27 ottle cultivation Jürgen studies a filled bag of substrate. Shiitake - copious pinheading on 8-week old white substrate.
The first and only flush of shiitake being harvested.
Sepp Häcki with pholiota nameko.
He was willing to share the following - non-confidential – information about the process: “Every day we fill our bulk mixer with three tons of moist material. That blend consists of a carefully studied mix of wood fraction and supplements combined to create the correct nutritional value and the right structure. We steam this blend at 100°C for five to six hours, then leave it to cool overnight, aided by a water cooling system in the double-sided barrel. In the morning, the substrate has reached the right temperature for the inoculum to be added at a ratio of 5% directly into the barrel. A worm drive conveys the substrate into the fully automatic filling machine, where the bags are filled under sterile conditions. The bags are made from a roll of double-layer, ultra-thin perforated plastic. One roll can be used to fill 4.5 tons of material. We make 1.1kg portions for pleurotus eryngii, and 1.5 kg for shiitake: these amounts give the best yields in our experience. The filling machine operates fully indepen- dently in a closed room, and it only takes one person to stack the filled bags onto trolleys. The contents of the entire mixer can bagged and placed in the incubation
area within three and a half hours. This capacity allows us to produce 500,000 bags a year.”
Credit where credit´s due Substrate production adventures with an unhappy en- ding in the past have made people sceptical regarding new technology. But this development represents a real breakthrough. The figures speak for themselves. “We achieve an average yield of 25% with shiitake, with peaks of up to 35%, and 16 to 20% for pleurotus eryngii, each time in a single flush. Thanks to the micro- perforations the incubation times are much shorter than in classical bag cultivation systems: eight to nine weeks are sufficient for shiitake and five weeks for pleurotus eryngii.” Some would even be happy with less encoura- ging results! Sepp and Patrick are modest about their achievements. They are happy that their many years of hard work have ended in success. And the fact that they want to com- mercialise their knowledge can only stand to benefit the entire sector. Watch this space! ◗
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44
