How to choose peat for growing champignons mushrooms.

Dear Gentleman, this article was born together with Hortimed valued customers – #mushroom #growers .

Any farm is faced with the need to select "their" #peat and prepare the cover #soil in their own special way.?It is important to use a coating mix that can be controlled.?This means regulating the growth pattern of the #mycelium and the process of mushroom set.?You can use more or less water, use or not use a caking material, do or not loosen.?It is important to end up with a good harvest with good quality mushrooms.

How many #farms , so many different cover mixtures and how to manage them.?This specificity of the cover soil selection is determined by the following circumstances:

1. The quality of the compost, its activity.

2. Growing system, the possibility of mechanization of work during application and after application of the cover layer.

3. The presence or absence of equipment for applying, leveling and loosening the coating material, uniform application of the caking material.

4. Possibilities of climatic equipment.

5. The presence or absence of automatic climate control.

Shortcomings in the quality of compost, the lack of necessary equipment, the inability to exercise the necessary climate control lead to the fact that the mushroom grower is forced to compromise in the choice of peat and the preparation of the cover mixture.?What characteristics should the material for the preparation of cover soil have??Leaving aside the fact that the cover soil material must be economically viable, must contain substances and bacteria that lead to the set of fungi, and that it must not contain diseases and pests, we will focus on the main requirements for it:

1. It should absorb and retain the maximum amount of water.

2. Water should be quickly absorbed, not remaining on the surface, gradually spreading along the cover layer in a horizontal direction.?Only a minor part of the water can seep freely vertically through the cover layer.

3. The covering material must have a large initial water supply, which will not allow it to dry out too much.?It will keep a reserve of moisture until the end of the wave and will therefore be easily replenished with water again.

4. Covering material must be manageable.

5. Must have an "open", "breathing" structure that promotes evaporation, and thereby supports respiration - the flow of nutrients from the compost to the developing fruiting body.

6. Must support the development of a limited number of strong individual strands of mycelium, not promote the development of a large number of thin strands of mycelium.?The strands are a large drinking "straw" for the fungus, through which nutrients are supplied to it.

7. The pH of the cover soil must be at least 7.4.

8. Must provide a high yield and good quality of mushrooms.

Materials used for the preparation of coating mixtures.?When choosing peat, preference should be given to peat of upland sphagnum bogs.?Our choice of cover soil materials is limited to the following types of peat:

- Milled (milled) black peat

- Excavated (bucket) black peat

- Milled (milled) brown peat

- Excavated (bucket) brown peat

- Dried up to a moisture content of about 50% brown milled peat

- Transitional types of peat mined by an excavator.

Brown peat.?Cover soil made only from brown milled or ladle peat is not heavy enough.?However, it can be used on farms where good climate equipment is not available, provided proper preparation and skillful watering.?The advantage of brown peat is that almost any brown peat retains the "open" structure of the coating mixture.?Usually??milled peat?that enters the farm is dried and therefore has low humidity and a broken structure.?In this regard, it is necessary to start moistening it at least 5 days before applying it to the compost.?Such cover soil cannot hold enough water, and therefore the water usually does not reach the bottom of the cover layer.?Lack of water can lead to overgrowth of mycelium in the form of small, thin, hyphae in this part of the layer.?When the lower part of the cover layer dries up, the cover soil separates from the compost.?The bond between compost and cover soil is one of the main components of successful cultivation.?Loss of communication between the compost and the cover layer will eventually lead to yield loss.?If the cover layer material is very dry, it is very difficult to moisten it again.?In addition, free water that is not absorbed by the cover layer can accumulate on the surface, which will lead to the development of bacterial blotch on the fungi.

Such cover material requires more frequent watering.?When moistened, the density of the material increases, due to the fact that the peat particles are quite small.?However, this can lead to erosion of the surface of the coating layer.?Peat particles separate from each other and can stain mushrooms.?Therefore, when using such material, it is necessary to loosen, and sometimes several times.?The first time - intermediate, superficial and the second - when 2/3 of the cover layer is overgrown with mycelium.?In this case, it is possible to obtain a sufficiently "open" structure of the cover layer.?By adjusting the amount of watering during the germination of the mycelium in the cover layer, you can achieve the desired growth pattern of the mycelium.?Brown peat cover soil is easy to apply, so machines are not necessary.?However, mushrooms obtained on such a cover layer,

Brown??bucket peat?usually moistened better than milling.?It, like milling, also contains a large amount of plant residues.?But, unlike it, they are not crushed and therefore ladle peat has larger pores, which significantly increases its moisture capacity.?However, the air pores in this material are so large that it can absorb, but is unable to retain, large amounts of water.?A situation is created opposite to that which occurs in the case of using fine milled peat.?Water, not lingering in the upper layer of the cover layer, penetrates into its lower part and water-logging can occur there.?The mycelium will not be able to “break through” the water layer, as a result, the contact of the compost and the cover layer will also break.?With moderate watering, heavy growth of the mycelium can be achieved, but it is very important not to "overflow" the water.?This can lead to the formation of "free" water (water is not in the pores, but between them), which will cause the cover soil structure to "close".?It is also difficult to get a large crop of heavy, large mushrooms on such a cover layer.?To do this, it is necessary to use coating mixtures based on black peat.

Black peat.?Cover soil prepared from such peat satisfies almost all requirements.?When choosing black peat, preference should be given to??ladle peat,??since black??milled peat?very difficult to moisturize, and with sufficient moisture - hard to apply and difficult to manage.?It can only be used mixed with brown peat or can be added with a caking material.?Speaking of bucket peat, first of all, you need to know from what depth this peat is dug.?If you dig too deep layers of peat out of the swamp, they will be so dense that there will be practically no air in them (a layer of sedge peat).?When using such peat, evaporation and respiration will be disturbed.?If you dig the upper layers, then they have too much un-decomposed plant residues (young swamp) and the water absorption capacity of the material is high, and the water-holding capacity is low.?The peat of this layer are called white and can be used in mixtures with dense black sedge peat.

The peat below the young layer are old black peat.?If we consider the vertical section of this layer, then in its upper part there is peat that can be used, but they are not yet heavy enough.?Under them, at a depth of at least 4 m from the surface, there is peat that we need.?They have a high moisture capacity due to the plant residues contained in them.?As a result of long-term decomposition, these peat have small pores, which ensures their colossal water-holding capacity.?Small particles provide a high density of peat, and plant remains provide a fairly “open” structure.?It is important that the peat is not too dense, silty, to keep the structure open.