chillem

For who is interested in making bottles for themselves

We are selling one of our ovens. Manage to put 600 bottles. (maybe more if you don't want to use the steel baskets).

Reason of selling is that we have another bigger one, who can take up to 850 bottles.

price we bought it: 45000 baht that is included with 50 steel baskets.

Price I want for it : 25 000 baht , which is a good price imo

Location: Khao Yai

If someone interested can always ask more information in PM

I will try to upload a picture later

PS: We also have the big gastank and gasfire for it.

Thanks, cost would be the only issue. We will be making them for ourselves. So if I could do a thousand in day that should be sufficient.

I have a small nitch market that we do well in. I don't want to step on Thai toes.

1000 a day:

If you only making bottles, that means no jobs like cutting mushrooms or other stuff, then it should be possible with 3-4 workers on a 8 hours working day. Also do all your bottles in one day for one oven. Because the quality might not be the same if you spread one oven in 2 days.

Col, I thought I had the mixer already and with the brother in law the two hands are in place.

There might be me a oven that works with gas or wood and packaging machine available from a guy who is going out of buisiness, moving to Spain. I should know next week. The oven does 1,000 at a time. since we are so small I'm leaning toward working with wood.

I think the next ones I will need will be Nong Faa. When would be about the right time to star putting those into packages. We currently have 3,000 Nong Faa and they are still producing. Currently have 8,000 Khon Kao about a month old. I think that will carry me to Nong Faa season.

I will send the brother in Law around the time we make our first ones, so he doesn't forget.

Even if I have to buy new oven and pakager the cost is about 33K.

I heard of doing it in drums before. Thanks for the pics, they make it a lot clearer to understand.

I think I will pursue a wood burning oven. Lots of wood around and that should keep the costs down.

Thanks for all your help

Ray

I don't see the problem with using gas. We can make 2 ovens with one big tank of gas. That is 1200-1300 bottles you can make with it.

For one oven it takes about 2 hours when it starts boiling, after that we let it boil with the gas fully open for about 30 minutes. Then we turn the gas down to about half the power and that for another 4 hours.

I don't know about the timings with the wood, but I think it's much more harder to control the temperature. And also much more work I guess.

Just making your bottles it takes some time already, so I prefer the easy way and just spent a little bit more money for the time I save.

If you are interested I can give you the contactnumber from the person who makes these ovens. He can make several sizes, depends on how many you want to make in a day.

Just went to check on our Khon Khao , it is very quiet inthere. It has been raining the last 2 days here, so the weather has been cooling down a lot.

Nevertheless, our Paw Her is popping out again. Just when I was thinking to throw those bottles away. Last few weeks almost no mushrooms in that house. So I thought better throw away and use the space for new ones. Looks like the cooler weather is much better for them.

Grtz

6 baht per bottle is cheap, if the quality is good from these bottles, then I wouldn't bother making them by myself. Maybe with the money that you save out, you could invest in improving your mushroom houses in a way.

If you are going to make them by yourself, the start will be much harder, because everything will be a learning process, and you might make mistakes like everyone does. So not all your bottles will be perfect from the start, with this you loose money as well.

Big surprise today, the Kon Khao are pushing through already and we haven't removed the wadding yet. So that will happen tomorrow, hope it is a sign of what is to come

I just read this... are you pulling out all of the wadding (samrii in Thai) ? For us we just leave it or pull it out a bit, not totally, the part that keeps stuck into the bottle, it will come of eventually after watering. After the first round most of it should be taken out.

I will tell our process of new bottles:

1. ones the bottles are full of the fungus, we will move it to the houses.

2. leave the bottles in the house for 2-3 days. Don't do anything yet.

3. at this time the fronts of your bottles should become more white already, time to get out of the paper and rings. Don't cut the plastic yet, but just open the plastic wider.

4. ones you finished that it's time for opening your sprinklers, just spray on top of the bottles, not spray inside yet, because the water will be stuck into the plastic.

5. Follow up your bottles, some of them will have the white start popping up about 1cm, when you see this cut out the plastic, as close to the front of the bottles, also make sure the water can't be stuck in the front of the plastic.

6. Don't cut out all of the plastic at same time, because when the white didn't pop up yet, it means it's not ready yet, still need to wait longer. Normally after a few days this process should be done.

7. start cutting your mushrooms, don't let the first round stay too long, because the longer you wait, the more rubbery they get.

