18
MY FARM The Burgs farm (PL)
In each edition of “Mushroom Business” we publish an interview with a grower. The emphasis here is on the farm and cultiva- tion methods. This issue features a portrait of the farm owned by Marcin and Justyna Burgs, situated in Zukow near Siedlce in eastern Poland.
By John Peeters
The grower “My father started growing mushrooms in 1986, before the Berlin Wall fell. In fact, he was one of the pioneers of mushroom growing in this region of Poland. Mushroom growing spread to here from the region around Poznan. So my family has been involved in the mushroom industry for almost 30 years, and I just naturally progressed into the business. The farm you see today is just two years old, so we are future proof for the moment. I would like to expand in the future, but that mainly depends on whether we can still earn a decent living. Most of the mushrooms we produce are exported to Russia by the trading company Avanti, similar to much of mushroom production here in the region. The political situation, with all the problems in Ukraine, is unstable, and we hope that our
mushrooms will not become a victim of the political power play being exercised by Russia and the European Union. Polish production volumes are still rising, and will easily surpass 300,000 tons this year. Mushroom consumption in Russia is also on the increase, but I don’t know the precise figures. Many people there still gather mushrooms from the forests in the traditional way. And although the situation is unstable, the prices are good. Our position in ten years? I don’t have a crystal ball, but I hope I am still here, but then with a larger farm. That’s all I can say about what the future holds.” **
Cultivation The farm run by the Burgs has six growing rooms, each offering 530 square metres of growing surface. Burgs uses a Christiaens filling machine to fill his rooms, applying about 85 kg of incubated com- post per square metre, supplied alternately by Wrona and Fungis. The machine adds the casing at the same time, and the rooms are then ready for growing. The spawn varieties used are Spyra F11, Euro- mycel E58 and Sylvan A15, while the casing soil is supplied by Wokas in Irmscher. They work to a six-week cycle with three flushes. Wednesdays is the standard filling day. Ten litres of water are spray- ed per square metre on the filling day, followed by a further eight litres on Thursdays. The amount of water is then drastically reduced to one litre on Fridays, half a litre
on Saturdays and on Sundays a dose of water with added Sporgon. Cool down is started on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, depending on the mycelium growth. The air tempe- rature is reduced by 0.4 degrees Celsius per hour from 20 to 17.5 degrees, and the RH is lowered by 1.5% per day from 95 to 88%. The CO2 is also reduced and drops from 3000 to 1400 ppm at a rate of 400 ppm per day. For the first flush the number of pinheads is closely examined, and the temperature is adapted according. The first flush begins on day 18 or 19, and the air temperature is then reduced to 14 degrees Celsius, with an RH of 87% and CO2 of 1400 ppm. Water is never sprayed onto the mushrooms. After the first flush, the air temperature is increased to 18 degrees, and two litres of water are sprayed per hour up to a total of 12-16 litres per square metre. In the second flush the temperature is taken to 16 degrees, with an RH of 85% and CO2 of 1200 ppm. After this flush, the temperature is raised to 20 degrees, and 8-10 litres of water is applied. The climate control unit is from the Polish Label, the buildings were constructed using the services of a local company. The Burgs farm offers work to 20 pickers and three further staff who fill, empty and clean the growing rooms, and perform other general duties.
** The interview dates from be- fore the Russian boycot. ◗
Marcin Burgs, here besides Justyna: “I don’t have a crystal ball, but I hope that prices remain good.”
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
