Mushroom Farming

[samsiam]

How much do the middlemen, the drivers that pick up your stash, sell your mushrooms to the market for ??

We get anywhere between 55 and 70 baht per kilo depending on which way the wind seems to blow. This is what our agent gives us. The mushrooms are then transferred onto the pick-up which does the Bangkok run every night, 365 ( 366 ) days of the year. They sell them to the market traders who in turn either sell them to retailers or endusers. Last time I was down in Pattaya, we saw ropey straw mushrooms on sale in Friendship supermarket at 193 baht per kilo. This will give you some idea where the money is made -- not by us ! When they drop their price to 55 baht, we just sell in the local villages usually at 30 baht per half kilo and sell everything. We've looked at ways of getting a larger portion of the money, but a five hour run to Bangkok and return every night is cost prohibitive even if we get the local growers to sell to us.

But how much does the agent sell to the market...do you know ??

[ray23]

How much do the middlemen, the drivers that pick up your stash, sell your mushrooms to the market for ??

We get anywhere between 55 and 70 baht per kilo depending on which way the wind seems to blow. This is what our agent gives us. The mushrooms are then transferred onto the pick-up which does the Bangkok run every night, 365 ( 366 ) days of the year. They sell them to the market traders who in turn either sell them to retailers or endusers. Last time I was down in Pattaya, we saw ropey straw mushrooms on sale in Friendship supermarket at 193 baht per kilo. This will give you some idea where the money is made -- not by us ! When they drop their price to 55 baht, we just sell in the local villages usually at 30 baht per half kilo and sell everything. We've looked at ways of getting a larger portion of the money, but a five hour run to Bangkok and return every night is cost prohibitive even if we get the local growers to sell to us.

Add the cost of fuel in it still be more profitable. But, a heck of lot more works as well

[ray23]

Well this is the trial system, strap it on your back, one hand to pump the other to direct the spray. That works then a timer and mist system would be worthwhile.

She who you can't say no to ran across something in Thai that has sprkler hanging from the ceiling, exactly waht I put in the first place. But a Thai didn't do it so it would never work. But, now that a Thai is doing it wjhy it's great

[ozzydom]

The system as described is the norm for Thailand and Thais are very protective of their position in the hierarchy ,buck the system at your peril.

I know of resellers who bought direct from farmers (growers)hence cutting out the wholesaler,they lost their cherished position at the market and now wander the streets selling out of a handcart.

[ray23]

We dont have the Bangkok system available to us in Udon, so we probably will always be small, that's OK I'm retired. If I could sale 20 kilo a day I would be very happy. That's 900 baht a day. I know that I can figure out a way to produce that. I might even be able to sale it within my 3 Klm area. Lots of little eateries that purchase muchrooms as well as two good size talots in that area.

But, baby steps first. If I expand that area to five klms I might be stepping on Thai toes, not something I want to do.

We found a nitch now we will try to take care of it. There are days we don't hit a kilo, so that is why the second 1,000 plants. when we don't make a kilo we just give it to our regular customers, in rotation free. Those are the ones that I want to keep.

[ozzydom]

Off Topic but posted as an example.

Our farm will not support TW and I plus the stepdaughter and her husband who currently work in electronics factories in Bangers,so I seriously looked into renting a shopfront in our big market,doing it out to western standards ie. tiling ,refrigeration, built in tiled circulating tanks ,sanitary processing area etc.

The plan was to also stock prawns,shellfish etc and do take home packs of cooked fish and salads.

To cater for the anticipated turnover ,I had other growers prepared to grow fish to my requirements.

Problem was it had the potential to put many resellers out of business plus effect some very influential corporate fish farms.

A visit from a couple of heavies and finally a ranking policeman pointing out the dangers of such a plan to my person and property and my plans were dropped.

[ray23]

Off Topic but posted as an example.

Our farm will not support TW and I plus the stepdaughter and her husband who currently work in electronics factories in Bangers,so I seriously looked into renting a shopfront in our big market,doing it out to western standards ie. tiling ,refrigeration, built in tiled circulating tanks ,sanitary processing area etc.

