We were advised to use our pond water, due top chlorine in the city water.
Are you selling what you produce?
Heard of a cooling mist system available the tempatures seem to have a lot to do with production.
I think we were lucky in having an area that ha been ignored by the big guys. It's enouhg for us.
I saw the photo of a fan with a mist system does that work pretty good?
7
Mushroom Farming
Started by ray23, 2012-05-08 10:30
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99 replies to this topic
#77
finnomick1
Senior Member Posted 2012-05-21 19:26:32
We were advised to use our pond water, due top chlorine in the city water. Are you selling what you produce? Heard of a cooling mist system available the tempatures seem to have a lot to do with production. I think we were lucky in having an area that ha been ignored by the big guys. It's enouhg for us. I saw the photo of a fan with a mist system does that work pretty good? Ray, pond water is definately better than city water. We have pond water and ' rural ' water which comes fom the huge lake in the village. It is treated but not maybe as treated as city water. We use bith with no detramental affect. We can sell everything we produce no matter the quantity or quality. Our mushrooms are graded into three lots. Perfect mushrooms, over mushrooms and small mushrooms but regardless of amount, they all go just the price differs. Our biggest harvest in one day was around 120kgs. It took all day to get ready because all mushrooms sold have to be ' cleaned '. This particular day we started picking and ' cleaning ' at 6:30am. It was 7pm before we loaded up. Towards the evening, we had 28 people sat ' cleaning ' the mushrooms before we took them to the agent. Unlike your type of mushrooms, ours thrive on heat. We can't use the misting fans because our mushrooms grow on shelves ( and under the shelves ). We have four shelves on each side of the houses, each shelf is about a metre wide and 6 metres long so our grow beds per house ( of which we have 3 ), are about 48 square metres and then there's the undersides too giving a theoretical growing area of 96 square metres per house. We emptied out our shelves 4 days ago. This growing medium makes some of the best compost and we have a queue of people waiting for it so it goes from the shelves straight into trucks or pickups. We sell the growing medium for 1500 baht and whoever wants it has to pay for the labour too. We sometimes use it on our sugarcane too with good effect. The new mansampalang/casava was delivered last friday, mixed and covered to ferment a bit. We'll be putting this on the shelves this thursday ( what fun ). This will then be left for a few days before we ( read I ) have to steam the houses prior to putting in the new spores and hopefully another bumper crop. Total achieved for the last growing period including selling the growing medium was 28000 baht. #78
Petey
Advanced Member Posted 2012-05-22 11:34:34
We've been growing mushrooms for three years in Chiang Mai including oyster (nang fa), abalone (bao heu), and japanese (yee-poon). We make our own growing medium from sawdust, gypsum, rice bran, calcium, lime, sugar, and epsom salt. This is considered a good recipe for a variety of different mushrooms. Some growers who produce only one variety like nang fa may cut out a few ingredients to save costs. After packing the medium into bags, compressing, sterilizing and inoculating with spores we sell them for 7 baht apiece or put them in our four barns for harvesting. We reckon our production cost per bag is 4 baht. My wife says that those who seem to make the best profit from mushrooms are those who prepare their own growing medium. The quality of sawdust is a big factor. The first year we used rubber tree sawdust, said to be the best, but lately have been using sawdust from Jampa trees, to save costs, and have seen a real decline in yield.
