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CULTIVATION Is a third flush worthwhile?
This is a recurrent theme among growers. Is it worthwhile waiting for a third flush, with all its associated problems? It’s difficult to give a clear cut answer, so instead I have summarised the aspects you should take into account when making this important decision. By John Peeters
To start with, each grower works according to a regu- lar cropping schedule. This can be wavered from of course, but preferably not too often as customers and raw material suppliers also depend on a grower’s particular routine. So let’s examine the various crop- ping cycles first and their advantages and disad- vantages. The option for a specific cycle is partly determined by the number of growing rooms on the farm. I presume in this case that the beds are filled with incubated compost and covered with casing soil (almost) simultaneously. More about spawnable compost, or a multi-zone system, l ater. The most commonly used schedule with a third flush, is the six-week cycle. Each growing room is filled at six-week intervals, giving enough time to produce three flushes with an ample period of preparation. A longer colonisation period is not a problem, meaning growers can also ruffle after four to six days to create greater uniformity or better quality. The total length is 42 days, whereby the first day of harvest of the first flush falls on day 18 or 19, depending on whether ruf- fling is done or not. The first flush can be harvested over a five to six-day time window, and the beds are often completely cleared of mushrooms on day 24. The second flush usually follows the same rhythm of
the week, so the beds can be cleared generally one week later, on day 31. Replicating this rhythm with the third flush usually fails, so growers often need nine days for a complete third flush, which can be fully cleared on day 40. The rooms can be cooked out on day 40 and 41, stripped empty and cleaned on day 41 or 42 and filled again on day one. The advantage of this cropping cycle is the time ele- ment. Plenty of time for preparation, time enough to harvest all the mushrooms and to cook out and clean the rooms thoroughly, so a grower should normally be able to achieve optimal production for this cycle. However, time is also the downside, as the valuable growing rooms are occupied for six weeks at a time, with the only bonus being a nine-day period in which roughly 10-15% of the yield is achieved.
Turbo growing Using well-incubated compost there are still some growers who work to a four-week cycle, naturally with just two flushes. With this cycle it’s important to keep the phase from colonisation to cool down as compact as possible, and if possible to start cool down already on day four or five. Ruffling deeply again is no longer an option, so a plentiful quantity of
A moderately good third flush of brown mushrooms. Not all that many pinheads, but the mushrooms have the potential to gain weight.
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