The plan was to also stock prawns,shellfish etc and do take home packs of cooked fish and salads.

To cater for the anticipated turnover ,I had other growers prepared to grow fish to my requirements.

Problem was it had the potential to put many resellers out of business plus effect some very influential corporate fish farms.

A visit from a couple of heavies and finally a ranking policeman pointing out the dangers of such a plan to my person and property and my plans were dropped.

I don't think that is off topic, it's a reality. Something any of us should be aware of. going along unnoticed has it's benefits.

If my wife owes nothing, she will have VA benefit of I believe somewhere in the area of $625.00 monthly. If she can scrape out 900 a day on an average I think she will be in good shape. 1.5 million in cash from life insurance is a part of the plan. That is the main purpose in this. Not to worry guys worht more alive then fead so far

[finnomick1]

How much do the middlemen, the drivers that pick up your stash, sell your mushrooms to the market for ??

We get anywhere between 55 and 70 baht per kilo depending on which way the wind seems to blow. This is what our agent gives us. The mushrooms are then transferred onto the pick-up which does the Bangkok run every night, 365 ( 366 ) days of the year. They sell them to the market traders who in turn either sell them to retailers or endusers. Last time I was down in Pattaya, we saw ropey straw mushrooms on sale in Friendship supermarket at 193 baht per kilo. This will give you some idea where the money is made -- not by us ! When they drop their price to 55 baht, we just sell in the local villages usually at 30 baht per half kilo and sell everything. We've looked at ways of getting a larger portion of the money, but a five hour run to Bangkok and return every night is cost prohibitive even if we get the local growers to sell to us.

But how much does the agent sell to the market...do you know ??

We have absolutely no idea, and our agent wouldn't tell us even if we asked but then nor would I if I were the agent. The only way to find out would mean a trip to the market and see or listen to what happens. The pick-up that goes to Bangkok every night is changed every 2 years or 500,000kms whichever is the sooner so she, yes she, must get a good chunk but then she's also loaded both ways -- mushrooms down and spores back.

[ray23]

Well I have been misting the plants for three days now. Today we had eleven kilos highest production we have had. All sold in mins.

That being said we have had three of rainstorms as well.

I will keep trying. But, I think it's more the weather then my effort

[Jdietz]

Great information and interesting topic, keep it coming!

I'll visit Rangsit next week and see what I can find there, fun!

[northernlights]

Well here she be, nothing fancy about it, we are building a secomnd which is a bit wider

Mushrooms stacked 1150 of them and we still have one empty shelve in the building

My wife doing her thing

The product note the dirt floor

There are several spore suppliers arounf Udon.

Hi !

My wife have tried to grow up mushrooms about one year now. At the first she grow up them in the backside of shop house and In the end of last year she built up 2 same kind of mushroom houses. One house can filled with 2000 mushroom bag.

We have not been good luck with mushrooms. It looks like non profit farming. I have tried to think what we would do wrong.

We have sprinklers but she dont use them because sprinklers will spray water too much and it would cause that bag start to turn green colour ( mould ). The best was water hose and pistol which spray only mist. Also she sprayed water to the floor. I think she watering everythin like perfect. I would like to hear your opinion about water .... is normal citywater good for mushrooms ? Did she made mistake using citywater ?

Other thing I started to wondering was those mushroom bags. Maybe those had made something cheap way to got max profit. We paid 8 bath/bag. Those bags started to turn white wery well but cannot push out enought mushrooms to cover the price of bags in 4 months. Is it possible that growing mushrooms would need something fertilizer. It would look like that bags not include everything what it should include.

I would like to do that but it looks so hopeless. Have you any advice what could do ? We havent lost money but it need quite much work and it would be nice to got salary too !

[David48]

Well this is the trial system, strap it on your back, one hand to pump the other to direct the spray. That works then a timer and mist system would be worthwhile.

