White button mushroom growing at home is quite affordable for beginners both for family needs and for sale. These mushrooms do not require any special skills in planting or caring. The first collection is carried out already two months after disembarkation. One “square” grows up to ten kilos of mushrooms. And so up to seven times a season not bad for a small family business.
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How to grow (White Button mushroom) champignons at Home?
If you know-how, it is really possible to grow a crop of champignons on an insulated loggia or a storage room in an apartment. All that is required is temperature and humidity control, quality seeding material, and nutrient compost. But in apartment conditions, the organization of a large-scale business is unlikely. There is not enough space for commercial breeding. Although a small income can be obtained from the “apartment” mushrooms.
If you plan to open your own business, a mushroom plantation will require a separate room and strict adherence to growing technology.
A basement, a spacious shed, or a large greenhouse that needs to be shaded is suitable for a farm. Experts recommend trying to grow mushrooms on a small plot before starting a large-scale project in order to gain experience.
What mycelium is needed button mushroom?
When choosing a mycelium, pay attention to the color of future mushrooms. They are white or brown. All shades of mushrooms have the same nutritional value and flavor, but white mushrooms are preferred for commercial cultivation. They are more familiar to buyers.
Buying mycelium button mushroom
The easiest way to grow mushrooms at home is to purchase a selection mycelium created in the laboratory. This will give a guarantee of the quality of the future harvest. Planting material can be compost and grain. In the latter case, fungal spores are planted in cereal grains. A similar seed material is sold in plastic bags. It is stored for up to six months at a temperature of 0 to 4 degrees. The grains are planted at the rate of 400 g per centner of the substrate or “square” of the garden.
The compost option is like a lump of soil. It needs to be cut by hand into pieces about 2 cm in diameter. Sold in glass jars.
At zero temperature, planting material is stored for about a year, at room temperature – a maximum of three weeks. Such material is required for half a kilo per 1 m3. It gives less germination compared to the previous version.
Growing mycelium white button mushroom at home
Champignons can be grown on the basis of wild mycelium by carefully collecting the strings of mycelium from the ground and sowing it into the substrate. Also, for selection, mushroom growers create a special environment for growing mycelium from spores. But this will require an autoclave.
How to germinate a home mycelium:
- Dissolve a liter of beer wort and 20 grams of agar agar in two liters of hot water.
- Pour into glass containers so that they are one third full and plug with cotton wool plugs.
- Install them in an autoclave unit at a slope for half an hour and process at a temperature of 100 degrees and a pressure of one and a half atmospheres.
- Wait for the substance to cool down and add spores or a piece of a mature mushroom cap.
- Keep the containers in the dark at 24 degrees until the mushroom threads entangle the substrate.
The mycelium grown in this way is planted in the same way as the compost one.
Preparing substrate or compost for White Button Mushroom (champignons)
Good growth of mushrooms requires a high-quality soil mixture. It is better to buy a ready-made substrate, but it is also created at home. Compost requires straw or wheat grains, as well as horse manure or chicken droppings. In the first case, half a centner of manure is required per centner of the cereal component, two kilos of superphosphate and urea, five kilos of ground chalk, and eight kilos of gypsum.
A similar amount of soil mixture is enough for three square meters. To fill a similar area, you will need 100 kg of straw and droppings. It will also take eight kilos of gypsum, four – alabaster, and 300 liters of water.
The composting mixture requires a separate ventilated room due to its specific odor. It is even easier to organize a “laboratory” on a house plot under a canopy.
The soil mixture is prepared as follows:
- The cereal component is soaked in a large tank.
- After a day, a layer of straw is laid out on the ground, a manure layer is placed on top. You should end up with a bunch of eight layers. Before laying, each straw layer is treated with urea and superphosphate.
- The pile is stirred every five days to activate the composting process. It takes about a month for the substrate to ripen. Readiness is revealed by a spring test: the mixture should spring slightly.
- The composition is brought by cooling or heating to 25 degrees and placed in bags or boxes, depending on the type of cultivation.
