January 20, *1921 



The Florists^ Review 



23 



yjlVf^l^^!^[XS/Jl^l^t^lJS^[^!J^[Xg/JlJS/JtVS/Jl«^ 



MUSHROOMS FOR MARKET 



I HOUGH the culture of mush- 

 rooms has been frequently 

 and thoroughly discussed in 

 these columns, yet the fol- 

 lowing instructions, culled 

 from a bulletin prepared by 

 Thos. H. White, of the 

 Maryland State College of Agriculture, 

 may shed further light on the theme. 

 And there is little danger of throwing 

 too much light on any useful subject, 

 even though in this case the subject — 

 the mushro9m — thrives best in compara- 

 tive darkness. With the reader's par- 

 don for that preliminary little play on 

 words, we shall now proceed seriously. 

 A building in which to grow mush- 

 rooms, says the bulletin, should have 

 as uniform a condition of temperature 

 and moisture as a cave in the depths 

 of the earth. Caves and abandoned 

 coal mines are often util- 

 ized for this crop. On ac- 

 count, however, of the caves 

 being generally remote from 

 a manure supply and mar- 

 ket, buildings are con- 

 structed to approximate, 

 as nearly as possible, these 

 cave-like conditions. Mush- 

 room liouses can be built of 

 any size or shape. As a 

 rule the atmospheric condi- 

 tions are more uniform in a 

 large house if it is built 

 abdx'c ground. 



the shelves. There was a hot water 

 boiler in one corner of tlie house, which 

 heated the coils of pipe, hanging on the 

 posts and walls, sufficiently to keep the 

 temperature properly modified in cold 

 weather. 



A Cave-like House. 



Another successful house was built by 

 excavating a foot of earth over a space 

 twelve feet wide and sixty feet long. 

 Posts were set in and boards were nailed 

 to them for the side walls. The earth 

 was piled against the side walls several 

 feet thick. The roof boards were mov- 

 able, so that the manure could be 

 thrown into the house at different 

 places. After the house was filled, the 

 entire structure was covered with 

 manure fresh from the city stables. In 

 this case there were no shelves. The 



Types of Houses. 



Six Successive Stages. 



One cheaply constructed 

 liouse in which the crop was 

 grown quite successfully 

 was about forty feet long, 

 twenty feet wide and six- 

 teen feet high at the eaves. 

 It was built by setting 

 posts in the ground, to 

 which runner pieces were 

 nailed. Boards were nailed 

 over this, and the whole 

 structure was covered with 

 four-ply asphalt roofing 

 miaterial. There were no 

 windows, but openings were 

 made at intervals in which 

 shutters were fitted. The 

 beds were made up on tiers of shelves 

 from the floor to the ceiling. The shelves 

 were arranged one above another, two 

 feet apart, and were five feet wide. 

 Aisles were left between the tiers of 

 shelves, so that the mushrooms could be 

 readily picked. The picking was done 

 with a pronged stick when the crop was 

 too far back to be reached by the hand. 

 The shelves were supported on posts ex- 

 tending from the floor to the roof. 

 Boards six inches wide were placed 

 along the edges of the shelves to keep 

 the manure in place. The boards on the 

 upper shelves were all movable, so that 

 they could be moved out of the way 

 when the new beds on the lower shelves 

 were made up. The manure, which was 

 prepared under a shed outside, was 

 brought in a basTcetful at a time and 

 handed up to the man on the shelf. He 

 worked on his knees, taking the manure 

 out of the basket in handfuls, placing 

 and packing it firmly six inches deep on 



Have the buildings well insulated and protected, so 

 that an even temperature of 55 degrees can be main- 

 tained. 



Pile the horse manure and mix loam with it. Tvim 

 and moisten to keep down excessive heat until the 

 whole pile has become a coffee-brown color. 



Place in the houses and put in the spawn when the 

 heat has subsided to 70 degrees. 



If each brick of spawn is broken into twelve pieces, 

 nine bricks will spawn fifty square feet. 



