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AUSTRIA HLP meeting in Austria


The annual November meeting of the Hessische Landesfachgruppe Pilzanbau is a must-do for growers of lignicolous mushrooms. This time the gathering was in Vienna, Austria, not far from organic mushroom growers Marchfelder Bio-Edelpilze. By Magda Verfaillie, Mycelia


The members’ meeting took place in Hotel Rosenberg, on the east ring road of Vienna. The HLP is on the eve of momentous change: it founder and spiritual father Ulrich Groos is approaching retirement, and the con- tinuity of the organisation has to be considered. There is no question of Groos’ successor continuing to be such a leading light, not in the least place as the local character of the association has virtually disappeared. Last year the HLP decided to continue functioning as a separate entity, but the whole HLP also joined the BDC. German HLP members automatically became mem- bers of the BDC, whereas the situation has not changed for other members. At the AGM, chairman Jürgen Kynast’s mandate was extended, and the destination for the HLP study trip in 2014 was announced – the west coast of the USA.


Growing in bottles at Marchfelder The next day saw a farm visit to Marchfelder Bio- Edel- pilze in Raasdorf. Some 50 interested visitors took advantage of this rare opportunity to visit a farm in Europe that uses the bottle growing method. Marchfel- der produces Pleurotus eryngii and Pleurotus abalone, both in accordance with organic standards. The visitors were welcomed in a speech by Dr. Hermann Eckert, director of the company, who is also responsible for the commercial activities. The company employs 25 people, involved in producing five tons of pleurotus eryngii and 700 kg of pleurotus abalone


weekly. The technical director is Sung Kyung Lee, a young, Korean eryngii grower who left his own three farms behind to take up a new challenge – namely turning an inefficient bottle growing operation into a profitable company. Both men escorted the visitors through the production halls. In accordance with the logic of production, we visited the substrate preparation department first. Each week, 40,000 bottles are produced with the help of a mixer, an automatic filling installation and two autocla- ves. A portion of substrate weighs 500g, has a moisture content of 69%, and the main ingredients are sawdust, maize, sugar beet pulp, wheat bran and soya. Public access to the cooling and inoculation department is prohibited, but we were allowed to visit all the other zones. The group then focused on how eryngii are cultivated. This is the mushroom with the biggest market potential and it is the flagship of the company. The bottles are incubated for 20 days under filtered air, then they are opened and the top layer is scratched , the bottles are turned and taken to a climatised room of 14-15°C. Pins start to form after eight to ten days and the bottles are placed upright again. When the pinheads are a few centimetres in size they are thinned to leave just the strongest two. The first, and only, flush gives a total yield of 27- 30%, after a cropping cycle of 35 to 50 days. An attractive, environmentally friendly packaging has recently been developed, which will keep the organic label mushrooms in good condition for at least 14 days. Compressed air is used to remove the spent substrate from the bottles. The fact that this old substrate is remo- ved in the same hall as where the bottles are scratched raised a few eyebrows. The spent substrate is sold to an organic farmer for 20 euro a ton. According to Eckert, Marchfelder is the only company in Europe that inoculates its substrates with liquid spawn. We heard that the yields after true sterilisation, that is to say hygienisation at high pressure and a temperature of 121°C, augments production by 10%. Eckert finished by telling us that the company intends to start marketing its production technology.


Sung Kyung Lee (l), Bert Rademakers (CNC Exotics) and Jurgen Banken (Banken Champignons) at Marchfelder Bio- Edelpilze in Raasdorf, Austria.


Sustainability trumps Ulrich Groos then introduced the afternoon’s subject – the problem of dealing with spent substrate. EU re- gulations dictate that the substrate must be hygienised after cultivation, a process that involves additional costs. He advocates relaxing these regulations for a sector


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