How to Start a Mushroom Farm for Profit

Professional Mushroom Cultivation

On a large scale or for farmers with small and medium space-equipment capability, mushrooms can provide a source of income. Large-scale commercial cultivation, however, requires a significant financial investment and is labor and technology-intensive. The increasing demand for mushrooms, mainly during the last years, has created the need for more commercial-intensive crop cultivation globally.

Although the cultivation of fungi may sound scientific, technical, and challenging, it can be easy for someone to start, as long as she/he is patient enough to start step by step, following the easiest paths for a beginner.

The basic steps for mushroom cultivation can be grouped into 2 phases:

Phase I → composting (making the compost)

Phase 2 → composting, pawing, casing pinning, and cropping

In more detail, the grower can apply and consider the following:

To find an area for cultivation. A mushroom unit may occupy from 0.4 to 3 hectares, depending on each producer’s capital and experience. For starters, 0.4 hectares are more than enough.
A potential mushroom producer has to select a dedicated room or building for the production. For a beginner, a small room or a simple greenhouse is the best and most cost-effective choice.
Temperature, moisture, and sanitary conditions should be controlled, so make sure this is possible.
The rooms should be entirely cleaned and sterilized.
Then, the grower must choose the growing medium on which mushrooms will grow (for example, straw). Not all media are suitable for every mushroom. Horse manure and wheat straws are the most inexpensive and widely used mushroom compost.
The raw ingredients shall be stored in a clean and protected (from heat and rain) area.
The growing tables should also be pasteurized or sterilized.
In case you decide to produce your own substrate, you still need to pasteurize or sterilize it as well as the bags that will be used (to prevent other fungi from growing and competing for the same space)
Next, it is time for seeding the beds with spawn. It is not suggested to produce your own spawn unless you have special microbiology knowledge and lab equipment.
It is essential to constantly control and regulate optimum temperature, moisture, hygiene, and other conditions for mycelium growth and fruiting. This is the most challenging step.
Depending on the species and the procedure followed you can harvest your mushrooms 2 weeks or up to 3 months later.
Once the production stops, growers should clean the facility before starting the next mushroom cultivation.

First, a potential mushroom producer should know that not all mushrooms are grown similarly. Some of them require that the farmer has special knowledge, years of experience, and sufficient capital to cultivate them. However, the good news is that mushroom species grow easily with minimum effort and cost.

The best variety to start is Pleurotus. Unlike other mushroom types, this one does not necessarily need special facilities and challenging techniques to grow. The first step is to prepare the greenhouse. A producer must have a simple greenhouse of 0.4-0.6 hectares (0.98- 1.48 acres). Most producers cover them with glass fiber to create a protected and controlled environment and prevent sunlight from entering. In addition, you will need air conditioning to maintain the temperature close to 20°C (68°F), fans and openings to renew the air, and light at 120lux for the fruiting period. The relative humidity inside the growing area should be at the beginning 90% and periodically 80-85%. For other types of fungi, large commercial mushroom farms may be required. These consist of special rooms in an area of at least 3 hectares, with walls made of prefabricated panels, special equipment, central computers that control and regulate the temperature, humidity, illumination, and CO₂ levels inside the room, and special rooms where they produce the substrate and labs where specialists produce the spawn.

The next step is to buy bags of substrate already vaccinated with the spawn. This is the easiest method to start. Professionals with years of experience can produce their own substrate and spawn. However, this requires massive capital to build special protected rooms, lab equipment, and expensive machines such as sterilizers and mixers. Bags are the most cost-effective growing medium, preferred by most producers. Other means include wooden trays, aluminum trays, or trunks.

If you have bought some already colonized blocks, you will harvest mushrooms after approximately two weeks. From now on, producers must ensure that they will maintain the temperature and humidity conditions to optimum until the fruiting bodies appear. Remember that in most cases, mushrooms need a stimulus to move from the vegetative to the reproductive growth phase.

Wikifarmer

Editorial team

Verified

Wikifarmer is a global platform with the mission of empowering farmers through educating them and offering them access to the open market to sell their products at fair prices.

Join our editorial team

Join our community and contribute to Wikifarmer, a platform based on the knowledge of a diverse community of farmers and people working in the agricultural industry from all over the world.

Article submission