Hold the temperature of the house, after spawning 

 and until the mushrooms begin to appear, at 60 to 65 

 degrees. When the mushrooms appear, if the tempera- 

 ture is lowered 5 degrees, the mushrooms will grow 

 larger and the beds will produce more. 



Case the beds two weeks after spawning with an inch 

 of good loam. Straw may be used as an extra covering 

 if the beds are subject to currents of air that would 

 cause them to become dry. 



be so j)laced and be under such control 

 tliat there will be no drafts. 



Mushrooms have been known to grow 

 in a variety of materials. Fine mush- 

 rooms often a])pear voluntarily in a 

 compost of soil and cow manure, if ^;he 

 compost is put under conditions, favor- 

 able to the growth of the fungus. This 

 may be in a greenhouse or coldframc. 

 They may also bo found growing in un- 

 used horse stables where sawdust has 

 been used for bedding. It seems that 

 dead organic matter of some character 

 must be jiresent, or the fungus cannot 

 grow. The decayed roots of grass, in 

 old sod fields, seem to be favorable to 

 the growth of the mycelium when nie 

 weatlier conditions are riglit. Until th(> 

 present, however, nothing else has been 

 discoxered that is so suitable and avail- 

 able as animal manures. Of these, that 

 of the horse is the best. 

 This manure, to be entire- 

 ly suitable, should come 

 from stables where the 

 .•ininials are fed on hard 

 jijrains and hay. The bed- 

 ding should be straw and 

 well soaked with urine. 

 Any long, unsoilcd straw 

 should be taken out. Some 

 of the older growers used 

 to discard practically all of 

 the straw and use nothing 

 but th? ilrojipings. 



Materia for Beds. 



beds were made on the floor. This 

 house grew good mushrooms, but the 

 woodwork decayed rapidly. This grow- 

 er finally built a house of cement with 

 an arched roof. This was covered over 

 with soil, so that it had conditions sim- 

 ilar to those of a cave. It was found 

 necessary to put ventilators in the roof 

 of the cement house to carry otf the sur- 

 plus moisture. Ventilation did not seem 

 to be needed in the house that was cov^ 

 ered with the boards and manure. The 

 surplus moisture in all probability went 

 off through the roof. Ventilation in 

 any type of house should be arranged 

 for, so that when the beds are ferment- 

 ing any surplus vapor may pass off and 

 not condense on the walls and roof. As 

 a general rule, the air in a mushroom 

 house should be stagnant, but not sat- 

 urated with water. For this reason it 

 is necessary to provide openings that 

 will allow the air to move out and cold 

 air to enter. But these openings should 



^Manure from stables that 

 are kept only indifferently 

 clean will often produce a 

 better croi> than that from 

 stables where the soiled 

 straw is removed each day 

 and replaced with fresh. 

 Avoid maiuire from stables 

 where old hay is used for 

 bedding an<l where molasses 

 feed is used. 



When manure is ]»lacod 

 together in large piles it 

 immediately commences to 

 ferment. This fermentation 

 is needed to put the manure 

 in a projjcr condition for 

 the mushroom spawn. But 

 it must be regulated and controlled, or 

 the violent heat will destroy the ele- 

 ments needed for the mushrooms' 

 growth. To do this, it is best to pile 

 the manure under a shed so as to keep 

 off excessive rains. If the manure is 

 dry, it should be moistened. .lust 

 enough water should be used so that 

 when the manure is ready to go into 

 the mushroom house no water can be 

 S(iuoezed out, if a portion is wrung or 

 twisted tightly in the hands. After the 

 manure has been moistened and piled 

 it should be covered with three inches 

 of good soil. Soil taken from an old 

 jiasture field, and piled and rotted, is 

 the best, but if this cannot be obtained, 

 good loam from the field or garclen will 

 be suitable. If the weather is warm, 

 the pile should be examined the second 

 day after piling. If it is hot and there 

 are any particles in the center that 

 show evidence of " fire-fanging," it 

 should be turned immediatelv. Fire*. 



