Creating a business with minimal cost or quick payback is the dream of many people. For those who like to plant and harvest in their personal plots, there is a great opportunity to "grow" a profitable enterprise that provides a constant income. This is the cultivation of mushrooms as a business (at home).
Year-round business
Mushrooms are a year-round sought after product. They prepare delicious dishes and hostesses in their kitchens, and chefs in restaurants of any level. For most people, mushrooms are a tasty and healthy product for which they are willing to pay money. For others, growing champignons as a business is a source of income.
The process of running a mushroom business is not burdensome, and you can start making a profit in two months. The main thing is to determine the place and volume of the enterprise.
Mushroom business conditions
Like any profitable business, growing mushroom mushrooms as a business requires the preparation of certain conditions and calculations.
The choice of place can be determined by the following criteria:
- For year-round business you can equip a greenhouse.
- If there is a cellar, shed or basement, you can equip them for a mushroom enterprise.
- Seasonal cultivation of champignons - as a business for the spring-summer period: under fruit trees in the open ground.
The simplest of them is seasonal cultivation, as it does not require special equipment.
The benefits of mushroom
The launch of any enterprise should begin with calculations on investment, payback periods and profits. The acquisition of mycelium today is not difficult, as is the search for a market for mushrooms, therefore, the obvious advantages of this case are obvious:
- Getting the first profit in the third month after laying the mycelium.
- The possibility of obtaining a constant year-round income.
- A simple activity available even to a beginner.
- Use of any utility rooms.
The mushroom cultivation business plan should start with finding and equipping a suitable place.
Greenhouse business
Many gardeners prefer to use their greenhouses with double benefits. From September to February, they pick mushrooms in them, and then proceed to the planting of early vegetables. This approach gives maximum profit, since a higher demand for mushrooms is observed in the autumn-winter period, and for early vegetables in the spring.
Growing champignons as a business, reviews of entrepreneurs confirm this, it is better to conduct it from autumn to spring, since with the advent of vegetables the demand for mushrooms falls somewhat.
Arrangement of the greenhouse
For champignons, you can adapt an ordinary film greenhouse or tinker and build it according to the Grachev principle. Glass coatings are also suitable. The main thing is that in such rooms it will not be difficult to create the required temperature and humidity, conditions so necessary for mushrooms.
A greenhouse made of film or polycarbonate is the easiest option for the premises, so that growing champignons as a business will bring less trouble and bring more money.
Stages of arranging a greenhouse:
- First of all, you should provide the room with heat. This can be gas or electricity heating. It is also important to ensure good ventilation, since the compost on which the mushrooms grow emits carbon dioxide, and it must be removed regularly. Enterprising farmers adapted in the greenhouses for champignons to plant cucumbers, squash and pumpkin. This makes it possible to spend less time supporting the microclimate, as the plants complement each other and coexist perfectly together.
- Growing champignons as a business gives profitability quickly through the use of shelves. This Dutch method allows you to maximize the use of space, leaving space so that crops can be harvested conveniently and quickly. If it is possible to invest in containers, this will simplify the care of mushrooms. Containers can be plastic or wooden crates that are treated with an anti-mildew agent.
- Soil preparation.
In the arrangement of the greenhouse should invest money if you organize a business year-round. If you correctly draw up and implement a business plan, growing champignon mushrooms in specialized rooms provides a quick return on investment and a steady income.
Champignons in the basement
In order to minimize investment in the business, if you have a basement or cellar, you can use their area. Criteria for a suitable room:
- The best option would be a cemented floor of a high quality, to make it easier to keep clean and not to expose the mycelium to mold infection.
- In order to grow champignons as a business (reviews, photos of those who are already making a profit, this is confirmed) to provide high income and a plentiful harvest, it is better to equip the premises with shelving. They save space and allow mushrooms to be planted on each tier with different ripening periods, which puts the process on stream.
- Lighting for mushrooms is not necessary, so you can equip a light sufficient for the convenience of those who care for them and harvest.
Basement equipment for a mushroom farm
- Ventilation must be of high quality, not passing insects, for which a fine-mesh mesh is used. It is important that there are no drafts, therefore, in addition to hoods, it is appropriate to use fans above the beds or air filters.
- Growing champignons as a business also requires constant regulation of humidity and air temperature. It is necessary to equip the room with a hygrometer and a thermometer. To increase humidity, it is enough to spray the beds and the floor, and to lower it - ventilate or turn on the heating.
- If the room is large enough, then it can be divided into a zone for growing mycelium and champignon growth department, which will significantly increase productivity, and therefore profit.
