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InvisibleYidakiMan
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Back from Industry Conference
    #7045463 - 06/14/07 10:21 AM (16 years, 9 months ago)

I got a chance to meet our own Jeremy Davis there as well as many industry movers and shakers; including the developer of Spawnmate, the president of Unicorn bags, and Pennsylvania specialty growers that put out 100,000 lbs of fresh specialties a week.

Here is the schedule of lectures: http://guest.cvent.com/EVENTS/Info/Agenda.aspx?e=43d64259-9a6e-4f2b-8ba7-1ad5275118a6

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to ask.

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Invisiblezee_werp
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Re: Back from Industry Conference [Re: YidakiMan]
    #7048584 - 06/15/07 05:09 AM (16 years, 9 months ago)

That must have been interesting.

My questions:

-Did they discuss if spent oyster mushroom substrate (straw) makes a decent bio filter? Any other details about the uses of spent straw substrate?

-What were some of the pest and disease management methods described?

-What were some of the ways of reducing energy usage in mushroom production?

I wish I could make it to something like this one day. Maybe next time I'm in some country bigger than NZ!

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OfflineJeremy_Davis
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Re: Back from Industry Conference [Re: zee_werp]
    #7049000 - 06/15/07 09:57 AM (16 years, 9 months ago)

Quote:

Did they discuss if spent oyster mushroom substrate (straw) makes a decent bio filter? Any other details about the uses of spent straw substrate?




Yes, they were talking about using straw to filter emissions from the substrate processing. i.e. they are interested in minimizing the smell from all the manure used in growing mushrooms due to environmental concerns, and complaints from surrounding communities. Basically they filled a shipping container with straw, and ran the smelly air from their facility through the straw for a few seconds. This did reduce the smell from what I could tell.

They talked a lot about the uses for spent substrate. there was actually a company called Laurel Valley Farms that has been really successful in marketing their spent substrate to several sectors, including horticultural and agricultural growers and grounds keepers for golf courses and such.they also do custom blends for nurseries.

There was a grower from Garden City Fungi who was talking about using spent substrate mixed 50-50 with fresh substrate for growing their mushrooms. They are a zero waste farm, so every bit of substrate is continuously recycled. They've been doing it for 11 years, and he told me that there is probably minute bits of substrate in their production blocks that is actually 11 years old.

They only do 2 flushes and then pull all the blocks out immediately and shred them in a ribbon mixer. They then mix in fresh substrate and supplements. The mix is sterilized and inoculated, and the cycle starts all over again.

That was really fascinating, but some growers were really skeptical of this method. (and this may be understating the matter) I however think the guy is for real...


Quote:

-What were some of the pest and disease management methods described?




This I'll have to go back and read my notes, right now I can't remember, but I think a lot of talk was given to cleanliness and exclusion of pests...there's a lot more, so I can touch on this later...

Quote:

-What were some of the ways of reducing energy usage in mushroom production?




They were talking a lot about peak energy consumption, and this may not be relevant in your country. but here in the US, your electricity costs are determined by your usage at the peak point of the day for electricity usage. This is the time when the most consumers are using electricity. So like noon time you can figure that most people are out using lots of electricity. So whatever you use then determines the price for your monthly bill - crazy huh?

So they talked a lot about seeing if you can switch your electricity usage of big electrical using machines to late night, you can create HUGE savings.

Another thing they were talking about is buying high-efficiency equipment. They make equipment that is very energy efficient so when shopping for equipment, it is best to purchase the high-efficiency items, even if they have a higher up-front cost.

Harvesting is also a really huge expense for mushroom farmers, totaling almost 50% of the entire cost of production!!!! So they showed some neat ways to harvest, like using a moving cart that the picker sits on and just picks as the cart moves in the growing rooms. It is supposed to allow for much better product as the pickers only grab the best mushrooms on the passes, allowing others to mature and be picked on a later pass. It also reduces injuries and strains, makes working conditions better, so you keep your employees longer - so you save on training and other related expenses.

There were composting methods that were being promoted, bunker technologies - as they reduce costs and increase productivity.

There was a lot more, and I do plan on going over my notes and providing a write up for everyone. but I do get busy (read lazy) sometimes, so hopefully I can get this done.

The highlight to me was Chris Robles from Amycel's spawn laboratory talked about strain selection, spore isolation and breeding. I video recorded the presentation, but the sound quality is so-so.

