Champignon is a popular, healthy and tasty product. Despite their price, chases do not lie on shelves in the store. This type of mushroom is grown on an industrial scale, and recently it has become fashionable to grow champignons at home.
This type of product contains many useful substances: glucose, carbohydrates, vitamins, easily digestible fats, as well as amino acids. Mushrooms can be cooked, fried, pickled and baked. This variety has excellent taste and is an excellent alternative to meat.
Champignons in nature
The process of growing champignons at home is simple, it can be mastered by anyone who wants to grow healthy and tasty mushrooms. The simplicity of leaving and growing is connected with the fact that this type of mushroom grows in nature everywhere: on the edges, in meadows, in the lowlands, in forests - in those places where the soil moisture is sufficient for plant growth and development.
When growing champignons at home, they can be cultivated in the garden, in the garden, in the basement, greenhouse, in the garage, in the cellar. Mushrooms grow well where the air temperature does not rise above twenty degrees, and the humidity level is at least eighty percent. Lighting has no role in mushroom cultivation.
Preparing for growing at home
For the successful cultivation of mushrooms at home, it is necessary to carry out preliminary preparation for this process. It consists of the following steps:
- Choosing a place where mushrooms will be grown.
- Disinfection of the premises.
- Creating an optimal microclimate.
- Preparation of soil for growing mushrooms.
- Choice of champignon varieties.
- Planting mycelium.
- Care, harvesting.
With proper organization of the place, mushrooms can be harvested year round. The most difficult thing is to properly prepare a place for growing, and the process itself is very simple.
Currently, there are about fifty varieties of champignons that have slight differences in appearance. They differ in the color of the cap, its structure, as well as the duration of storage of the product.
Growing options
There are several ways to grow champignons at home. For beginners, it’s important to decide exactly how the method fits more:
- Growing in the beds. This technology is considered the simplest and ideal for personal use, but not for business. This method has a drawback: when infected with a substrate, it will have to be completely changed, which is not very convenient.
- Growing in bags or in boxes. These types of growing technologies have great advantages. If a disease is detected, you can remove the box or bag with contaminated soil. Also, this method allows you to rationally use the area. The disadvantages include only the need to manually fill the bags with a substrate, which is inconvenient for large-scale cultivation.
You can grow mushrooms in the basement, in the greenhouse, in the summer cottages or in your own private house. Some practice mushroom cultivation in an apartment. Any room selected must have good ventilation.
Basement cultivation
Before proceeding with the cultivation of champignon mushrooms at home, it is necessary to determine the variety. It is best to choose high-yielding mycelia, such as "Silvan 130", "Hauser A15". They are unpretentious and very "prolific."
In order for the mushrooms to grow, they need to provide an influx of fresh air. Champignons emit carbon dioxide, and with its high concentration, the plant begins to stretch, the mushroom leg lengthens.
Experienced mushroom growers when growing champignons at home for beginners recommend disinfecting the room. For the cultivation of mushrooms, it is necessary to maintain a sufficiently high level of humidity, and this leads to the appearance of mold, fungal diseases on the walls, floors, ceiling of the room. To avoid this, decontamination and processing of the basement are mandatory.
Room processing
Having decided to grow champignon mushrooms at home, you need to take care of their quality and carry out preventive work to disinfect the room. This can be done in many ways:
- The most popular processing method is using whitewash. All walls and ceiling are treated with whitewash with the addition of copper sulfate. To prepare the mixture, you need to dilute two kilograms of lime in a bucket of water and add one hundred grams of copper sulfate. Ready-made tool whitewash ceilings, walls. When working with this drug, be sure to use protective equipment.
- Another method involves the use of 400 grams of bleach diluted in a bucket of water. By irrigation, the composition is applied to the walls and ceiling.
- It is possible to treat walls and other surfaces with 4% Formalin.
- Sulfur checker disinfects the room well, but it is not always possible to use it in the basement.
After processing, the room is well ventilated.
Ventilation system
The technology for growing champignon mushrooms at home provides for good ventilation. When organizing it, it should be borne in mind that insects can try to enter the room through ventilation pipes. Therefore, it is better to close the shower heads with a grid. If you plan to create a business, then the ventilation system should be equipped with fans. If possible, air purifiers are installed with replaceable filters.
Additional equipment
When growing champignons at home in bags or in boxes, it is necessary to additionally equip the room with a hygrometer, a thermometer. If you plan to grow mushrooms year-round, then the basement should be heated.
During cultivation in the hot season, the plants are sprayed with water from a spray bottle, and with excess moisture, the room is ventilated.
In the basement or other room where mushrooms will be grown, dim light is sufficient. This distinguishing feature distinguishes this species of plants from growing those in which vegetation is not possible without sufficient light.
Room Zoning
Modern technology for growing champignons at home involves dividing the room into zones. One is used to generate mushrooms. A special substrate is used here, along which the mycelium grows. In the second zone, boxes or bags of mushrooms are placed, where they are distilled.
In different zones, the temperature is kept different. For incubation, a temperature of about 24 degrees is necessary, and for the growth of mushrooms, no higher than eighteen.
Growing substrate
One of the important points in successful mushroom growing is the preparation of the substrate. The quality of the grown products depends on the correctness of the prepared substrate.
Usually on the packaging of mycelium, manufacturers indicate what quality the substrate should be and how to prepare it. For the cultivation of different varieties, it differs slightly, but in general there are no significant differences.
To prepare the soil, take compost and keep it for a month in a well-ventilated place without direct sunlight. The compost itself should be moderately moist, as excess moisture can disrupt the fermentation process.