Local wholesale prices are 35/kg. In the market the price is 60-70/kg. However the prices will drop soon as the markets become flooded with wild mushrooms over the next couple of months. Our first year was a banner year, there were some months when we earned 20+K/month selling wholesale at 35baht/kg. Lately however the income is between 5-10K. We've had problems with green mold and with infestation by very small insects and have been battling these problems in a variety of ways. We have had to strip a couple of the barns of their black netting and let the bamboo frames sit exposed to the sun for a few months. This seems to help but its not long before the insects return. Perhaps its because we live in a forested area. It seems that many other mushroom farmers have the same experience: a great first year and then problems start to crop up. Many then become discouraged and give up. We tried spraying the barns with a brew made from a bacteria called mytophagus to remove the insects but it didn't work for us. One person suggested that we use phosphene gas inside our growing barns to kill the insects which we suspect have bored into the bamboo frames. We're reluctant to do this because of the danger to the chickens and ducks who wander around and between the barns. Has anyone else been faced with this insect problem? During the hot season we covered one of the barns in anti-UV plastic sheeting and put black netting on top of that, to increase the humidity and ran sprinklers suspended from above a few times a day. It worked and the mushrooms were nice and plump. Very hot though, over 35 degrees, but the mushrooms (white oysters) didn't seem to mind. It seems to be important in these conditions to blow fresh air through the barn before waterings to replace the carbon dioxide with oxygen. We use only well water when watering the plants. Yields vary widely even in the rainy season. It can be very puzzling. To reach and maintain a steady production takes a lot of trial and error, and we are not there yet but are determined to figure it out. Growing mushrooms is definitely both an art and a science. #79
necronx99
. Posted 2012-05-22 11:49:28
We've been growing mushrooms for three years in Chiang Mai including oyster (nang fa), abalone (bao heu), and japanese (yee-poon). We make our own growing medium from sawdust, gypsum, rice bran, calcium, lime, sugar, and epsom salt. This is considered a good recipe for a variety of different mushrooms. Some growers who produce only one variety like nang fa may cut out a few ingredients to save costs. After packing the medium into bags, compressing, sterilizing and inoculating with spores we sell them for 7 baht apiece or put them in our four barns for harvesting. We reckon our production cost per bag is 4 baht. My wife says that those who seem to make the best profit from mushrooms are those who prepare their own growing medium. The quality of sawdust is a big factor. The first year we used rubber tree sawdust, said to be the best, but lately have been using sawdust from Jampa trees, to save costs, and have seen a real decline in yield. Local wholesale prices are 35/kg. In the market the price is 60-70/kg. However the prices will drop soon as the markets become flooded with wild mushrooms over the next couple of months. Our first year was a banner year, there were some months when we earned 20+K/month selling wholesale at 35baht/kg. Lately however the income is between 5-10K. We've had problems with green mold and with infestation by very small insects and have been battling these problems in a variety of ways. We have had to strip a couple of the barns of their black netting and let the bamboo frames sit exposed to the sun for a few months. This seems to help but its not long before the insects return. Perhaps its because we live in a forested area. It seems that many other mushroom farmers have the same experience: a great first year and then problems start to crop up. Many then become discouraged and give up. We tried spraying the barns with a brew made from a bacteria called mytophagus to remove the insects but it didn't work for us. One person suggested that we use phosphene gas inside our growing barns to kill the insects which we suspect have bored into the bamboo frames. We're reluctant to do this because of the danger to the chickens and ducks who wander around and between the barns. Has anyone else been faced with this insect problem? During the hot season we covered one of the barns in anti-UV plastic sheeting and put black netting on top of that, to increase the humidity and ran sprinklers suspended from above a few times a day. It worked and the mushrooms were nice and plump. Very hot though, over 35 degrees, but the mushrooms (white oysters) didn't seem to mind. It seems to be important in these conditions to blow fresh air through the barn before waterings to replace the carbon dioxide with oxygen. We use only well water when watering the plants. Yields vary widely even in the rainy season. It can be very puzzling. To reach and maintain a steady production takes a lot of trial and error, and we are not there yet but are determined to figure it out. Growing mushrooms is definitely both an art and a science. Why not build the barn with poly tube PVC? #80
Petey
Advanced Member Posted 2012-05-22 13:48:20
Why not build the barn with poly tube PVC? That's an interesting idea, actually. I hadn't considered it I suppose because I haven't seen any buildings that size (10m X 6M) framed with PVC but I suppose it should work and be more cost effective than bamboo in the long run. Thanks for the suggestion. #81
ray23
Platinum Member Posted 2012-05-22 17:46:45
What variety actually thrives in the heat?
