WATERING
No water – no mushrooms
With a track record of experience, gained mainly in watering systems in the mushroom industry, dating back 45 years, I can recall plenty of heated dis- cussions about the best way to water mushrooms. On-going advances and improvements keep this debate alive: which is the best working system
with the best results for the least possible labour input at the lowest cost? By Henk Douven, Hedonk
info@hedonk.nl
A
small review of innovations in this sector illustrates that developments haven’t stood still since the develop- ment of the well-known ‘hand-held watering rose’ in the 1950s. The introduction of the first watering tree in 1966 signalled a milestone. It was supplied with sprinkler heads mounted at various heights.
In 1971, the CNC cooperative asked the industry to develop and produce a new watering tree that would evenly distribute water over the casing soil and mushrooms on various beds at the same time. However, to avoid damaging the mushrooms, the spray had to be fine. It was also important to avoid creating a mist otherwise a film would form on the mushrooms and the casing soil, with negative effects on production. These watering trees represented the beginnings of automated proces- ses, as they alleviated the need to climb up ladders to spray each bed by hand. But not every grower embraced the development with equal enthusi-
asm. They thought that not having to ‘climb up the beds’ would mean relinquishing control over the growth process. However, the watering trees were a commercial success all over the world. At the same time, many trials with flat spray nozzles were run in cooperation with institutes including the IMAG (Dutch research centre for agriculture), but the nozzles were too sensitive to incorrect adjustment and the influence of an uneven floor height. Mild soiling or damage also resulted in an incorrect spray distribution pattern. In the mid-1980s, positive test results were achieved with systems that sprayed the entire bed from one side. This led to spray lorries that were suspended from a rail along the beds (many growers started using picking platforms using the same principle at this time) which ensured the lorry was always equidistant from the beds. Later the first self-driving automatic spray lorry was introduced – this system sprayed the left and right beds simultaneously from the central path. Other
Water distribution on the beds from one side. 14 MUSHROOM BUSINESS
Lorry for automatic watering.
Pipe watering system.
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