Growing Mushrooms for Making Money
Growing and harvesting mushrooms for commercial reasons can be a very lucrative business. If you have a knack for this kind of farming, you can consider growing mushrooms in a small basis for making a good income. You can either use a mushroom growing kit to help you, or use the materials available to you – the latter is of course a less expensive method.
Remember that to make the maximum profit; you should be able to ensure proper conditions that will aid to the optimal growth of the mushrooms. At the same time, you should be able to find a strong distribution channel that ensures product freshness for the customers. Remember that everyone wants to purchase fresh products and things are no different in case of mushrooms. So, irrespective of weather you are growing truffles or shiitake mushrooms, you should take care to sell them fresh and clean.
What variety?
The first thing that you need to check while deciding the variety of mushroom you should cultivate is – the demand. At the same time, you should also consider the environment, current price and current supply of the specific variety. Make a list of the species you would like to harvest and then view how much you will have to spend for each of them. Thereafter, you should select the variety that will give you the highest return. If you are just starting off in this business, you can consider venturing into the field with oyster or shiitake mushrooms, as they are much easier to cultivate.
Preparing the area
Once you have decided upon the species that you are going to harvest, you will have to prepare the area where you are going to grow them. Shiitake mushrooms, for instance grows on hardwood. Oyster mushrooms grow on moist straws, while you will need compost for white button mushrooms.
Prepare the space for growing the mushrooms. You will need a dark, moist and cool place for the mushrooms to grow and harvest. Also, make sure that you have ready access to a lot of organic wastes. You can add much to a shaded and dark area and add hardwood logs there, to create an area that is very suitable for the harvesting of mushrooms.
Getting started
Once you are done, you are ready to spread the logs with mushroom spawns. You should take care to keep the moisture level of the place high at all times. You can do this by regularly spraying the logs with water. Keep doing this until you see small mushroom buds on the surface of the log.
To stimulate the growth of the buds, you can soak the hardwood in tanks of water, or “shock” the mushrooms into growing by splashing them with a dash of chilled water.
You will have to monitor the mushrooms regularly, and if the environment becomes dry, you should mist the area to maintain the humidity.
The final touches
The mushrooms will be ready for harvesting after sometime. During this time, you should take care to pluck them individually. Take care to pull them upwards. It is a good idea to know if the mushrooms you are growing are graded for good profit. For instance, the shiitake mushrooms make maximum profit when they have a small curl on the edge of the cap.
Since you are planning to make money with these mushrooms, you should pack the mushrooms carefully, as they can get damaged easily. Finally, choose a distributor who will give you a good profit for your mushroom business.
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