In addition to compost, it is necessary to prepare backfill soil. It will be needed after the mycelium has enveloped the compost. Usually, it is made on the basis of a sand-peat mixture, but you can use sod, sandy loam soil, and even loam. It is important that the cover soil is loose. It is sterilized from infections and sieved through a sieve for airiness.
Step-by-step Growing White Button Mushroom for beginners
Growing mushrooms requires temperature and humidity control. At the initial pores, the thermometer should show approximately 25 degrees. Two weeks later, a new temperature for growing mushrooms is set – about 18 degrees. The following describes all the points of mushroom cultivation step by step.
Beginners should be aware that mushrooms do not survive in bright sunshine. Before pecking the fruit bodies, the soil is covered with burlap or a special film. Then the cover is removed. But containers with sprouted fungi should also be darkened.
Substract mixuter
For home breeding, bags, containers, or boxes are used, mushrooms are grown in special blocks. The containers are filled with the substrate mixture so that the layer is at least five centimeters.
Planting mushrooms at home depends on the type of mycelium. If it is in grains, then it simply crumbles over the compost layer and is covered with a substrate. The thickness of the “blanket” is not less than four centimeters. The planting of compost material is carried out by analogy with plants – in holes, located staggered at a distance of a quarter of a meter.
Growing and caring White Button Mushroom
The technology for growing mushrooms involves the creation of the desired microclimate at home. It differs depending on the stage of mushroom separation:
| Stages | Time interval | Humidity (%) | Temperature (degrees C) | Coating |
| The growth of the mycelium | Two weeks | 90 | 22-27 | Paper, burlap, non-woven fabric |
| Growth of fruiting bodies | Month and a half | 65-85 | 16-18 | Sprinkle with a cover soil mixture by 3 cm. |
Moistening is carried out using a spray bottle without removing the coating at the first stage or over the soil mixture at the second. It is necessary to ventilate the room daily without creating drafts. Reducing the casing layer to a centimeter reduces the yield of mushrooms by a third.
Harvesting rules Mushroom (champignons)
Growing and harvesting champignons is not too difficult. The main thing is to have time to remove the mushrooms before the inside of the cap darkens. After that, the mushrooms become unsuitable for human consumption and must be cut and disposed of.
Ideally, fruiting bodies are harvested when the film between the stem and the cap has not burst. Such fungi are carefully twisted out of the soil, and the pits from them are covered with soil and moistened. A young mushroom will appear in this area.
where do white button mushrooms grow?
The best way to grow mushrooms is in a basement, cellar, or utility room with the ability to maintain temperature and humidity conditions. But it is possible to grow fungi in open ridges. The harvest here depends on the climate and decreases under the influence of unfavorable natural factors.
In the basement in bags
Large-scale cultivation for the sale of mushrooms at home is carried out in plastic bags. Each bag for mushrooms – at least 25 kg. They are placed on shelving shelves in a checkerboard fashion. The height and width of the packages are selected depending on the area of the shelves and the convenience of the owner.
The advantages of the method of cultivating champignons in a bag are in saving space and ease of dealing with diseases or pests. The walls of the bag do not allow the infection to spread throughout the plot, and the infected bag can simply be taken out of the basement and destroyed.
In the garden
One of the interesting, but less common methods of growing mushrooms is considered to be their cultivation in open ridges. The difficulty is that mushrooms do not survive under the scorching sun; they need a strong darkening. Also, when sowing in the garden, it is impossible to adjust the temperature and humidity.
Planting under a canopy or in the shade of large trees. The compost is applied directly to the garden soil, the bed height is about 25 cm.
Mushrooms can be planted along with shade-loving garden plants such as cucumbers or squash. A film should be stretched over the ridges. Seedlings are planted first, and only then – the mycelium.
Another way of growing on the ground is planting on an earthen cellar floor. It is better to make the beds higher – about half a meter. This method is more productive, since the mushrooms are protected from the sun in the cellar or basement, and if desired, a heater or humidifier can be installed there.
On the balcony of the house on the shelves
Balcony mushroom cultivation at home is more suitable for personal needs. But even in this case, a small income can be earned from the plot by selling the fruits of labor to friends or on the market.
