CULTIVATION TIPS C POINT CO2 bandwidth
By Jan Gielen, C point Manager / Specialist Climate & Energy
jan.gielen@
cpoint.nl
Now that spring is arriving, daytime temperatures are starting to reach pleasant levels – however, at night the temperature can still drop to below zero. Differences of 15 to even 20 degrees Celsius between day and night are no exception! This also means that the de- mand for fresh air at night is much lower than in the daytime. To make sure this variation in the demand for fresh air is adequately met, do not set a too narrow CO2 bandwidth. At night, with falling temperatures, there will be less demand for fresh air and so the CO2 should be able to increase. In the daytime, with rising temperatures, there will be more demand for fresh air and so the CO2 should be able to be reduced. By entering a wide enough bandwidth in the minimum and maximum CO2 settings, the controls can achieve this with limited energy consumption. If a smaller bandwidth is set, you may well benefit from tighter air inlet control and consequently a more stable climate, but more energy will be needed to maintain the climate using heating, cooling and humidifying. If you set a wider bandwidth, the degree of air inlet control will vary more ( as this setting follows the outside climate), but clearly less energy will be used for heating, cooling and humidi- fying. Do set a minimum air inlet position to ensure enough evaporation is maintained. In the past too much importance was attached to the CO2 value and a too narrow bandwidth was selected, with all the inherent consequences for energy consumption. Nowadays, growers are more aware that evaporation has the priority and that CO2 is a tool that can facilitate this if an acceptable bandwidth is set. While the mushrooms are developing, bandwidths of some 600 to 800 ppm are often used in practice. During pinheading, the CO2 is more important, and bandwidths of 200 to 400 ppm are applied in practice.
Ruffling?
By Erik Polman, C point
erik.polman@cpoint.nl
Photo’s: Cpoint advertisement
Growing is still not going as smoothly as desired. The quality of mushrooms in the 2nd and 3rd flush remains problematic. There are also farms where growers constantly have the feeling that their yields could be higher. The compost quality in West-Europe seems to be reasonable, but only gives good results if enough time is devoted to it during preparation. Applying plenty of cac-ing, as the photo shows, and cooling down after 4 -5 days does not usually gives the best results with this type of compost. Growing numbers of companies are extending their cropping schedule by 1 - 4 days so as not to rush the compost. Ruffling is a good idea in this situation, and is not detrimental either in view of the compost quality. Ruffling aerates the casing soil layer again and opens up the surface of the casing soil to facilitate a good exchange of elements ( i.e. gas). Ruffling can also help determine the mo- ment for harvesting to start better than just cac-ing alone, which is certainly an advantage for organising the labour and for marketing purposes. A disadvantage of ruffling is that for manual harvesting farms the spread is more difficult, but as most companies have good climate equipment this is not too much of a problem. Many farms are also still having problems with bubble during winter. Notably, farms that ruffle seems to be affected less. Ruffling seems to make the mycelium stronger so that the infection pressure is reduced a little. So on the whole, it’
s worthwhile seeing whether a slightly longer cropping cycle and ruff- ling is a strategy that suits your farm.
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