CONTENTS Growing against
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A third fl ush, do or don’t? Beating the big freeze in Canada Saving with cooling systems 3D mycelium design My Farm: Berg Champignons (NL) Fujian Wanchen in pictures
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the wind A whole succession of reports about different farms has passed in review in Mushroom Business over the years. Relatively many quite logically concerned Dutch farms, the majority of which are based in the south of the country. But, progressively, we have spread our net far and wide to interview growers abroad who increasingly embrace Dutch expertise of construction, machinery and cultivation techniques. In regions with completely different climatic and general conditions, where the parameters are not always conducive to white button mushroom growing. Growers and composters gladly opened their doors. We have visited farms the size of a garden shed, but also im- mense operations with growing areas extending to 40,000 square metres. Suited and booted in spotless overalls we have been guided around pristine halls and growing rooms, but we have also explored grimy shacks with fl oors covered with a layer of quicklime, where swarms of fl ies dive-bombed our every move. We have occasionally been pushed on quickly, or mistrusted, but generally our curiosity has been warmly welcomed. Sometimes with cakes, sometimes with vodka, but usually with a nice mug of coffee. We have written about sheds in Ireland, doubles in America , former NATO-bunkers in Germany, caves in France, bamboo sheds in China, fl at cellars in Bosnia, tray farms, single layer systems, but above all about the rise in the number of farms over the world using Dutch-style shelving systems to grow button mushrooms. Or with a ‘Dutch’ composting method. Or built, equipped, and provided with raw materials by Dutch suppliers.
emperatures at night on the Persian Gulf do not fall below 28 degrees, and in summer thermometer readings of 55 degrees are no exception. In these conditions after the phase II tunnels have been fi lled the compost has to be cooled from its second stage temperature of 48 degrees to 25 degrees so it can be inoculated. And for obvious reasons, no outside air is used for ventilation during phase III.
In 2003, we published an article on the only mushroom farm (compost and growing) in Oman, Gulf Mushroom. T
On the opposite side of the climate spectrum is Loveday Mushrooms, a company highlighted in detail in this edition. Last winter in Canada the temperature plunged to -40, an amazing 65 degrees colder than Oman. In Manitoba, the bales of straw freeze before the composting process even starts, and digging a passage through piles of snow to reach the farm is a daily occurrence. If you touch anything cold and metallic, you freeze to it!
It is amazing and admirable that even under such extreme conditions, a living product like compost can be produced of high quality, and good quality mushrooms as well. Both farms mentioned here do enjoy the advantage of being the only one of their kind for miles.
And....
Cultivation tips AdVisie News
ISMS News Focus
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Cultivation tips DLV Plant Mushrooms 37 Out and about Service
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Cover foto: Digging out passageways through banks of snow is quite normal at Loveday Mushrooms Ltd. in Manitoba, Canada. Photo: Jos Buth
Roel Dreve Tel. +31 (0)6 23617575
roel@mushroombusiness.com www.mushroombusiness.nl
Dutch mushroom growing farms are still predominantly found in the south of the Netherlands. The challenge in their case is not fl oods, blistering heat or hurricanes, but economic head- wind. Nevertheless, according to a report recently published by PPS Market Intelligence Horticulture, the number of farms showed a smaller decline in 2013 than in previous years. The number fell to 127, while the total production surface area showed 5% growth last year to reach 700,000 m2, (achieved by mechanical harvesting companies). A turning point? There is no ignoring the high level of Dutch expertise and innovation; that will be plain to see during the National Mushroom Day on 16 May when Gerard Sikes’ farm opens its doors to host the event.
editorial
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