Iurie Boiciuc, a consultant of UMDIS Mushroom Information Agency, has collected for us the main tips what to change in cultivation technology in order to have the best possible mushrooms and as few diseases as possible in summer.
– Iurie, from your experience of working on dozens of farms: what do mushroom growers often do not pay attention to in summer so lose money?
– In short, my tips for growing in the hot season are as follows:
- If the mushroom grower works on Phase 2 compost, he should better incubate the compost in summer. Incubation should last longer – about 20 days. Then the compost will be much calmer and it will be easier to work on the next stages of cultivation.
- In summer, if there are problems with high temperatures, I recommend applying compost no more than 80 kilograms per square. Do not ram hard.
- In summer, to maintain the temperature of the compost, you can pour more water immediately after loading to bring down the temperature. But be sure to give time for the compost to recover after that.
- In order to maintain the temperature of the compost – we are forced to give in the growing room cold air. Therefore, on many farms that I have consulted, it turns out that the casing soil is cold, and the compost is warm because of this. So, condensation forms at the junction between the compost and casing. This leads to a weak connection between the compost and the casing, which will greatly affect the yield and quality of mushrooms. I recommend avoiding such moments – for this, after abundant watering on the first day, wait until spawn is “attached” to the casing – and only then continue watering.
- In summer it is more humid outside – so the risk of spawn drying out on the surface of the shelf is very small. Therefore, I recommend to bring more spawn to the surface in order to have a quality mushroom in summer.
Iurie Boiciuc has more than 15 years’ experience in mushroom growing. Free dates for his visit to your farm start from September. Online consultations are possible also in July and August.
Iurie Boicic`s CV is here: https://www.umdis.org/consultations-on-mushroom-growing-by-iurie-boiciuc/
For more information, please contact UMDIS agency: +380935690941.