I was impressed by what I saw of the fan system. Of course you can't find anything like that around so I made myself two today, They get installed tomorrow. We will run them until the cool weather hits or when it rains and we get tempature drop. So the big experiment is on. I also believe you would be better off doing your own spores. But, finding all that would be needed diesn;t seem likley here. How do you get saw dust? I really need to go watch the process someday. Man that is a lot of mushrooms, we are not required to clean ours. But, even just picking would be a huge operation. I believe we can really establish ourselves if we can grow in this heat. As no one esle is, so worth a shot. Hardly no effort involved in selling our 19 Kilo day. That was encouraging. Right now we have 2.000 plants and room enough for another 1,000. When your talking about 3,000 plants big difference between 4 baht and 9 So far we haven't ran into a bug problem. But, keep in mind we don't a have full season in yet. If the wife could average 20 kilos day that would be a good living for her in the future. In the mean time, I'm enjoying the tinkering. #82
rice555
Senior Member Posted 2012-05-23 01:40:59
Hello All, this is from last years Ag Show in Korat.
rice555 Attached Files
#83
finnomick1
Senior Member Posted 2012-05-23 08:34:02
Hello All, this is from last years Ag Show in Korat. rice555 The cloche ( tent ) in the foreground is a much smaller version of what a lot of rice farmers do when the fields are empty. They bend bamboo's then stretch a plastic sheet over them. lay straw on the ground then put the spores ( straw mushrooms ) onto the straw, water and wait. This is a very simple, cheap and ( unfortunately for us ) effective way to grow our type of mushrooms. Why ? It brings the market price down ! #84
finnomick1
Senior Member Posted 2012-05-23 08:36:18
Hello All, this is from last years Ag Show in Korat. rice555 Rice, is this show an annual event ? And, do they hold it at the same time each year ? We'd be interested in going along for a look. #85
rice555
Senior Member Posted 2012-05-23 13:52:41
Hello All, next show is 2013.
rice555 #86
tingtong
Senior Member Posted 2012-05-23 14:13:23
Hello All, next show is 2013. rice555 too bad, i would also like to check it out, but then waiting it is. #87
ray23
Platinum Member Posted 2012-05-23 18:33:17  Well there the puppy is works fine I have replace the heads acts more like a sprinkler then a mister. As luck would have it raining rigth now. I left the fans on to pull in as much cool air as possible. #88
finnomick1
Senior Member Posted 2012-05-23 19:57:08
Petey,
we had a huge problem with a fungal growth -- this was at the end of December going into January. We were lucky in that we broke even that time, others made a loss. Everyone in our whole area was affected and nothing would stop it from spreading. It was everywhere, the shelves and even the ground. Even the very experienced agent said they had not seen this before. We stripped everything out of the houses and opened up the tents to let everything dry out. We've got a pressure washer, so this was the next stage, then dried it all out again. It didn't appear again during this last batch, so we're keeping everything crossed it was a one off. #89
ray23
Platinum Member Posted 2012-05-24 11:08:08
Petey, we had a huge problem with a fungal growth -- this was at the end of December going into January. We were lucky in that we broke even that time, others made a loss. Everyone in our whole area was affected and nothing would stop it from spreading. It was everywhere, the shelves and even the ground. Even the very experienced agent said they had not seen this before. We stripped everything out of the houses and opened up the tents to let everything dry out. We've got a pressure washer, so this was the next stage, then dried it all out again. It didn't appear again during this last batch, so we're keeping everything crossed it was a one off. #90
ray23
Platinum Member Posted 2012-05-24 17:42:47
Well there the puppy is works fine I have replace the heads acts more like a sprinkler then a mister. As luck would have it raining rigth now. I left the fans on to pull in as much cool air as possible. Problem I'm having is finding actual mist nozzles, I went to global got the smallest they have. Even that turns out to be for a irrigation drip sysytem. I;m probaly going to have to make one myself. http://www.google.co...biw=989&bih=608 I would really like one of these. Cances of getting that in Thailand would be pretty slim I would think. But, it would be perfect fro the job. #91
finnomick1
Senior Member Posted 2012-05-24 20:43:15
