The senior and junior generation of the Willems family - the driving force behind Wilke B.V.
third flush,” says Sjaak. His son Wilko works with him but is not about to take over the reins yet. Sjaak is 63 and still has a huge passion for mushroom growing. Stopping work in the short term is not on his agenda. When he does get round to having more spare time in the future, he plans to intensify his existing international connections and travelling to South-East Asia is on his to-do list.
Cultivation
Sjaak works with an over-pressure system but has exhaust fans in the outlets. The pressure in the growing rooms is measured continually and can be used as the basis for control. Normally, there is overpressure in the growing room, but when the rooms are being filled and are sensitive to infection, the overpressure system is converted into an underpressure system to prevent pathogens and spores entering during filling activities. The outlets on the roof of the building bend at a 45-degree angle to reduce the influence of the wind on the fresh air intake. The duct on the left of the room starts blowing in air at the front of the room, while the duct on the right starts introducing air at the back. The air from the right hand duct is directed to the
back of the room through an unperforated film duct via the central path in the growing room. This distributes the air vertically as well as a slightly horizontally. To further improve air distribution, the space below the lower bed has been increased, from a standard 25 cm to 40 cm and the headroom above the seventh bed has been kept as small as possible, but large enough for harvesting. The air movement pattern is so good that Sjaak does not use perforated film along the bottom and second bed. He applies a temperature of 15°C to allow the mushrooms in the first flush to grow slowly.
Five characteristics of the entrepreneur from a list of 30
• Enthusiastic • Reliable • Financial insight • Stubborn • Taking on responsibility
MUSHROOM BUSINESS 29
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