In order for the mushrooms to grow well, the balcony must be insulated and waterproofed, all surfaces must be treated with antiseptics. Small containers or bags with the substrate are placed on the shelves. Fans, heaters, and humidifiers are used to maintain the desired microclimate.
In Containers
The method of breeding champignons at home is more suitable for farms than for personal needs. Although everything is decided by the size of the containers. Large flat boxes made of wood treated with antiseptic primers are used on an industrial scale.
To save space, containers are installed on racks. To increase productivity and save time on farm maintenance, they equip two rooms – in one there is the growth of mycelium, in the other – fruit bodies.
In Block way
In this case, the mushrooms are grown on the basis of the substrate pressed into blocks.
The advantages of the technique:
- saving space;
- no time and labor costs for the production of compost mixture;
- sowing of mycelium is not required – it is already introduced into the substrate.
Blocks are small – from 2.5 kg and large – 20 kg. The important point here is the choice of material. It must be of high quality. For cultivation, it is necessary to place the blocks on the shelving shelves, making several holes in the substrate, and cover them with paper or other covering material that allows moisture to pass through.
Spray regularly with a spray bottle. When the first seedlings appear, the cover is removed, and the blocks are covered with soil. Humidification is also carried out from a spray. The crop is harvested after about two months. From each 20-kilogram block, you can get at least four kilos of mushrooms from one harvest.
What diseases and pests to expect harm from during growth of White Button Mushroom?
The most common mushroom diseases are:
- Spiderweb mold. Infected mushrooms completely cover the fibers, similar to cobwebs, then the fruits darken and rot.
- Verticillosis. The legs thicken, due to which the mushroom bodies do not develop properly and look ugly.
- Mycogonosis. Sick mushrooms are covered with reddish drops with an unpleasant odor.
- Rusty spot. Champignons are covered with spots of a characteristic shade.
In most cases, pathogens enter the plot along with the soil. That is why sterilization or antiseptic treatment of the covering soil is required. Compulsory ventilation is also important, which does not allow the development of mold forms of ailments. Diseased mushrooms cannot be cured. The entire bag or box will have to be disposed of.
Of the pests, champignons are most often annoyed by springtails, ticks, woodlice, nematodes and rodents. Insects are also transferred along with the soil.
It is possible to save already planted champignons only from wood lice by spraying the ridges with sulfur-lime broth before the beginning of fruiting, as well as from rodents. The latter are hunted and caught in mousetraps. In other cases, the attacked mushrooms are destroyed along with the substrate.
Home business profitability of White Button Mushroom (champignons)
Despite the difficulties in growing mushrooms, the cultivation of champignons is profitable for sale. Material costs are not that high compared to profitability, and the growth process itself does not take much time. In two fertile months, up to seven crops are harvested every five days. The “square” of the plot yields up to 10 kg of mushrooms.
Mushroom growing as a business – the main advantages:
- crop productivity and off-seasonality;
- undemanding to the premises for the farm;
- availability of raw materials;
- no need for complex technical devices;
- fast payback.
Champignons are popular among the population. They can be distributed through markets, shops, restaurants, and not only fresh but also frozen or canned. Versatility is the essence of mushroom cultivation. Making canned mushrooms is another way to make money on an unpretentious culture.
The profitability of a champignon farm is about 40 percent. This is a fairly large indicator for the agricultural business. In the first two months, production will be unprofitable: this is the time to grow the crop. Three squares of a plot in one cycle will yield about 30 kg of mushrooms. With the cost of mushrooms at 200 rubles per kilo, the income will come out at 6 thousand rubles. With seven harvests, a novice businessman will receive 42 thousand rubles.
But deciding whether it makes sense to invest in a farm is only possible by assessing the risks. Before starting a business, make sure whether you really enjoy tinkering with the substrate and mycelium, whether you can create ideal conditions for mushrooms, prevent attacks from pests and diseases.
Opportunities for the realization of fruits are also important. The farm should be located not far from a large settlement so that it is easier to establish communication channels with buyers.
