COMPOST 1
Good compost is stable compost
Compost is the foundation that supports cultivation and represents 85% of the power behind mushroom production, so it goes without saying that good compost is vital. But what actually constitutes good compost?
By Con Hermans, AdVisie ‘the mushroom growing consultants’
hermans@champignonadvies.nl
C
ompost that averages good pro- duction is not the same as good compost. Production peaks of 40 kg/m2 that sometimes alter- nate with lows of 30 kg/m2 will cause problems in harvest planning and sales. It’s better to have slightly less produc- tive compost, but more stable yields. Or- ganising the harvest activities is far eas- ier and each production cycle can be optimised because you know what to ex- pect. The final technical and financial results will consequently be better. Comparing a composting plant with an ordinary production plant is impossible. There are too many parameters that ef- fect the process. It’s all too easy to say that’s simply the way compost is – ‘a natural product’. Composters can take
What is good compost? Compost is the key decisive factor in mushroom production. Growers in
some countries can still achieve excellent production under relatively primi- tive conditions providing they use good quality compost. Anyone can culti- vate mushrooms on good compost, they virtually grow themselves powered by the driving force of the compost that stimulates growth and maintains evaporation levels. Mastery of the true art of growing only becomes appar- ent on inferior quality compost. Rigidly following standard procedures or letting a computer dictate the programme will cause production to plum- met. Growers must therefore ensure they fill their growing rooms with good compost. But what is good compost?
In a series of articles, Con Hermans will be examining a number of impor- tant aspects that influence compost quality and how this in turn impacts on production. This first article concentrates on stable compost. Future articles will cover aspects including structure, nutrients, ash content and moisture.
certain measures to promote greater stability of the compost.
Recipe
The majority of commercial composters follow a fixed production process, which does not always result in a consistent product. A rough, imprecise approach is frequently taken. For instance, chicken manure is often dosed based on volume (number of loader buckets) per cubic metre of horse manure in a load. How- ever, a more accurate way is to calculate the nitrogen content in kilos in the chicken manure and base the dose on that figure rather than simply dosing in kilos or m3. So instead of dosing 100 kg chicken manure per ton of horse ma- nure this is converted into 2.4 kg of ni- trogen. The amount of chicken manure added is therefore adapted according to how poor or rich in nitrogen it is. This necessities a reliable analysis of the raw materials.
There is also no such thing as a standard m3 of horse manure. Horse manure should also be corrected according to its moisture content and weight. Indicative of this is the relative density, which can vary from 200 to 400 kg/m3. The goal is actually dosing kilos of nitro- gen per kilo of dry matter in order to start the process with the correct C/N ratio. Calculating this recipe is much easier with straw-based compost.
Basic raw materials Leachate
The influence of leachate is underesti- mated, as well as being the biological
20 MUSHROOM BUSINESS
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