How to grow champignons?

Champignons even a novice mushroom picker can grow, you just need to find out what conditions are important to create for breeding such mushrooms.

You can breed champignons in different ways, but taking into account the following features:

• Mycelium should be added to the substrate at a compost temperature of about + 25 + 27 degrees.
• For the incubation period, the temperature is maintained at a level of 22 to 25 degrees Celsius, and for the period of the appearance of fungi, a temperature of 14 to 17 degrees is needed.
• Ventilation during the incubation period is not needed, but during fruiting it is very important to ventilate the room, since the mushroom is quite sensitive to excess carbon dioxide.
• Mushrooms do not need lighting.
• The collection of champignons is carried out by extracting mushrooms along with the root. Twist the mushroom and carefully separate it from the soil. Such a collection will not cause the depletion of the mycelium.

Tools and materials you will need:

• Storage tanks
• Shovel
• Polyethylene film
• Sprayer
• Scissors
• sapka
• irrigation hose
• Urea
• Compost
• Superphosphate

Most often, mycelium is purchased from trusted suppliers. It can be compost (more resistant to external factors) and grain (higher quality). You can also purchase ready-made mycelium from companies selling mycelium.

You can also prepare raw materials for planting champignon yourself from overripe mushrooms. They are filled with water and left for a day so that the spores get into the liquid.The soil is evenly watered with such a liquid and sprinkled with a 1-centimeter layer of earth.

You can also use wild-growing mycelium for sowing, taking it in places where champignons grow in nature. The mushroom picker is mined in September - after removing 1-2 centimeters of soil, they take out pieces of soil (square with a side of 10-30 cm) with mycelium threads, dry them a little and send them for storage in a cool room until spring. In the spring it can be planted at their summer cottage. Also, this mycelium can be propagated in a greenhouse or basement.

The most inexpensive and simple method of planting champignon, suitable for many mushroom pickers, is growing on ordinary horizontal beds, which are soil with fertilizers. Such beds are arranged in greenhouses, basements, shallow mines, old vegetable stores and similar premises.

The method is considered quite profitable, therefore it is in demand among most farmers.

Its advantages:

• No need to buy trays.
• The beds are made very quickly.
• Useful area is used rationally.

But there are also many disadvantages:

• There is a high probability of infection (the premises cannot be cleaned, so infections are often brought from the street and on clothes) and its rapid spread throughout the garden.
• The bed is at an uncomfortable height.

Stages of growing mushrooms in the beds:

• Compost laying. On a flat floor, you need to lay a plastic film so that it retains moisture. Compost is scattered on this film, creating a layer about 30-40 cm thick.
• Mycelium sowing. Furrows are made in the compost and sown with acquired mycelium.You can also simply sprinkle the mycelium evenly on top, covering it with compost (a layer of about five centimeters).
• Watering. After sowing, the compost should be regularly watered abundantly. Only with enough moisture will you get a good growth of mycelium.
• Collection. Mushroom fruiting bodies ready for harvest appear in ten to twelve weeks.

A more modern method of growing champignons is the shelf system, which is also called the Dutch method. It is based on the use of shelves and drawers. With the rational use of the area with such a system, quality care is provided.

The substrate is placed in plastic containers, which are laid out in rows. Also, the technique provides for drip irrigation, which prevents infections from the upper rows from falling on the lower containers.

It is very convenient to grow mushrooms in basements, because underground rooms have a relatively stable microclimate. In addition, it is much easier to create optimal conditions in basements than in greenhouses.

You can grow champignons even in an ordinary basement. It is desirable that in such a basement there are:

• concrete walls;
• concreted or cemented floor;
• good ventilation.

To prevent pests from infecting mushrooms, it is recommended to close the ventilation openings with nets, and the ceiling and walls must be treated with lime. If the basement is spacious enough, it can be divided into two zones - in one, the incubation period of cultivation will take place, and in the second, fruiting bodies will be received. To maintain high humidity (85-90%), the floor in the basement is moistened.

Another method of growing champignons in the basement is the technology by which oyster mushrooms have long been grown. It consists in the use of plastic bags. This method is practical and gives a good harvest, but it does not require significant material investments.