It is best to cook compost under a canopy so that all emitted substances can weather. About the readiness of compost says the lack of smell of ammonia.
During cooking, a little lime is added to the soil and everything is mixed. Superphosphate fertilizer must be added according to the instructions on the package.
The finished substrate should be loose, it should not stick to the hands. A rotting scrap should easily disintegrate in the hands. In garden shops, you can buy ready-made compost for growing mushrooms, but it will not have all the qualities of self-prepared soil.
Compost composition may be as follows:
- Horse manure (100 kg), straw (100 kg).
- Urea or nitrate (2 kg).
- Chalk (5 kg).
- Superphosphate (2 kg).
For the preparation of the soil, fresh manure is used, while it contains a lot of nutrients. The remaining ingredients are added to it in the indicated proportions. Sawdust, coniferous wood shavings should not be allowed to enter the substrate, since they emit tar, which has a detrimental effect on mushrooms.
Straw must be soaked in hot water for a day before use. For this, any wide container where the grass is placed is suitable. After soaking, the straw is laid in layers, alternating with manure. The result should be about five layers. Each layer is moistened with hot water, but it is impossible to moisten profusely.
After three days, the composition turns over. At this point, phosphate fertilizers and urea are added. After four days, the composition is again mixed, the remaining elements are introduced into it.
After the compost has ripened, it is placed in bags or boxes for growing mushrooms.
Planting mycelium
To grow champignon mycelium at home, you must:
- Get so much mycelium that it was enough for planting. So, for one square meter of compost you will need 500 grams of mycelium or four hundred grams of varietal spores.
- When using mycelium, it is necessary to spread it evenly throughout the container with the soil. The distance between it is maintained at least 20 centimeters. For planting, small depressions are made in the substrate, measuring 5x5 cm. Mycelium is laid in these pits. When using spores, they are evenly scattered over the surface of the substrate.
- After some time (after about two weeks), cobwebs covering the container with soil will be visible on the surface. By this time, air humidity should be at or below 80%. So that the soil does not dry out, it can be irrigated from the spray gun. With a small landing area, the boxes can be covered with glass or film. The growth of mycelium occurs at a temperature not lower than 24 degrees.
- The overgrown mushroom is sprinkled with a five-centimeter layer of compost. After three days, the container is transferred to where the mushrooms will be grown or the temperature is lowered to fifteen degrees.
For adding use soil prepared from one part of limestone, five parts of peat and four - ordinary earth. The first crop can be harvested in a couple of months.
From one mycelium, the crop can be harvested about eight times.
Mushrooms are harvested by twisting to prevent infection from entering the mycelium. After the first harvest, the box is again sprinkled with peat mixture.
Growing mushrooms in the beds
It is unlikely that it will be possible to make a business in growing champignon mushrooms at home in the open field, but getting a lot of delicious mushrooms for the table is quite an understandable task.
For cultivation, a shaded place is selected, moderately moist. In the selected area, the soil should not dry out, and the sun should not illuminate the beds. In the heat, you can cover the mushrooms with covering material to create the optimal microclimate.
When growing on open ground, after germination of the mycelium, it is necessary to sprinkle cobwebs with a layer of soil.
The simplest cultivation of mushrooms at home in the open field is suitable only for spring and autumn. At this time, a favorable temperature for the active growth of fungi, and rains will help to create the desired level of humidity. With this method of cultivation, after about a month and a half, the first crop can be harvested.
Cultivation in the country
Any method of growing champignons at home must adhere to cultivation technology. On it, spores or mycelium are best planted in pre-prepared soil. Some mushroom growers specially import soil from the forest for these purposes.
The selected substrate is fertilized, moistened. It should not have large fractions, residues of roots. When planting mycelium in open ground, it is important to observe the distance between the fungi. It should be at least twenty centimeters. The pits themselves are made shallow - about five centimeters. After the growth of the cobweb, it is important to sprinkle with a five-centimeter layer of soil mycelium.
According to reviews, growing champignons at home requires additional watering. This is done by irrigation. After harvesting the first crop, watering is reduced so that the roots do not rot.
As soon as all the waves of mushrooms are collected, the substrate is disposed of. It can be used as mulch for trees. Re-apply the soil for growing the next batch is impossible. All used containers must be decontaminated, and the premises are also treated.
A business such as growing champignons at home can be organized only if there is enough space, because you need to not only grow mycelium separately, but also create special conditions for the growth of fungi. Also, after harvesting, it is necessary to process the premises, which means that the entire mushroom plantation will have to be removed to another place. Therefore, if you want to start your mushroom business, you should take care of the room. Some process the premises twice a year - in spring and autumn. At this time, the mushrooms and mycelium are placed in the greenhouse, and after full ventilation of the basement, they are brought back.
Reviews of experienced mushroom growers
There are many different things that mushroom growers had to face. According to reviews, growing champignon is more difficult than oyster mushrooms. For this type of mushroom, it is necessary to create optimal conditions: ventilation, an irrigation system, and automatic watering are needed.
Do not grow mushrooms in the basement of wooden houses. There are sad experiences and reviews that say that this type of business has caused the wood of the house to become infected with fungal infections, although the premises were processed.
Those who grow mushrooms in concrete structures rarely encounter fungal diseases. Basically, all plants are smooth, beautiful, healthy and very tasty.
Growing champignons for beginners is understandable, the main thing is to follow the process and take into account the advice of experienced mushroom growers. But, as they say, experience comes over the years. Knowing the basics, everyone will decide for himself how best to grow mushrooms. A grown first crop will delight both you and your loved ones, and maybe bring a good income.