Sharing some thoughts on Mushroom Growing in India - Part 2

Read Part 1 - Sharing some thoughts on Mushroom Growing in India

Life is not a sports game, where losing is a part of it. Your money, and that innate desire to win and succeed, is at the stake. Mushroom growing is one of the? difficult crops in horticulture, therefore stressful (though my generation won't ever admit). Because of variations in the quality of raw materials, inconsistent crops, labour issues, mounting electricity bills, trade issues, debt, equipment repairs, transport, dealing with govt agencies, lack of help/'help seeking skill' etc.

Perishable nature of mushrooms in absence of a cold chain, is another cause of stress factor, as till the produce reaches the destination in time and is sold, returns are not assured. High Investment in PUF building and cooling machinery, high electricity requirement makes it a 'high initial investment' business. Dependence on labour in a country of festivals makes it more challenging.? However, the entrepreneurs who are bold, love challenges, playing a mind game, ready to slog, venture into this line, especially when margins are low due to over production. Best planning, an efficient technical team, an eye on cost of production and a marketing strategy, all make this business run smoothly.

Consistency in mushroom production or stability of production, thus profits, is the key. The ultimate production depends upon soo many factors. I am sharing a few observations, which may resonate with you and a few tips to achieve it.?

1. Compost formulation

Primarily, straw(main source of carbon), chicken manure(main source of nitrogen) and gypsum are the main raw materials to prepare the compost. The ratio of straw and chicken manure is an important decision in the recipe.

Chicken manure A peep into the poultry farms will enable us to understand and make better decisions on quantities to be added.?

The chicken manure received consists of faeces(shit) rich in nitrogen, litter or bedding material, feed residue (minor) and moisture. During summers, due to stress by heat, the intake of feed by birds is low. They drink more water resulting in moist? faeces. Overcrowding of birds is avoided, which means less birds per sq metre. Feed for muscle growth is diverted to a mechanism to dissipate heat. Less and moist faeces means less Nitrogen.

On the other hand, during winters, more birds are accommodated per sq. metre. The restricted ventilation to maintain temp on cooler nights, up to 50 ppm of ammonia is observed in the air. This means more nitrogen.

Recently, there is a trend to add insect based biomass proteins to the traditional corn to the feed to cut down their cost. This is going to change the composition of faeces.

The bedding material is either rice husk or saw dust. The saw dust is mostly from popular trees, evident from light colour or kikar (Acacia) giving it a dark colour. It looks attractive, as it is free flowing and powdery in texture, easy to mix with the straw. But the sawdust of certain trees, including kikar, just do not ferment! I have seen this powder in the pasteurised compost staying as such, till the emptying of the growing room. Sticking to rice husk manure is safe. If chicken manure lots, mixed with soil and sand, temp in Phase 1 are difficult to maintain at 80 deg C and tends to? come down to around 70 deg C, after three to four days in the bunker. Occasional adulteration of truck loads of straw and chicken manure with water and sand by greedy suppliers can become an obstacle to prepare the 'dream compost' batches.

If the floor of the poultry farm is not concrete, birds keep on scratching it with their feet, as they move, to incorporate soil into the layer, adding to the ash content.

Normal cycle of birds in a shed is 45 to 50 days, which may be extended or pre-poned according to demand/supply of market will lead to a change in faeces: litter ratio, thus nitrogen.

Chicken manure should be procured and used as fresh as possible. If needed to be stored, adding gypsum in advance helps to stabilise it by reducing the pH and preventing heat up to an extent.

Getting it from modern poultry farms with fixed no. of days of cycle and consistent feed is preferable and a chat with the manager for any change may be helpful. If getting from more than one, small poultry farms, mixing all sourced manures well before use will ensure uniformity within the entire batch.

If the straw is very fine, less chicken manure? is used to maintain the structure of compost. The risk of compost becoming heavy with its airiness compromised, is an invitation to yellow mould. It is the variable factor while calculating nitrogen or nitrogen : carbon ratio.

We can experience moisture by feeling in our hands, but cannot feel Nitrogen value.

Example : Two samples of chicken manure received -

1st sample

Moisture: 28 %, Nitrogen : 3.5 %. Ash: 15 %.

Needs 6400 kg /10 tons of mustard straw.

