You Can Grow Your Own Mushrooms

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If you add straw to the manure, break open the bales and wet it thoroughly. This should be done several days before mixing the straw with the manure to provide ample time for water to soak into the straw. One part straw to one part manure will yield a fine compost.

If possible, prepare the compost stack under roof on a concrete floor. Rain passing through the stack will remove the composting organisms and leach away the nutrients, while further depletion of the nutrients will result from the activities of insects and roundworms which can enter from the soil below.

Also, never build the pile between solid board walls or in the corner of a shed or garage. Because of the reduced contact with air and oxygenless conditions, aerobic bacteria can no longer thrive.

While building the stack, sprinkle in about 20 pounds of gypsum per half-ton of manure. The gypsum (calcium sulfate) adds a source of calcium to the compost, making it available to the mushrooms, and also guarding against a sticky or slimy compost.

After the compost is stacked in a heap, place a long-stemmed thermometer in the pile and check it each day. When the temperature reaches 140 degrees, caramelization takes place. This is a chemical change that induces additional bacterial types to reproduce, forcing the temperature to go as high as 160 to 170 degrees. When caramelization occurs, you will notice the pile turning a rich brown color and the straw breaking into short pieces.

The pile should be turned every five or six days. At each turning it is important that the heap be literally turned inside out and upside down; the inside goes to the outside, the outside goes inside, the bottom of the pile goes on top, and the top goes on the bottom. This is quite a chore but if you completely change the makeup of the pile, the bacteria are restimulated to attack material that is yet to be converted into usable food. If parts of the stack appear dry, water should be added to ensure a saturated condition throughout, since bacteria will not function in dry areas.

Also, if the compost has a sticky texture, throw in a little more gypsum when turning the heap.

SETTING UP THE TRAYS

Have the trays sitting up on something-bricks, blocks of wood, or the like -in such a manner that air can circulate under them. If the trays are sitting in a row, two long 2 X 4's work nicely to keep the boxes off the floor. Put a preservative on any wood that is used since it is in contact with moisture nearly continuously. But it is important that you do not put preservative on surfaces that come in contact with the compost, such as the inside of the trays.

PEST AND DISEASE CONTROL

After the trays are filled with compost (to within 1-1/2 or 2 inches of the top when packed down), most growers insist on a final heating of the entire mushroom house and its contents. They heat the area to 140 degrees for four hours so even the organisms in the nooks and crannies are destroyed. This process is called pasteurization.

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