CULTIVATIONTIPS DLV PLANT MUSHROOMS Instructions for pickers
By Erik Polman, DLV Plant Mushrooms
e.polman@dlvplant.nl
Picking mushrooms is not all that diffi cult. The fi nancial returns actually achieved by mushroom picking can, however, widely diff er. Depending on the picking equipment and the customers’ wishes, how the mushrooms are harvested can have a positive infl uence on the profi ts, but costly mistakes can also be made during harvesting. Clearly instructing the pickers can go a long way towards preventing problems. If you show the photo here to a number of pickers and ask how many mushrooms should be picked, you will get various answers. What really counts is when the next harvest is planned. In other words; will the beds be picked again in two hours, or the following day? If the answer is two hours, then picking three to fi ve mushrooms is enough– however if the answer is tomorrow, this fi gure could rise to as many as 50 mushrooms. This partly depends on the (compost) temperature and how highly in demand a certain grade is – information that pickers are often unaware of. So clearly explaining and giving instructions pre-harvest is very important. Picking the beds several times a day is now common on many farms. Whether this is feasible in practice depends on the harvesting equipment, particularly the type of picking lorries used. With fully automatic lorries with a settable speed it is possible to graze pick the beds up to six times a day in a full day’s picking. The advantage is that often only one or two diff erent grades need harvesting at the same time. As well as a higher picking performance, this system automatically leads to greater uniformity. This fact alone will soon recoup the investment made in picking lorries. But good supervision of staff is also crucial to increase profi ts using these tools.
CO2 levels and bandwidth The currently
available information on energy saving and sustainable technical developments is being presented to growers in a series of eight articles and tips. This project has been commissioned and funded by the Steering Committee Clean & Effi cient Mushroom Growing (LTO Vakgroep Paddenstoelen, PT, Ministry of Economic Aff airs,
RVO.nl and mushroom growers). This is the last tip in this series.
In summer, as soon as the heat and moisture content of the outside air rises above that of the growing room air, the outside air will introduce extra heat and moisture, which requires extra cooling. In this type of situation, it is better to increase the CO2, so that less outside air is drawn in and therefore less cooling is required. During periods when the outside air is suitable – e.g. at night - more outside air can be used again by lowering the CO2, which means you can get by with less cooling. In winter, outside air can always be used, but a higher CO2 here can also result in savings on heating and humidifying. The majority of computer control systems have a setting that indicates the suitability of outside air for use in the growing room. Correctly setting this value has an important infl uence on the potential energy savings for cooling. It is also important that equipment used to measure values outside – and inside - the growing room is well-maintained and shows the correct readings. The system will automati- cally increase or decrease the CO2 based on the suitability of the outside air depending on the growing room RH. Selecting the right CO2 limits mainly depends on the season – lower CO2 limits in summer, higher CO2 limits in winter. Choosing the right CO2 bandwidth is mainly dictated by the phase of cultivation. During pin heading the CO2 value is more important and tighter bandwidths, of approximately 200 to 400 ppm, are generally used in practice. When the pins are developing, evaporation is the most important factor and wider bandwidths of approximately 600 to 800 ppm are applied. The wider the bandwidth, the greater the CO2 can fl uctuate, but the air inlet can respond better to the required RH so that the correct RH level can be achieved using less energy.
By Jan Gielen, DLV Plant Mushrooms Manager / Specialist Climate & Energy
j.gielen@
dlvplant.nl
42 MUSHROOM BUSINESS
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