My brother in law said that the pinkish color is no problem, but he did tell me you should cut more out of the plastic , so the plastic is equally cut with the front of the bottle. And he also said the water you gave, it can't get into the bottle because of too much plastic still in the fronts. Also giving a lot of water is no problem for Khon Khao, but like I told you before, you should clean your fronts, after 3 days the small pieces that stay on your bottle it should come off easily by scraping it with a spoon.

You can see the color in the center of the sprourt I'm holding with my finger

100_7005_1.jpg

100_7004_1.jpg

Just noticed today, the closest thing I could find was lipstick mold, or to much water? It's not wide spread.

ok thanks for the pictures, I will show it to him tomorrow.

How old are these bottles?

How do you clean your fronts of bottles after you've cut the mushrooms?

I don't know how you do it, but here we use a spoon (the one for eating noodlesoup) and scrape it off, about 3 days after we've cut it . But not after the first round of mushrooms, because those are more thicker, so we just use a knife for that.

Another usefull tip is when you think your bottles are almost running out, throw them all on the floor and restack them. So they shake up a bit. After 2-3 days you will see the result already.

Noticed somwething I hadn't seen before on a few of our Khon Kao, a pinkish tint anything to worry about?

Could you upload a picture from it? Maybe my brother in law can answer your question

Here is his number, maybe you can let your wife or brother in law call him. Might be easier to explain

0840442926

edit: He says 1 or 2 days it will take, depends how fast he picks it up

A bit of distance is there a place the Brothe in Law could stay while he is learning?

There are some resorts around here, Khao Yai is quite popular for Thai tourists. I don't know what you have in mind for your budget, but I think we can figure something out, across the farm there are also some bungalows for rent. I have to ask him how long it normally takes to learn everything.

Everything well here

We have about 16000 bottles of Khon Khao now. 4000 bottles of Naang Faa and another 4000 of Paw Her. But now this time a year it's Khon Khao that makes the best profit.

Ray, about making your own bottles, my brother in law he can explain you the whole process, but he asks about 5000 - 6000 baht per person. The farm is located in Pakchong, Khao Yai.

I can also tell you that the investment for startup is about 150 000 baht roughly.

sterilization oven (including steel baskets): 40 000 baht ( depends on how many bottles)

mixing machine: 30 000-35000 baht

pushing machine: 20 000 baht

saw dust (full truck): 25000 baht

than some other things like the ingredients for mix with the saw dust, plastic bags, the plastic rings, some weighing scales.

Some other things to invest maybe is shelves to let the bottles rest until the fungus is fully spread. Some farms they let the bottles rest in the houses already, but my brother in law says it's better to let them stand vertically, so the fungus grows better.

Anyway always welcome to come and have a look. Our way of building the houses is also different. We use steel instead of wood.

What do yuo think your cost is per bottle minus labor?

About 3-4 baht depends on how many we can make in a day, because like you said, lot's of work. If we mainly making bottles, start from 7 am untill 4 pm , we can make 1500 bottles a day. If we have some other jobs to be done, we make about 850 bottles a day.

Well we had our best day yet 43 Kilos, change in the weather helped a lot. On Nong Faa we just pull the plugging material, then as they soak in to much water we cut the bags open.

On Kon Kao you cut the bags open immediatley.

Nong Faa is picked Kon Kao yuo cut.

We are finding the prices are going up for the bags. We just had minimum wage change and the producers costs went up as well. Currently buying at 7.5 baht a bag. Fifth house is now done. We have 5,00o working and anothre 5,000 waiitng to start. May just make the 50 kilos a day yet. We had no problem selling them and we are still within in our three Klm. range

Our biggest cost is the transport for the sawdust from South to Khao Yai. We pay for one fully loaded truck about 23-24000 baht.

So you are making your own bags, that seemed to me a lot of work and not much room for error am I right?

Yes we are making our own bottles, it depends on which kind we are making, but you have to count about 85-90 percent of the bottles we make that are perfect. The other 10-15 percent are less quality, but still can be used. Those bottles that are less quality we keep for ourselves, we garantee our customers to have always perfect bottles.

Well we had our best day yet 43 Kilos, change in the weather helped a lot. On Nong Faa we just pull the plugging material, then as they soak in to much water we cut the bags open.

On Kon Kao you cut the bags open immediatley.

Nong Faa is picked Kon Kao yuo cut.

We are finding the prices are going up for the bags. We just had minimum wage change and the producers costs went up as well. Currently buying at 7.5 baht a bag. Fifth house is now done. We have 5,00o working and anothre 5,000 waiitng to start. May just make the 50 kilos a day yet. We had no problem selling them and we are still within in our three Klm. range

Our biggest cost is the transport for the sawdust from South to Khao Yai. We pay for one fully loaded truck about 23-24000 baht.

