilos per year.

Photo caption:
•Official opening new Indoor Fresh Compost factory CNC on April 13, 2018 by King Willem-Alexander and Tom van Wijk, director CNC Grondstoffen BV.
•Guided tour through the new factory.

Recently, in Bamboo fungus base of Zhengping Village, Changning County, Sichuan Province of China, Bamboo fungi are evolving into peak fruiting season while growers are orderly engaged with the picking and drying work.

“In early 2018, we decidedly launched into Bamboo fungus industry relying on advantageous environmental and resource superiority. Now, gross cultivation capacity reaches 25,000 mu within the county, annual strain production hits 15 million bags, gross output on dried Bamboo fungi comes to 1250 tons while direct gross output value attains over 500 million CNY,” said related principal from Agricultural Bureau of Changning County courteously.

Now, in Morel base managed by Shanxi Yangling Hengshen Agriculture Cooperative, Morels reveal satisfactory growth trend, which indicates the bumper harvest.

Morel mushrooms are edible while they hold high requirement on cultivation environment and require tough cultivation difficulty. In China, artificial Morel cultivation keeps on leading tardy development trend.

On September of 2017, Shanxi Yangling Hengshen Agriculture Cooperative which sets scientific research, strain cultivation and supply into one was set up. Now, it absorbs 3 greenhouses. Generally, fixed cost on each mu of land reaches 7000 CNY or so, mu output attains 100-200 kg while mu conservative earnings hit 20,000 CNY or so, which shows considerable profits.

Next step, the cooperative proposes to provide source and technology of superior strain, offer guidance and create more significant revenues for growers.

At present, in mushroom house owned by Mr. Zhang, Button mushrooms are successively coming into season.

According to know, Mr. Zhang lives in Longtou Village, Jiexiu City, Shanxi Province of China, over the years, he insists on seizing stone material factory as the main industry. However, along with the transformation and upgrading of the industry, low-end and stale mode becomes the development bottleneck of Longtou Village.

In early 2016, Longtou Village started to guide farmers to embark on Button mushroom cultivation, and in order to promote standardized production better and arouse the enthusiasm of growers, village collective provided cultivation site for them and helped solve necessary infrastructures.

“Growth temperature for Button mushroom should be at 14-20 degrees Celsius. Compared with other regions, temperature of Longtou Village is more balanced and two seasons’ of fruiting could be realized per year, which precisely meets the requirements of winter mushroom markets,” introduces secretary of Longtou Village passionately.

By the end of 2017, 48 high-standard Button mushroom greenhouses were built within Longtou Village, 38 households were driven to launch into mushroom cultivation and gross output amounted to 1 million kg. In addition, above 700,000 CNY was raised on establishment of strain factory that occupies 400 square meters, and 9 strain-cultivation cabinets of Button mushroom. Next step, the village is going to build another 50 greenhouses, introduce drying and deep-processing technology, strives to build a green, organic, ecological and circular agriculture that integrates strain cultivation, production, R&D and processing into one.

Over the days, Bear’s paw mushrooms exploited in Quanzijie Town, Jimsar County of Sinkiang keep holding desirable fruiting tendency. According to the weighting, the largest one weights 6.7kg and mu revenues attain 100,000 CNY.

“It took me 4 years from R&D to successful trial cultivation of Bear’s paw mushroom,” said Mr. Wang, one of mushroom mavens in Quanzijie Town warmly, adding that Bear’s paw mushrooms win considerable output, theoretical mu yield reaches above 10 tons while the present mu output comes to over 8 tons.

In Quanzijie Town, Bear’s paw mushrooms appeared on market on December, 2017 and gained favorable feedback. Along with the increasing demand, Jimsar County sets Bear’s paw mushroom cultivation as the sunrise industry and puts its deep-processing industry on the agenda. Now, a series of ready-to-eat Bear’s paw mushroom snacks, powders, dried and canned Bear’s paw mushroom products are in planned exploration, which reveals a prosperous tomorrow.
 

As known to all, vegetable greenhouse shows heat preservation effect. However, in summer, the effect does nothing else but just like “Adding Fuel to the Flame” to vegetables. In Shiitake greenhouse of Tiedian Village, Pan’an County, Zhejiang Province of China, indoor temperature is at 23 degrees Celsius while outdoor temperature reaches 35 degrees Celsius in summer, so now there is a doubt - Why indoor temperature is lower than outdoors? The secret weapon is deep well water and reservoir water.

Pan’an County is the hometown of Shiitake in China, however, for local cultivators, high temperature is the dreadful enemy during the process, temperature is the primary factor that masters the growth of Shiitake. In general cases, the temperature range for growth of spawn should be controlled at 15-28 degrees Celsius, superior range should be at 22-28 degrees Celsius. When temperature exceeds 28 degrees, mycelia lead tardy growth tendency while they gradually die when temperature rises to above 35 degrees Celsius.

For summer-type Shiitakes, rotten stick is undoubtedly The Gate of Hell, this kind of phenomenon commonly occurs from the end of July to August. During that time, Shiitake sticks are in fully-grown status and in transitional period to physiological maturity. High temperature results in barriers to Shiitake cultivation while it brings about sundry fungi. Aiming at this fact, one of local mushroom farm that covers 90 mu of area in Pan’an County established a spray system which is to mix deep well water, pond water and reservoir water, especially deep well water that derives from 160 meters depth of deep well. In summer, the minimum temperature only reaches at 10 degrees Celsius or so.

Cooling effect in Shiitake greenhouse is evident after cultivators spray the mixed water. In spite of consecutive high temperature outside of greenhouse, inner temperature range is at 20-25 degrees Celsius all the time. Besides, the sprayed water could reflow back to pond for reuse, which immensely saves water source.

For the non-ideal case, meaning no deep well water, cultivators could choose high-temperature resistant Shiitake variety, set shade net and strengthen the ventilation of mushroom house so as to bring inner temperature down.
 

At present, in Black Fungus R&D Center of Xichuan Village, Zuoshui County, Shanxi Province of China, Mr. She, one of local technical mavens, is carefully providing training course on cultivation technology of White fungus.

According to know, by mode of “Enterprise+Base+Farmers,” and relying on local deep-rooted enterprises, over 850 poor households have been driven to embark on mushroom industry. By the end of 2018, the expected output value comes to 52.5 million CNY, 2580 population could be directly encouraged to launch into the industry and generate annual per capita incomes of over 10,000 CNY.

Mush Comb recently changed their logo, mission, vision and slogan to match their identity. Currently Mush Comb exceeds in offering new innovative Machinery to the mushroom-, exotics- and composting markets. The past couple of years Mush Comb has been facilitating their clients also with Climate solutions, Supplies and Engineering, but now they want to communicate these product groups more to the market too. This allows Mush Comb to respond to the needs of the global market for total solutions and advice.

Mush Comb's goal is to keep innovating to enable them in providing the best possible service for their clients. This will provide a steady growth for their customers, but also Mush Comb itself.

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