Interestingly he actually said that when growing from spores, there was so little variation from the parent genetics that it wasn't even worth doing, as new "strains" are almost never found that way.

This is counter-intuitive to everything people on here say about multi-spore inoculations...definitely made me wonder a lot about the value in isolation of non-sectoring spore runs...

Well, that's just the beginning of what went on there -

I also found a construction company that pours concrete into Styrofoam molds creating an r-32 or higher (especially in Florida) insulation value. He said it runs about $10/sq. foot for materials and labor.

Light and Love,
JD


--------------------
Jeremy Davis
Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization, Inc.
Check out the ECHO mushroom blog page to see our lab, growing facility, and more-www.echotech.org/greta

Edited by Jeremy_Davis (06/15/07 10:05 AM)

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OfflineJeremy_Davis
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Re: Back from Industry Conference [Re: Jeremy_Davis]
    #7049050 - 06/15/07 10:21 AM (16 years, 9 months ago)

You know what, I just re-read your first question about using SPENT substrate as a biofilter. That wasn't what they were talking about, they were talking about using fresh straw, and then when it was finished being used as a filter, the straw was simply added to the composting piles and then it is used as fresh substrate, so it's actually backwards to what you were asking. Also the amount of straw mixed into the compost piles is so (relatively) small, it has no impact on the end substrate (compost). They mix that shipping container full of straw with probably hundreds of times its weight and volume in fresh materials, so it's only a fraction of a percent of the ending compost...

they didn't talk about using mycelium for bioremediation, which is what I thought they were going to talk about...
JD


--------------------
Jeremy Davis
Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization, Inc.
Check out the ECHO mushroom blog page to see our lab, growing facility, and more-www.echotech.org/greta

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InvisibleYidakiMan
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Re: Back from Industry Conference [Re: zee_werp]
    #7049157 - 06/15/07 11:04 AM (16 years, 9 months ago)

Quote:

zee_werp said:
That must have been interesting.

My questions:

-Did they discuss if spent oyster mushroom substrate (straw) makes a decent bio filter? Any other details about the uses of spent straw substrate?




I met a grower that gives his spent wood substrate to an orchard down the street as mulch. I think that would work for you as well. Especially in NZ,I'm sure there is no shortage of apple orchards.

Quote:

-What were some of the pest and disease management methods described?




I'm absolutely shocked as to the lack of organic biologic pest controls in the button mushroom industry. The button mushroom farms seemed to have snuck thru the organic door by reducing the number of flushes and thus reducing time exposure to flies. If the crop never gets any flies, they don't need to spray. Since they were not concerned with beneficial insects, they were not concerned with spraying selective pesticides on their non-organic crops. Although, Bacillus isrealiensis is effective against sciard. There was one display there, they were marketing benecial nemetodes.

Since I got home, I've been investigating the primary fly pests to eryngii, sciard and phorid flies. The mushroom industry needs to find a predatory not parasitoid fly that can catch adult pests on the wing outside the growroom and prevent infestation before it begins. Few parasitoid insects will attack adult insects, they inject their eggs into a larvae. So these parasitoid insects would only have a use inside the mushroom house.

Quote:

-What were some of the ways of reducing energy usage in mushroom production?



A big focus during the energy usage session was switching to night electricity use as Jeremy said. In order to do this some people switched to a different fuel source. One person bought a diesel generator and attached a switch so when his peak usage goes over 600kw for 15 minutes the generator kicks on. He said this paid for itself in just a few years. Another simpler method was to install a timer on a electric powered boiler so that it was not used during on peak hours. After this worked well, he installed a secondary gas/oil boiler for use during the day. Another person bought a modern coal fired furnace.

I spoke to one grower and he said if you are building new buildings, that using a thermal heat exchanger is a GREAT idea. If you aren't familiar with this, it is a recirculating system that pumps water thru the slab and then several feet below the frost line, where the soil maintains a relatively stable temperature all year.

Another speaker, a consultant in the industry, spoke about reducing human energy use, aka labor expense. As Jeremy said, nearly 50% of the cost of a button mushroom is HARVESTERS. And they are not shy about admitting they use migrant labor. Many people have tried to build an automated picking machine, but the most success that has been seen is a machine that can harvest canning grade mushrooms. It seems the casing soil will always contaminate the crop with dirt and lower the value. The same speaker encouraged people to find other places to eliminate labor cost. One area was watering. Its relatively cheap to buy a solenoid and misting nozzles, instead of paying someone to do it.

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