2nd sample

Moisture: 32%, Nitrogen :2.5 %, Ash : 25 %

Needs 8300 Kg / 10 tons of mustard straw

2. Making of a 'selective compost'

Our bodies, inside and outside, have 10 times more microbes than the number of cells. And these microbes can reproduce to multiply in 15 to 20 minutes. While composting and growing, we deal with a wide range of them.

While composting, we create the ideal conditions for friendly microbes, quantitatively and qualitatively to thrive and add nutrition for the mushroom mycelium. The end product is suitable exclusively to the mycelium and unsuitable to the other moulds like green mould, yellow mould, plaster mould etc.

To make a selective compost, carbon: nitrogen ratio and procedures? followed during Phase zero, Phase 1 and Phase2 should be right. If carbon is left (under composting), green mould can be expected. The temp may shoot up during spawn run to invite more moulds. If nitrogen is left due to incomplete conversion or if nitrogen is not evenly distributed,? ammonia may take longer to clear in Phase2 tunnel.. Moulds like Chaetomium, plaster mould and weed like Coprinus can be seen. A selective compost is the right balance among moisture, airiness and nutrients. It is open in texture. It may feel 61 % moisture, but actually is 65 %, as moisture is all 'bound' water. The understanding of the line between under and over composting is key. it is a skill to observe, and act accordingly, instead of following the composting like a military drill. An over composted batch feels soft, sticky and tends to settle down in the tunnel. The driver on the loader taking out compost from the Phase2 tunnel can feel this extra resistance.

The importance of hygiene cannot be undermined, but we cannot grow mushrooms in sterile conditions, like in a spawn lab. A strong colonisation by mycelium with strands growing deep inside to the core of fibres of straw of compost, won't let any mould to compete with it to win. Mushroom mycelium cannot grow easily in wet, dense and compact lumps of compost rolling out from Phase 2 tunnel while spawning, but plaster mould loves it. The enzyme 'lignase' to digest lignin (present in straw)left after composting, is present in mushroom mycelium and absent in most of the competitor moulds.?

The best temp for mycelium to grow in compost, in the growing room is 24 deg to 26 deg C. A range of 27 to 30 deg C may be avoided because this is optimum for green moulds and others to grow and compete with mushroom mycelium.

3. Building a team

Actually working in a fully mechanised and computerised farm is relatively easy, but to work in a farm not advanced, should be compensated with higher? quality of grower.

Quality of grower - Science background helps as growers have a basic? understanding of microbes, infection, climate control factors like temp, RH, Absolute humidity, CO2, air speed and evaporation. Best if you know how to read Mollier diagram.

Physically fit - as it is a field job, and mentally strong with an obsessive drive, constantly pushing themselves. A composter works for the whole day in the intense heat of summers, 80 deg C compost, air rich in ammonia, carbon dioxide, methane etc and fumes from loaders. The grower, at times, has to adjust the timings of picking and packing to sync with timings of despatch in accordance with timings of bus/train. The mushrooms must reach the mandi by early morning.?

Sense of observation - in terms of changing colour of compost, smell, feeling in hand (level of fermentation), able to 'talk' to the compost or to the mycelium and emerging mushrooms to control its vigour with watering and climate control. Being? sensitive to changes in raw material quality and changing weather .Well versed with water management in composting as well as in growing. Having spent many years is not enough, if that sharp sense of observation and an analytical mind set is missing. Freedom to team members, as most decisions are taken on the spot.? Important? is people to talk, flow of ideas & perspectives, and the feedback.

Recently, In a particular batch, some ammonia did not clear on the 6th day, the scheduled day for spawning. The composter, a school drop out, extended the? process by one day, but opened the fresh air damper to full, with vfd of blower on max, thinking that more the air, faster would be clearance of ammonia from the compost. The temp dropped to 40 deg C. He could not appreciate that microbes responsible for ammonia fixing survive above 45 deg. Once Actenomycetes and Humicola are rendered inactive, ammonia won't get clear!

Most of my team members are school dropouts, elevated from ground level, handpicked from a large pool of employees, some of whom are tobacco addicted. They keep on getting smarter with time and the number of mistakes made, are generally not repeated.

4. High yield

We hear a lot about the very high level of productivity in the developed countries, picking an yield, figures looking like a dream, like? 35% to 40%, in two flushes. However, our best average is 26 % to 27%.The big difference can be due to various factors.