- Disinfection of the premises is mandatory before starting work. This may be whitewashing lime mixed with copper sulfate, spraying with a 4% formalin solution or fumigation with a sulfur block. Mushrooms are sensitive to mold and pathogens, so you should check the yield, and diseased specimens should be stored in a separate container and destroyed.
Growing champignons as a business (feedback on how to grow from other gardeners is a confirmation of this) is a matter in which it is recommended to use any room that is not even suitable at first glance. The main thing is to protect it from drafts, heat, ventilate and protect it from pests and mold. Plants will thank the high yield.
Compost preparation
The purchase of mycelium and preparation of the nutrient medium included in the “Growing Champignon” business plan are the most important points in it. The highest yield is obtained if horse manure is used for compost. But if this is not possible, then a cow or bird droppings will do.
Ingredients for creating a substrate:
- horse dung;
- straw;
- urea;
- ammonium sulfate;
- superphosphate, chalk or alabaster.
To get good compost, you should lay everything in layers. Straw soaked during the day is laid in the lower layer, then manure, swollen straw and manure again. Such layers should be 6-8 pieces. When laying, each layer must be watered with warm water.
After 3-4 days, all layers should be mixed, add urea and superphosphate to them. After another 3-4 days, mix again and add the remaining ingredients, and so on 4-5 times, and only in the last batch gypsum is added to the nutrient medium.
Planting mycelium
After the compost has “ripened”, it is necessary to add “seeds” of champignons in it to get mycelium. For 1 m 2 of nutrient medium, 500 g of compost mycelium or 400 g of cereal spores are accounted for.
They sow the substrate, for which they make recesses with a finger at a distance of 20–25 cm, the seed is laid in them. If spores are used for inoculation, then it is enough to sprinkle a nutrient medium with them.
The air temperature for incubation of the mycelium should be +20 ... +27 degrees. When in 10-12 days the mycelium begins to grow actively, it should be sprinkled with a mixture of peat, earth and limestone in the proportions of 5: 4: 1 and periodically sprayed, not allowing the nutrient medium to dry out.
Harvesting
The farmer will be able to harvest his first crop of mushroom in 35–50 days, given that the compost ripens in 20–25 days. Depending on where the ripening occurs and how correctly prepared the medium, the yield can be either very high or mediocre.
Growing champignons as a business, reviews of experienced "mushroom pickers" confirm this - a very profitable business, since the fruiting cycle can be made year-round.
The air temperature before ripening mushrooms should be +22 ... +26 degrees. If it is hot, the champignons will climb up very quickly and will have a small hat on a long leg. Such a product will not be marketed. At a temperature of +12 degrees, the mycelium will cease to bear fruit. Therefore, as soon as the hats appear and a mushroom smell is felt, the temperature must be reduced to +15 ... +16 degrees.
Mushrooms should be picked carefully so as not to damage their base. To do this, hold the bottom of the legs and ground with the fingers of one hand, and separate the other from the mycelium with the other with a slight twist. It is necessary to harvest all the fruits, even small ones, since if you cut only large mushrooms, the rest stop growing and begin to rot.
It should be borne in mind that with the right approach, you can collect from 5 kg of champignons with 1 m2 for several cycles. Therefore, calculating the scale of the business, you should immediately think about what area to use for it.
Harvest Storage
To preserve the harvest from a large plantation, when it is difficult to manage in one day, you need to think about refrigerators in advance. Their capacity is calculated from the number of kilograms of the finished product with 1 m 2 . So, in a room of 30 m 2 it will be an average of 150 kg per day.
Picking mushrooms is a delicate process, and it does not endure haste. In addition, the harvest should be sorted by quality and size.
Before placing the mushrooms in the refrigerator, they should be slightly cooled in a room with artificially lowered temperature.
It is not recommended to fill the refrigerator with boxes of ready-to-ship products to the top, since even there mushrooms need air circulation.
If for some reason the champignon's hat is covered with brown or gray spots, and the leg is curved, it means that you need to urgently remove the diseased mushroom from the mycelium along with its nearby "relatives". The lesion should be sprinkled with salt. If you do not take these measures, then you can infect the entire plantation, and you have to start the business again.
If a disease is detected, it is required to find the source and render it harmless. This can be caused by mold, which is easily eliminated. It is advisable to burn rotten mushrooms, and then thoroughly sanitize clothes and hands.
In no case should you use chemical preparations or poisons from pests. After their use, champignons will become hazardous to health and subject to destruction. Better to lose mycelium or more than risk someone else's life.
Mushrooms are not too capricious, so it is enough to carefully check the ventilation, the absence of mold and insects to get a thriving and profitable business.