Mushrooms can zhoosh up any meal. It’s a treat as a meal on its own or you can add it to pizza, pasta, breakfast, salads and soups. Growing your own mushrooms can be done with a little planning and a lot of patience. From white button mushrooms and portabellos – there is a wide variety of exotic and medicinal mushrooms you can cultivate.
Packed with antioxidants and vitamins, mushrooms boost your immune system and support heart and brain function.
Marietjie Kruger, owner and director of Chanmar Mushrooms in Heidelberg, Gauteng, says that being a mushroom farmer was a lifelong dream for her.
“My favourite part of mushroom farming is seeing a quality product at the end,” Kruger says. “And knowing that it only comes with hard work and a passion for mushroom cultivation.”
Wilmaré Lotz, owner and manager of Boland Mushrooms in Worcester, Western Cape, on the other hand never thought of being a mushroom farmer. After six years at university getting an MSc in agriculture behind her name, she started working at Boland Mushrooms.
“The making of compost and growing of mushrooms was not easy at all,” says Lotz. “But I think this was the thing that grabbed me because I love a challenge and growing mushrooms is definitely a challenge!”
Picking a mushroom cultivar
Mainly white button and brown mushrooms are grown in South Africa, according to BizBolt. If you want to remain small-scale, shiitake and oyster mushrooms are a better bet.
According to Greig Wishart, a trainee farmer at Cape Mushrooms, exotic mushrooms seem easier and less complicated to grow, but don’t think they are any easier to farm than button mushrooms!
Depending on the mushroom cultivar you choose to farm with, you need to get the correct compost as a growing medium.
Compost composition and development
The growing cycle of mushrooms starts with compost. It is therefore important to ensure that this has the right ingredients and is treated optimally from the beginning.
“Compost is the heart of your business. If the composition isn’t correct, it can affect your crop and your yield,” says Lotz.
According to Lichen Group, the basic components of mushroom compost are water, wheat, broiler chicken litter, and gypsum. This mixture of raw ingredients needs to ferment for three weeks, being opened and aired daily.
After the compost has fermented it has to be moved to a closed room to undergo three developmental stages:
- Phase one: The wetting and mixing of the compost mixture;
- Phase two: The compost undergoes pasteurisation to free the compost from undesirable weeds, microbes and pests.
- Phase three: The ammonia and nitrogen content is converted to protein to act as a growth medium for the mushrooms.
Spawning and growing the mushrooms
You can buy the spawn of your chosen mushroom cultivar from suppliers and mix it into the compost you have made. The spawned compost is filled into the final growing containers (bags, trays or shelves) for incubation or “spawn running”.
This part of the process takes place in purpose-built tunnels, spawn running rooms or in the growing rooms.
The spawning rooms on their own must be well insulated and equipped with systems that maintain temperature and humidity levels. The air that enters the rooms must be filtered to eliminate dust, bacteria and fungal spores that may cause disease.
When the spawn grows, threads of mycelium are spread through the compost and will completely cover it.
After a bag of compost is fully colonised with mycelium, a casing layer is added. This layer can be made from many different materials and is necessary to provide moisture for the mushrooms.
Most mushroom growers use peat moss, but it has to be imported to South Africa. Lotz switched from peat moss to a cheaper, local alternative made from by-products of sugarcane processing.
“To walk into a new flush and see a bed of white button mushrooms!” exclaims Lotz when asked about her favourite part of mushroom farming.
Harvesting
A mushroom doubles in size every 24 hours, so it is important to check on the mushrooms daily. Button mushrooms are picked when the cap reaches maximum size. They are individually picked with an upward, twisting pull.
Mushrooms have to be picked immediately otherwise their quality decreases. It is of utmost importance that mushrooms should be handled with extreme care as they are bruised easily.
“It is not easy to grow mushrooms if you don’t have passion and if you think you only work 45 hrs a week,” says Lotz. “It takes determination, and the margins are very small, and there is no room for error.”
While this might seem like a lot of work, nothing is impossible if you have dedication and passion. With enough research, and through trial and error, you can start your own lucrative mushroom farm.
This story was first published by our sister publication, Food For Mzansi. Read the full article here.
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