Petey, we had a huge problem with a fungal growth -- this was at the end of December going into January. We were lucky in that we broke even that time, others made a loss. Everyone in our whole area was affected and nothing would stop it from spreading. It was everywhere, the shelves and even the ground. Even the very experienced agent said they had not seen this before. We stripped everything out of the houses and opened up the tents to let everything dry out. We've got a pressure washer, so this was the next stage, then dried it all out again. It didn't appear again during this last batch, so we're keeping everything crossed it was a one off. Unfortunately not. The mushrooms would grow up through the ' carpet ' of fungus, but then just turn to mush. #92
cobbler
Advanced Member Posted 2012-05-25 09:06:25
Well here she be, nothing fancy about it, we are building a secomnd which is a bit wider  Mushrooms stacked 1150 of them and we still have one empty shelve in the building  My wife doing her thing  The product note the dirt floor  There are several spore suppliers arounf Udon.  ?Cheers Cobbler #93
cobbler
Advanced Member Posted 2012-05-25 09:19:07
Interesting pics Ray. I'd be interested in the result of who's mushrooms actually nett more over a given period. Your whole set-up is very different to ours and your costs are one heck of a lot less. Having said that, our yield would appear to be far greater -- the most mushrooms produced and sold in one single day was 131kg but I can assure you this was a one-off. We are on day 16 of the current batch and so far we have sold 25,000 baht's worth which is about average. The misses reckons we've got maybe 2 or 3 days left before the growing medium ( I call it rocket fuel ) runs out of power then we have to start the whole process again. We'd love to find our own ' market ' because at the moment, we sell to the agent. They sell to the driver who delivers them to Bangkok EVERY night of the year. She sells them to the market, they sell them etc., etc so we are about 5th or 6th in the chain. yesterday the price dropped 5 baht to 55 baht per kilo, but I noticed in Big C Buriram today that our mushrooms would cost you 193 baht per kilo on the shelf. A big difference, but then I really don't want the hassle of driving to Bangkok every night. Sorry, I don't have any info about producing the spores but I know it involves steaming etc #94
cobbler
Advanced Member Posted 2012-05-25 09:55:57
Well I bought a 500 baht sprayer and wil give that a try. However looks like we will be seeing some rain, thus cooler weather. That will increase production, so it might be a while before I know if it works and worth a mist system. The stuff I;m growing we grew in our storage shed last year. Bathroom will work, just remember yuo have to kep it dark as much a possible. Where you would find them in Bangkok, I have no idea, Cheers Cobbler #95
ray23
Platinum Member Posted 2012-05-25 13:23:05
Snakes haven't seen any yet.
Actually on sales we can't keep up with demand thus far. #96
ray23
Platinum Member Posted 2012-05-25 13:33:32
Petey, we had a huge problem with a fungal growth -- this was at the end of December going into January. We were lucky in that we broke even that time, others made a loss. Everyone in our whole area was affected and nothing would stop it from spreading. It was everywhere, the shelves and even the ground. Even the very experienced agent said they had not seen this before. We stripped everything out of the houses and opened up the tents to let everything dry out. We've got a pressure washer, so this was the next stage, then dried it all out again. It didn't appear again during this last batch, so we're keeping everything crossed it was a one off. Unfortunately not. The mushrooms would grow up through the ' carpet ' of fungus, but then just turn to mush. Something to watch for thanks #97
ray23
Platinum Member Posted 2012-05-25 16:54:34  Sometimes the simple answer is best. A piece of garden hose with 1/100 inch holes drilled in it. Works fine at low pressures #98
finnomick1
Senior Member Posted 2012-05-25 19:24:46
Snakes haven't seen any yet. Actually on sales we can't keep up with demand thus far. Lucky you -- 4 inside the mushroom houses in 21 months -- that we've seen. The last one was wrapped around one of the cross bamboos at the misses's head level. Only a frog snake but they still bite. Unfortunately the mushroom houses are very close to the ponds... #99
ray23
Platinum Member Posted 2012-05-25 19:44:14
Whne I get that much time in I'm sure I will have seen a few as well.
#100
ray23
Platinum Member Posted A minute ago
You just got to love Thailand, now that I have sit up the mister system. Wife did some research in Thai that says not to put fans in a mushroom house. To bad she didn't research it before I did all the work.
Anybody got any exerience with mister systems? We are not running a dry fan on the mushrooms, so what she found might be correct and it might not be. Time for some Google work. |
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