AMYCEL held a farm walk recently on the topic of ‘growing on Dutch shelving’. The farm walk was held on Ashfield farm Castleblaney, Co. Monaghan.
The highly experienced John de Gier (formerly of Horst) led the proceedings. The walk was well attended by shelf growers all who participated in the varied discussions held.
Ashfield farm is a nine-house unit run by the Boyd family. Seamus and Maura Boyd originally established it. Later their son Paul Boyd became involved and today looks after the growing on the unit. Ronan Boyd is also involved.
Earlier this year the Boyd’s converted their farm to Dutch shelving. The following is a copy of the proceedings of the farm walk.
Minutes of AMYCEL Farm walk on Ashfield farm 30th August 2001 The farm walk was conducted by John De Gier on the topic of growing on Dutch Shelving.
Phase 3. John discussed some aspects of phase 3. He said that phase 3 compost was more active than phase 2 compost. If the ‘spawn run’ time is too short in phase 3 it can cause problems with controlling the activity. In general therefore in Holland phase 3 producers have moved from 14-day spawn runs to 15/16-day spawn runs. In general terms diseases are less, crop cycle time is down and more mushrooms are produced with phase 3. At the same number of days you will have more mycelium grown on phase 3 than on a phase 2 tunnels.
Supplement: supplement can give you 10–12% more mushrooms or it can give you less depending on compost quality. Supplement is generally ‘used up’ in early flushes (because it is easily available). However it allows more nutrients to be maintained for later flushes thus benefiting 3rd flushes. Supplement may be more suited to Dutch compost as it is naturally lower in nitrogen.
Some terms relevant to Dutch shelving. John said that the ruffling that takes place immediately after casing is usually referred to as ‘cacing’ as its primary aim is to add compost to the casing. Any subsequent ruffle should only be termed a ruffling.
Ruffling in shelves turns the casing completely over and gives very even mycelium growth. This usually takes place 4–5 days after casing and breaking usually occurs two days later. Ruffling usually results in more mushrooms, which are of a similar size.
If Ashfield farm doesn’t ruffle they break harder as ruffling results in more mushrooms. Rolling: Rolling really results in the micro and macroclimate becoming one. It is therefore very important that the environment is 100% correct. This is critical if you roll. In fact you can get more pins if the climate conditions are correct after rolling. If however drying out occurs you will get less pins. Also one gets very clean mushrooms after rolling.
Compost: John said that it is likely that the current problems with plaster mould in some compost were as a result of over composting and poor straw. John said that in general terms he preferred compost made from horse manure, as it seems to have good structure and mushroom mycelium seem to like this compost. The price of compost is cheaper in Holland and Belgium because horse manure is cheaper; poultry litter is free as is gypsum.
Transport of compost over long distances: John said that compost should be pulled down to 15–160C in these circumstances.
Water application: Always look at the top layer of the compost and the bottom layer of casing to judge water application. If the compost is active you can add a lot of water.
However John felt that many growers in this country just ‘pour water on without thinking or judging the situation. Therefore they may over water in instances. There was a lot of discussion on the watering regimes at this stage. It was felt that with a lot of activity in the compost, this gives a good opportunity to add a lot of water on day of casing. John felt that it should not be overdone.
One grower asked the question could you water the compost before casing. John gave an example of a crop of phase 3 which arrived at 340C. In this case John recommended adding 1 L/M2 to cool compost and to leave for a day before casing.
Virus X / brown mushrooms: John said that he felt very heavy water levels could be a triggering mechanism in this phenomenon (not the cause).
John recommended adding some chlorine product to the last watering each day to minimise blotch particularly in the May–November period. Basically do so if the outside air temperature is above 150C.
Watering: Case watering: Adds up to 30 L/M2 usually with 10–16 litres on day of casing. Recently because compost was not as good has added much, much less.
Prior to first flush: Two days before the flush adds ˝ L/M2 to ‘bring the flush on! The next day usually sees activity and adds another 1 L/ M2.
Watering after first flush. Usually waters on surge. If only 10% of mushrooms left on the beds starts watering.
John quoted the following old mushroom expression ‘The Art of mushroom growing is to keep the casing in shape’. He said that if the casing dries out too much it is difficult to get it back in shape and the only way is to put in small amounts of water very often over a number of days.
Ventilation system: Ashfield farm has an intake fan and two circulation fans. The circulation fans are in line with the blades at different angles and are 1.5 kW each. These fans give a speed of 14 m/s. The fans have a capacity to move 8000 M3/hr. They have two ducts, one running between two shelves with the holes at six o’clock and the other duct feeding the third shelf with the holes at two o’clock. All the shelves tend to be even. The numbers of holes were previously calculated.
Heating and cooling coils were specially designed for the farm. The coils were very large. This allows the air to run slowly over the coils, which allows for better cooling. Ashfield farm doesn’t have cooling in all houses and they manage very well by using high circulation and a lot of fresh air (when suitable) to keep crops under control. The heating and cooling coils are tight together and John felt that this configuration uses 1˝ -2 % more energy than if a spacer was in place.
Other points discussed were as follows: John recommended that if you get big lumps of compost on the top of the casing it is better to remove them, as they can lead to over run.