Size of mushrooms harvested

In our country, the most popular packing is? a pouch/ punnet with 200 gm of mushrooms. Generally, it contains 12 to 14 mushrooms in number. In a market survey, when we offered 5 to 6 solid, dense, slightly bigger mushrooms with better shelf life, it was not acceptable. As the housewives from the middle class explained, for a family of three members, they buy one unit for a meal. While preparing mushroom curry or mushroom pulao, more pieces should be visible! Just looking at the pouch/ punnet, it looks one third to one fourth empty, which is not OK, and at least 13 mushrooms is normal.

Compost raw materials

Universally long wheat straw is used for making the compost. In our country straw is chiefly used as cattle fodder or fuel for burning, therefore only fine straw is available. The bound water in the compost is considered as 'gold' as the nutrition from compost should flow from the substrate to the growing mushrooms above. More the nutrition rich juices flow, the heavier the fruit bodies are. With a short structure of straw, we cannot go higher than a moisture content of 64 % for mustard straw and 66 % for wheat straw , while their level is 68% to 70%.

Supplements

The use of slow release supplements is a routine, at the time of spawning, or at the time of casing, when transferring spawn run compost from Phase 3 tunnels to the growing rooms. This practice started in the eighties and give 15% more production. We do not use it here.

Spawn

Import of high quality spawn is expensive and therefore some farms simply clone it. We reject any batch showing slower than normal growth or stroma formation tendency, observing in the Incubation room of the spawn lab.

Casing soil

Black peat, dug from bogs, has been widely used in developed nations since commercial mushroom growing started. It is the best because it is a dense, heavy material, yet airy in texture. It is full of water storage cells and won't ever dry in excess. It is high in Matric potential, i.e. water giving up ability. Here, we use coir pith in combination with weathered cow manure or weathered spent compost, ball clay, burnt rice husk or/and fly ash. It is relatively light in density, loses water easily and therefore prone to over pinning.

Watering in peat is easy, as up to 8L of water can be given in one go and a gap of 5 to 6 days is common , while picking the flush. With our casing soil, we have to do light waterings frequently, as it won't take more than 2 Litres of water per sq metre in one go. We have adapted to it and do more light waterings more frequently.

Cacing

The common practice, here, is to do ruffling on the 6th/7th day of casing soil application. Two to three days can be saved by cacing, using 'cacing material', (adding to cost, not available) or spawn run compost. But we do need these six days to meet the need of water addition, as our casing material cannot hold and retain very high levels of water like peat.

Bag growing

Filling compost in bags is done manually, resulting in less growing surface area. Creating a flat surface by thumping, after shifting the bags, layering it uniformly with casing soil, ruffling like an artist and thus watering and growing cannot match machine filling in those expensive aluminium shelves.

Manual climate control

An optimum climate without fluctuations, pre-programmed precisely in composting and growing, at different stages of cycle is possible with computers only and manual control cannot match.?

Picking

The quality and cost of picking.

In this video clip, it is the second day of the 1st flush. The boy takes out and holds five medium sized mushrooms in one go and in two to three hand movements fill one polythene bag for 200 gm packing. His speed is 40 Kg per hour, though average at the farm is 25 kg, with most youngsters picking at a speed of 32 Kg per hour. His earning per day without overtime is 40 Kg* 8 hours * Rs 3.50/ per Kg= Rs.1120 per day, exceeding supervisor's wages.

Help from professionals

Industrial button mushroom farming has been a major branch of agriculture in Europe and North America for a long time. It has evolved with time tremendously and with active R&D with efforts of research stations, associations and grower communities. We can learn more from them.

Ultimately, what matters? is the cost of production, rather than a report card on yield comparison!?

5. Trends

More demand is expected for healthy food in a developing, fast changing country with the Internet leading to a? literacy movement, with more people opting for? a rich, low calorie, protein rich, source of Vitamin B and antioxidants. Mushrooms are rapidly making a place for themselves in the Indian kitchens. More farms will be needed. More misinformation on social media with claims of making lacs of rupees in my backyard to create a? sensation, many will fall into the trap to start the venture without enough homework. Many fake consultants with no practical experience exploiting the insecurities of entrepreneurs? are already in circulation. Extending short courses by universities and research institutes with mediocre standards in R&D at the expense of taxpayers money, make this highly skilled job of mushroom growing look so easy.?

In this era of changing times with AI, indigenous computerised climate control, analysis of poor and best batches, disease diagnosis, easy access to a lot of information and specialists, the entrepreneur will be able to grow mushrooms at a greater scale than ever before!