OP 5- Mushroom Cultivation

I plan to cultivate primary decomposers on substrates such as straw and/ or sawdust. These include oyster mushrooms, shitake, lion’s mane and several other species.  Growing mushrooms is not as easy as planting a seed.  You need to use the goldilocks rule, and make sure everything is “just right”. There are several different structures that can be used with varying degrees of technology.  That is, I can set up a growing room that is very sophisticated or I can do a more rustic style setup.  I’ll discuss this further in the “what” section of this output.

It will be on site at the Love Creek Center for Permaculture (LCCP).  LCCP is located east of the Bay Area at about 4000 feet in the Sierra, between Tahoe and Yosemite. We only have 5 acres and are limited on space so I will have to take some time to decide on the perfect spot.  I have only identified three spots on the property that could house a mushroom cultivation room.  The room needs to be close to electricity and water.  Depending on the size of the actual structure there are a few possible locations.

          Simply put it is an insulated structure that is waterproof inside and climatically controlled.  At 4000 feet in the Sierra it isn’t the most ideal place to grow mushrooms year round.  The summers are somewhat mild but the temperature can fluctuate 30 degrees Fahrenheit from day to night.  These fluctuations aren’t the best for mushrooms fruiting.  The best conditions are a consistent climate with little fluctuation of temperature and humidity.  Moist coastal areas are ideal for mushroom production with their relatively stable and non-fluctuating climate.  Here in the Sierra the temperature throughout the seasons and even the days can fluctuate so greatly that it will need to be mitigated. Insulation and a climate control system can help mitigate the climatic fluctuations outside.

This is where the project gets more involved.  So where do I find out what works best?  First, I’ll check the foremost voice in small-scale mushroom farming, Paul Stamets.  Paul Stamets’ books, Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms, and The Mushroom Cultivator will be my main resources for helping me make my decision.  I will also be gleaning what I can, from as many people as I can reach that know anything about mushroom cultivation.  Paul Stamets’ company, Fungi Perfecti, also has a good description on their website of the basic structure and components of a mushroom grow room.  Here I need to decide what kind of structure to use to grow mushrooms in.  Since I don’t have a large budget I’m on a bargain hunt for the best possible structure.  I already had his book The Mushroom Cultivator, but I also purchased his newer book, Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms to help out on this project.  In both books he has described and demonstrated what works for the best results.  While he talks about how to grow mushrooms outside with little to no technology, for the commercial grower a mushroom chamber is the way to go.  The success rate is better and the mushrooms will have a more consistent shape, size and moisture content.  

            I can create my own structure with some spruce that we have.  With this approach I could save some money but I would have to spend quite a bit of time cutting and assembling it.  If I get a prefabricated structure I can save on labor by only needing to modify it slightly. The best shape is a rectangle, which allows for the best air circulation.  The roof should be pitched so that condensation will drain down to the walls and then the floor where it can be drained off.  Wood should be minimized in the structure due to high humidity levels and because it can harbor pathogens.  Steel is highly recommended for the framing of the structure as it is easy to clean and isn’t really a vector for pathogens.  A vector is something that can harbor a pathogen at one stage of it’s lifetime.  Porous wood surfaces are perfect for harboring mold and fungus spores.  So instead of building my own structure out of wood I am looking into a metal structure.

            I looked into a cargo-shipping container after a friend that was using one for storage suggested I convert one into a mushroom farm. I got a quote for a used 20 footer at about $3200.  I’m still waiting for a better price.  I might go for the 40-foot version if the price difference isn’t too great plus I don’t want to be short on room to work with. The rectangular shape is perfect but the roof is flat.  That can be fixed with a simple modification that collects the water and drains it to the walls, where it can then drain to the floor. When looking for more resources on the Internet I came across the Mountain Mushroom Farm in Washington State.  They buried a shipping container to help insulate it from the elements and help maintain a constant temperature inside. I was excited to see an actual example of a shipping container converted to a small mushroom farm.  I then contacted Tradd Cotter of Mushroom Mountain in South Carolina.  We had an email conversation over the course of a couple of weeks.  He had me fill out a questionnaire that can be found in the appendix.  He also suggested using a shipping container and showed me some links for inspiration.  Funny, he sent me to Mountain Mushroom Farm’s site, yet I hadn’t seen this information yet.  He then sent me an excel calculator for growing mushrooms in a 40’ shipping container, you can find this in the appendix as well.  The numbers make it look worth it to start growing mushrooms in a shipping container ASAP.  I was talking to my friend Ian Garrone of Far West Fungi and he said that the people they bought Far West Fungi from were growing mushrooms in buried shipping containers in Colorado.  Yet another example of people using one for mushroom cultivation.  Most shipping containers have hardwood floors in them.  I could salvage the hardwood and pour a slab inside.  Or it looks like, according to pictures, some people leave the hardwood floor in.  I’ll have to see if I can actually salvage the wood for other uses.  The whole shipping container can be slanted from back to front at 2% so that any excess water will drain out.  I like how Mountain Mushroom Farm designed a mushroom chamber that wasn’t as energy dependent as one with a fully equipped climate control system.  They didn’t heat it, as the mushrooms create heat, and being insulated from the outside it is able to store enough heat for ideal mushroom fruiting.  They also used LED lights to reduce their energy consumption.  I can also use fluorescents, which are relatively energy efficient as well.      

