Growing mushrooms

Stage one
-Mushroom growing requires little initial capital, production is possible throughout the year, makes use of agricultural wastes like wheat straws and ‘idle’ structures. All you need is a house in which you will carry out production as it’s not done outdoors.
-You will also need compost, which provides the mushrooms with a base to grow on and nutrients. Compost can be made from wheat/rice bran 20kg, CAN 3kg, urea 3kg and 20kg gypsum. Compost piles are 1.5m by 1.5m. The ingredients are mixed, sprayed with water and turned.
-Turning is done by hand on fourth, eighth and on the twelfth day, add 10kg gypsum, and on the sixteenth day, again 10kg of gypsum and the final turning is done on the twentieth day. Compost is ready when the straws become easy to bend, have a high water-holding capacity, colour changes and become darker, and have a strong smell of ammonia.
-The compost is then packed into clear bags to enable the farmer to see the changes going on and to identify diseases and infections easily. The bags should then be taken to the mushroom house.

Stage two
-Spawning is done here, which is the actual process of planting the mushrooms. The spawn is spread on the surface of the compost by making a small hole using a finger and planting it. The room temperature should be maintained at around 25 degrees Celsius. A humidifier should be used to make the room humid or water can be manually sprayed on the walls and floor of the room.

Stage three
-Casing is done here. Once the spawn has attached to the wheat straws and looks like white substance, soil is added to the surface of the compost.
-A layer of soil is needed, preferably from the forest. -The soil has to be treated to get rid of any insects. Formalin solution can be used to sterilise the soil before casing is done.

Stage four
-This is where growth and harvesting takes place. Mushrooms can be harvested several times. It takes approximately 15 weeks from composting to end of harvesting. Potential markets include schools, vegetarian hotels, ordinary hotels, supermarkets and groceries. Quality spawns can be obtained from Egerton University, Biological Sciences Department and other commercial mushroom growing farms.

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