# MUSHROOMS??????



## siscofarms (Nov 23, 2010)

Trying to find a use for old round bales and have considered mushrooms . Run the round bales thru a processor in about 2ft tall windrows . in a fairly dark barn isle way . I know the limitations to the marketing but I was approached to do this but to the tune of just a few pounds compared to what I want to do . I will take any advice , comments , or just any general conversation about this . Thanks


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

I dont know anything about growing mushrooms. Used to be a plant in the near by town that did but they always used straw. Also knew a guy who used to grow magic mushrooms but his business fell apart cause he ate too many of them and than couldnt do the work to grow them while high. Not sure what he is doing now.


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

You might get lucky and it might work out. From what I am told the mushroom growing process is a little bit more complex


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## Mike120 (May 4, 2009)

I had a vendor in Kennett Square, PA some years back. It was the mushroom farming capitol of the world and I could smell the place before I got there. Otherwise a very nice town. As far as I could tell, the primary inputs were old straw and horse crap. I guess hay will work.....you just need a horse.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

A lot of videos on U Tube


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## stack em up (Mar 7, 2013)

I don't know about growing them, but I like to put button mushrooms in the crock pot with a ranch dressing packet. Makes for good eating!


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Mike120 said:


> I had a vendor in Kennett Square, PA some years back. It was the mushroom farming capitol of the world and I could smell the place before I got there. Otherwise a very nice town. As far as I could tell, the primary inputs were old straw and horse crap. I guess hay will work.....you just need a horse.


I live one town over about 3 miles from Kennett Square. Luckily on the "upwind side" of it. Avondale & Landenberg (right next to Kennett Square) is where the really big operations are. All the small towns have their own high schools with rivalries. Pretty interesting area.
I sell about 4-500 tons of my lesser quality hay to them and maybe 100 tons to catt...I mean COW & horse owners.
The operations are pretty amazing, some covering 100's of acres of land. Lots of migrant workers live in the little towns and work in the mushroom houses 24/7/365 keeping the operations going. Most operations are owned by Italian families from way back.

The "inputs" are a little more complex than "straw and horsecrap" lol
Theres actually different formulas and some are kind of different from each other-some are claimed to be secret. Straw and hay are mixed with manure and water. Is is made in giant machines that lay the slurry out in long "loafs" of compost on concrete pads resembling huge aircraft parking lots. . Ive seen 12-15 lines 300' long and 8' high and 8' wide on the concrete. The material is then cut into large piles and shipped to the mushroom houses, which are generally concrete block barns with thousands of trays in them. The compost is spread out maybe a few inches deep and the mushrooms are grown in the trays of rich compost in black light or darkness.
The mushroom houses are climate controlled and usually have diesel gen sets for power failures. Migrant workers with mining-type lights on their caps pick the mushrooms and throw them by the thousands into dump trucks where they are taken to be cleaned, washed and packaged into trays for market.
Once the compost bedding is "spent", it must be removed. Tens of Thousands of tons of it is then shipped to local farmers FREE to spread on hay fields. It is VERY rich compost. Some is mixed with soils and made into bagged potting soils.
In fact "Scotts" has a potting soil production plant in the area, too.

I think the reason for the mushroom industry locating here is because we have so many horse and hay farms in wealthy Unionville and Chadds Ford. They have a sort of symbiotic relationship: Horse farmers have to get rid of a lot of manure and the mushroom industry needs manure to make mushroom compost. Hay is also needed to make mushrooms so Hay/straw farming is a pretty big deal here, too. The mushroom companies pick up accumulated horse manure-generally for free, saving the equestrian operations a lot of money & grief. Hay farmers have an outlet to sell less than perfect mid-atlantic hay and the mushroom farmer has the hay farmer to take his spent mushroom compost and the hay farmer gets lots of free compost fertilizer.

It's like a life cycle and it all works pretty well.


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## FCF (Apr 23, 2010)

When we had the horse opeeration in MD the mushroom growers picked up our manure. They didn't want any type of bedding other than straw or hay. At that time, 7 years ago, the truck driver told us they traveled as far as Ohio to get bedding. One big advantage for us was being able to have a fairly simple, required, nutrient management plan for the hay and pasture fields. We only spread manure with shavings or sawdust bedding from one stall and all the trailers the boarders had.


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## siscofarms (Nov 23, 2010)

Well it looks interesting and I guess as a full time business , which I'm not looking for , but who knows in the future , I am going to try it on a very small scale even if its just for my self . 1 roll of hay chopped up is not a real loss when its unsold in april . For those that commented thanks for the info . If you have more to ad I welcome it .


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## deadmoose (Oct 30, 2011)

I think you are on track starting with proof of concept. Make sure you can do it first. If you can, next step is marketing, then scaling production.

I met a guy who did this with lettuce and tilapia. I know his barn is done. Haven't heard how it turned out Marketwise.


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