Other options for a mushroom cultivation room include smaller metal storage sheds.  Insulated and modified greenhouses are probably the least expensive.  High tunnels, which are mainly used as greenhouses or cold frames, can easily be converted into a mushroom chamber.  Or a cheaper version of a high tunnel can be made out of pvc tubing and greenhouse plastic.  I recently went to the 38^th annual fungus fair in Santa Cruz and ran in to Damien Pack.  He had worked for Paul Stamets for 6 years and new a little bit about mushroom cultivation.  His picture is included in Stamets’ book Mycelium Running in several different occasions.  He told me that he just uses a high tunnel that is mostly non-transparent with a few sections that are transparent for light transmission.  The ground inside is not concrete but gravel. He uses an air filter to bring in fresh air to the room and passively circulates the air.  He currently lives in Humboldt County and only grows mushrooms in the spring and summer.  His coastal proximity allows him to not have to insulate his room and leaves him with a relatively mild climate.  Many of these ideas are a great inspiration for me.  In the climate that I live in winters can be harsh so I’ll probably not try to grow mushrooms for a length of time in the fall, winter, and early spring.  Once I get some good production down and begin to accrue capital then I can reinvest into a more sophisticated grow room.    

In addition to a structure I will need to customize it with a climate control system.  Hydration is key when fruiting, the room needs to maintain humidity anywhere between 75% or higher depending on the mushroom and where it is in it’s life cycle.  Fungi Perfecti has a small assortment of mushroom cultivation supplies that I’m basing my quote on.  Here are some numbers for different structures and accessories.     

          I’ve included above 4 different structures to choose from. For others trying to utilize existing structures you can create an envelope inside to mitigate the high humidity levels.  I, however, don’t have the option. The accessories at the bottom are highly recommended to keep the substrate and the room free of contamination. Apparently the savings of less contamination are worth the extra cost of these items.  Light is needed because the mushrooms I want to grow are all phototrophic, meaning that they grow towards the light.  This is a very rough estimate of each of these mushroom cultivation rooms.  The big ticket items are all included, there may be some hardware needed or modifications done to achieve optimum function.  For instance, if I want to try to grow mushrooms in the sometimes harsh winters we have I’ll have to insulate the structure.

            So I definitely know more than the average person knows about mushrooms and mushroom cultivation.  I have experience with many different methods of mushroom cultivation learning from a class I took a UC Davis and direct experience inoculating logs since then. And during this process of researching the different possibilities I’ve increased my knowledge on the subject even more.   I will continue to utilize the renewable resource of hardwood logs.  But I intend to branch out and use more natural resources such as sawdust and straw substrates.  Even though I’m a little timid on this approach I realize I will learn quite a bit through my attempts, successes and failures.  This is where I will probably get the most insight.  With further experience I will be able to refine my process over time.           

     The world of fungi has created many other opportunities that I am working on currently.  I am currently continuing my pursuit of hardwood shitake cultivation.  I recently cut about 60 oak logs and ordered 5000 shitake dowels from Far West Fungi.  My business partners and I will be inoculating them in about a month when we get the dowels.  I’m currently sitting in on a class at Columbia Community College called Mushrooms of the Mother Lode as a teacher’s assistant.  It is a field identification course and I offer up as much information I can that the teacher doesn’t.  I took the class 3 times when I attended Columbia Community College.  I have sat in as an assistant for the past 4 years. 

            Another Gaia Associate and I are pioneering an approach to harbor clean up with one aspect of the project utilizing the bio-filtration or mycoremediaton power of oyster mushrooms.  This project is working on the discoveries of Paul Stamets and Fungi Perfecti.  While he has actually been a leader in the pioneering of mycoremediation, no one has really set up a mycoremediation project in a harbor where there is plenty of pollution from the boats that use the harbor.  This is exciting and scary at the same time.  Do I really know what I’m doing?  After talking to several people about it, I realize my competence is higher than most and my fellow associate is ready to take the plunge.  We’ll learn from any mistakes we made and refine the process.   

            I plan on selling Far West Fungi’s mushrooms at farmer’s markets as a secondary producer this summer until I get my own production up to par.  And I might continue selling varieties of theirs that I don’t grow.  Far West Fungi and I plan to work together possibly just trading different mushroom varieties to help us both have more consistent products.  Along with that I’m training some wild harvesters so I can increase the amount of wild harvested mushrooms that I can provide.      

            These are some of the opportunities that fungi have offered myself so far.  With the relatively young understanding of fungus and their ecological role I only see the opportunities for others and myself increasing.

          After spending more time researching this subject I have realized that my competence in the subject is more developed than most.  During this process I have also increased my competence in the subject.  Now I’m even more motivated to build a successful mushroom cultivation business.  The only thing holding me back is some funding of the project, but it’s not that far off.  I’ll be able to acquire a structure fairly soon and begin retrofitting it shortly thereafter.  As my passion for fungus leads me along, some of my other fungus endeavors can potentially fund this project. My path seems to be unfolding before me.

          This output packet feels a little more detailed and well presented than some of my previous output packets.  It may have something to do with how easy it is to put up on Mahara compared to the GEL site.  It probably has more to do with getting more familiar with output packet production.  Either way it was fun to follow the threads I found and I hade great interactions with people either in person, on the phone, or on the Internet.  My eyes were opened to see what others were doing in regard to mushroom cultivation and education.  There are so many ways to work with mushrooms it’s a little overwhelming but my niche is pretty clear to me.  I’ll be adding, bit by bit, more proficiency in understanding different mushroom cultivation techniques, both for commercial production and for home gardeners.  For now I’ll continue my pursuits I’ve already begun and see where they take me.