NEGOSENTRO | Growing mushrooms have a lot of business potential because of the increasing demand for gourmet mushrooms and even the famous “chicharooms”. If you want to try this new business venture, here are some tips to help you start it out:
One mushroom you can grow for business is the straw mushroom. This mushroom variety also known as Volvariella volyacea Singer is an edible mushroom. A cheap way of growing this mushroom is through the use of rice straw or banana leaves as bedding material.
- First, you need to have a spawn. You can produce your own through a sterile culture. Or you can buy from suppliers. You also need a substrate like wood chips or straw that is cut into smaller pieces.
- The beds should not be watered in the first five days after bed preparation. During the dry season, the beds may be watered a little.
- Within 2-3 days, the color changes from white to black, then to brown, and gradually fades as the mushrooms grow larger. Some strains are dark brown or black.
- Water the beds on the 6th and 7th day after planting.
- Wait until the mushrooms are as big as pin heads before you start watering it once a day. if it is the rainy season, water the sides of the bed only.
- Harvest for button mushrooms can start 10 to 14 days after planting. This first flush lasts for 3 days. The average daily production is 1.2 kilograms.
- After 5-7 days, the second harvest starts. The yield is 0.42 kilograms every day. This could last for a month or longer.
- When harvesting mushrooms, pull it out with care from the bed. It should come out whole. Any part left behind will decay. This will result in bacterial soft rot and will affect succeeding crops.
- A standard 4 meter, six layer bed could yield up to 7 kilograms of button mushrooms. It can also yield 12.6 kilograms of matured mushrooms.
You can start your mushroom business by using this simple strategy. You can even use your own back yard to start it up. You can also grow it for your own consumption. A mushroom has many health benefits because it contains a cocktail of nutrients. It has with vitamins, minerals, chitin and protein needed by your body. it is also free of cholesterol which makes it good for the heart.
This is just one example of how you start growing mushrooms. You can also try growing different varieties for your mushroom business.