I'm looking at starting a 8m x 4m shed in the near future. The brother inlaw said that theirs a guy in nakon selling bags for 4 baht! This seems really cheep after reading your posts.

We have a local guy and he wants 8. I'm back in the uk and bought the wife 30 to try out. She said she is bored of eating mushrooms already haha..

Do ou thinks that these 4 baht bags will be poor quality?

another question how do you pick the mushrooms do you fit them or pull them out of the plastic rings?!

Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app

As of our experience, you should take out the rings the moment you put the bottles inside the house. This gives the mushroom more space for growing.

I'm glad to see that some other people are also into mushroom farming .

My brother in law he is also making the bottles for 8 baht/piece. Orders up to 2000 bottles is 7 baht/piece. Hed Yiipun and Paw Her are 10 baht.

For the moment we have 9 houses. We make many kinds as well, I will write the Thai name, as I don't know the English name for them.

- Hed Naang Faa (oaster mushrooms) different kinds

- Hed Paw Her

- Hed Yiipun (Japanese)

- Hed Khoon khaaw

- Hed huu nuu (rat ear)

Now we mostly have khoon khaaw, because of the hot weather.

Feel free to come and have a look at our farm @ Khao Yai.

https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Kaset-YingYong-Mushroom-farm/450989151593394?fref=ts

added picture of the first batch from new bottles of Khoon Khaaw

I live nearby and often go in there...we often use it as an alternative route to Bkk or pattaya....nice drive.

Thai drivers licence will get you thai rate every time.

I know a way in so you do not have to pay....but its a secret, dun want everyone abusing it.

I only got an International driving license, does that work as well?

I don't have a WP, but I got a Non-O visa based on marriage. I got it with the 400k on Thai bankaccount. I'm not retired.

Mister you begin sound like my friend Cheap Charlie....

Ironically, I have lived within 15 minute drive for the past four years,

but have yet to make a visit.....maybe tomorrow

You really should, maybe camp overnight. Around 'winter' , can get to 6-8 degrees overthere. So I presume you are living around Pakchong then. That's about a 15 min drive

I live nearby and often go in there...we often use it as an alternative route to Bkk or pattaya....nice drive.

Thai drivers licence will get you thai rate every time.

I know a way in so you do not have to pay....but its a secret, dun want everyone abusing it.

I only got an International driving license, does that work as well?

I don't have a WP, but I got a Non-O visa based on marriage. I got it with the 400k on Thai bankaccount. I'm not retired.

The fee (per day) is 400 baht for foreigners (200 for children), and 40 for Thais or Thai residents, plus 50 baht for vehicles.

Can anyone give me a reason why they charge different prices for foreigners? I don't mind to pay a bit more, but 10x more it's just ridiculous. It feels like discrimination.

I want to go to there more often, because I stay around there, but to pay everytime 400 baht

Try to google WWOOFing in Thailand might help you out.

Cheers

Take MRT to Phahon Yothin station. Apposite Central Ladprao there are loads of shops for photoprinting. And cheap as well , they also can make passport pictures for you. It takes about 1 hour for developing. Perfect time for just have some food or walk around in Central.

Did you mean an interior designer for designing your shop? And a contractor for build it?

My wife is an interior designer who sometimes does sideline jobs.

The job includes 3D perspective, CAD layouts and elevations, specified used materials, and graphics if needed. Those documents you just hand over to any contractor. He can then estimate the price for you.

If you could give some more details so we could have an idea of what you want to do

Grtz

It will be a small drug store, but we are still negotiating at the moment with the shopping mall so I can't give that much info till were sure with got it.

Which shopping mall are we talking about? Mostly if it's Central (other ones also I guess) they want to see a perspective first or an idea of how your shop will look like. They need to approve first before they even let you build it.

Anyway keep us updated

Did you mean an interior designer for designing your shop? And a contractor for build it?

My wife is an interior designer who sometimes does sideline jobs.

The job includes 3D perspective, CAD layouts and elevations, specified used materials, and graphics if needed. Those documents you just hand over to any contractor. He can then estimate the price for you.

If you could give some more details so we could have an idea of what you want to do

Grtz

@Chilem

Thats great thanks so much gives me an idea for when I walk in tomorrow!

I also know a Nigel ... he is married to Jose ... any chance it is you ?

Anyway if you are going to register, you can always refer me as a friend. My membership number is 01318056