Stages of growing mushrooms in bags:

• Substrate preparation. To get an excellent raw material for growing mushrooms, mix horse manure (15 kg), black earth (5-6 kg), straw (3 kg), mullein and sunflower husks (2 kg each). Filling this mixture with water, you will see that it heats up to a high temperature and burns out. Leave it for 20 days, then lay it out in a thin layer to dry.
• Sowing mushrooms. Having filled the bags to the top with the substrate and poured water on top of them, then you need to make holes in the polyethylene with a diameter of about ten centimeters. In order not to tear the bag, such holes are made in a checkerboard pattern. Mycelium is placed in each cell.

With this technology, you save on containers, but at the same time you get all the advantages of growing mushrooms on the shelves.

The disadvantages include the rather laborious first stage of cultivation, because a lot of manual labor is needed to prepare the substrate, fill bags, moisten and other work.

You can also grow mushrooms in briquettes. They are compressed blocks based on manure, sawdust, husks, peat and other components in the right proportions, placed in polyethylene.

The undoubted advantage of this method is the absence of the need to waste time and effort. The farmer receives the finished material in the form of rectangular or cylindrical briquettes. They can be placed in containers or hung on ropes.

After collecting 3-4 crops, the blocks are changed to new ones. The yield of this technique is quite high and stable.

The disadvantages include only the cost of the briquettes themselves.

You can grow champignon in the country in different places: in greenhouses, in the basement, and even just in the beds in open ground conditions. The place is not so important, it is much more important to achieve the conditions necessary for the appearance of mushrooms - a certain temperature regime, sufficient humidity, air access and the absence of direct sunlight.

A good place would be the north side of the site, for example, behind the house, where there is little sun, and the humidity lasts longer. The beds are covered with a canopy, which serves as protection from rain and sun. With this cultivation, the ventilation of the mushrooms will be natural, so the mycelium in the ground will not rot.

Significant spending on growing mushrooms in the garden is not required. It is only important to properly prepare the compost, the basis of which will be manure (chicken or horse).Urea and hot water are added to the manure, after ten days it is shaken up, mixed with chalk and compacted a little. Another ten days after the addition of superphosphate, the manure is well compacted and waiting for maturation (it should become light brown and crumbly).

A layer of manure 35 cm thick is laid on the prepared bed, dividing it into sections (squares with a side of 20 cm). The mycelium is planted at an air temperature of about +20 degrees to a depth of about 5 cm, after which it is sprinkled a little with compost, watered with water and covered with newspaper or polyethylene.

When the mycelium appears (after about 20 days), the shelter is removed and a 3-centimeter layer of soddy soil and peat is poured onto the bed. Expect the first mushrooms in 25 days. Collect them in a timely manner and water the beds from a watering can twice a week using warm water.

Champignons are classified as unpretentious mushrooms, which have a fairly high growth rate. These parameters make it possible to grow them in greenhouses. From one square meter in a greenhouse, up to 30 kilograms of mushrooms can be harvested at a time.

In greenhouse conditions, 3-7 crops can be obtained per year. With this method of growing mushrooms, it is important to control humidity and temperature, use a good substrate, and also ensure that excess carbon dioxide is removed.

In order for the mycelium to give quick shoots, after sowing, the soil is covered with polyethylene.

You need to water the crops before the first shoots - when they appear, spray the mushrooms twice a day.

A great way to grow mushrooms at home is to use aerated containers. Such containers were created by the Americans, providing for the possibility of ventilation in them.

You can grow mushrooms in this way even in an apartment on the balcony.It is enough to buy a special container that has a pallet and a lid. Such containers are filled with the same compost that we described when growing mushrooms in bags. Before laying the substrate, the container must be disinfected by holding it in an oven at +200 degrees.

The mycelium is sown in the substrate, immersed by 4-5 centimeters, after which the soil is moistened and the container is sent to a warm place. This is an efficient and convenient technique. As with growing in a bag, it makes it easy to localize the infection. However, the method is rarely used by farmers due to the high cost of breeding (given the industrial scale). But for home use, the method is very good.

For more information on growing champignons in a container, see the following video instruction.

When planning a business based on the cultivation of champignons, you need to consider two main questions:

• What will be the starting capital?
• What will be the profitability?

When calculating how much money you will need, decide on the desired amount of cultivation and your goals. Starting with growing mushrooms on the balcony, you need investments from 10 to 50 dollars. It is not necessary to count on a special income, but the result will be the experience of growing.

The profitability of mushroom cultivation is noted at the level of 30-50%. It is influenced by growing conditions, production volume, energy costs and other factors. Direct expenses will be the purchase of mycelium, compost, containers, utilities, wages for workers and others.