She who you can't say no to ran across something in Thai that has sprkler hanging from the ceiling, exactly waht I put in the first place. But a Thai didn't do it so it would never work. But, now that a Thai is doing it wjhy it's great

Would a 'misting fan' not be an alternative strategy?

[plopmeister]

Just finished picking and cleaning 30 Kg of the buggers. The missus did 20 Kg late last night whilst I was busy ...(.on the cricket thread.)..

Should get about 10 Kg this afternoon and hopefully another 10 Kg tonight...

[ray23]

To my surprise we hit 17 Kilos today. Again sold out in no time. Picked up another customer for standing order of 3 kilos day.

The first batch of mushrooms we bought have now paid themselves off.

12 more days like this and they aer all paid for.

The buildings were 15 K each, figiruing with a life time of five years. Figuring them at 360 monthly for a pay back shluildn't be long before we are in the profit range.

I will just keep on misting three times a day and see what happens.

If we get some warm weather and no rain the mushrooms keep producing, then I will do serious thinking about a mist system and timer.

In the Plam Springs arrea where weather gets beyond 120F in the summer. It's a very dry climate, Resturant's installed mist sysytem to cool patrons on the side walk cafe's

With a humid climate no idea if they could bring the temps down. That couild get pretty expensive though. When I wa a kid we didn't have aircomditioning we used swamp coolers. Basically pads soaked by a slow flow of water and fan.

They actually worked pretty good. I'm just dreaming noe, no plans to go that far. Goos solar systemt o run a pump and fan. Might be worth while. But, they are not cheap an require a lot of upkeep.

[ray23]

We were advised to use our pond water, due top chlorine in the city water.

Are you selling what you produce?

Heard of a cooling mist system available the tempatures seem to have a lot to do with production.

I think we were lucky in having an area that ha been ignored by the big guys. It's enouhg for us.

I saw the photo of a fan with a mist system does that work pretty good?

[finnomick1]

We were advised to use our pond water, due top chlorine in the city water.

Are you selling what you produce?

Heard of a cooling mist system available the tempatures seem to have a lot to do with production.

I think we were lucky in having an area that ha been ignored by the big guys. It's enouhg for us.

I saw the photo of a fan with a mist system does that work pretty good?

Ray, pond water is definately better than city water. We have pond water and ' rural ' water which comes fom the huge lake in the village. It is treated but not maybe as treated as city water. We use bith with no detramental affect.

We can sell everything we produce no matter the quantity or quality. Our mushrooms are graded into three lots. Perfect mushrooms, over mushrooms and small mushrooms but regardless of amount, they all go just the price differs. Our biggest harvest in one day was around 120kgs. It took all day to get ready because all mushrooms sold have to be ' cleaned '. This particular day we started picking and ' cleaning ' at 6:30am. It was 7pm before we loaded up. Towards the evening, we had 28 people sat ' cleaning ' the mushrooms before we took them to the agent.

Unlike your type of mushrooms, ours thrive on heat. We can't use the misting fans because our mushrooms grow on shelves ( and under the shelves ). We have four shelves on each side of the houses, each shelf is about a metre wide and 6 metres long so our grow beds per house ( of which we have 3 ), are about 48 square metres and then there's the undersides too giving a theoretical growing area of 96 square metres per house.

We emptied out our shelves 4 days ago. This growing medium makes some of the best compost and we have a queue of people waiting for it so it goes from the shelves straight into trucks or pickups. We sell the growing medium for 1500 baht and whoever wants it has to pay for the labour too. We sometimes use it on our sugarcane too with good effect. The new mansampalang/casava was delivered last friday, mixed and covered to ferment a bit. We'll be putting this on the shelves this thursday ( what fun ). This will then be left for a few days before we ( read I ) have to steam the houses prior to putting in the new spores and hopefully another bumper crop. Total achieved for the last growing period including selling the growing medium was 28000 baht.

[Petey]

We've been growing mushrooms for three years in Chiang Mai including oyster (nang fa), abalone (bao heu), and japanese (yee-poon). We make our own growing medium from sawdust, gypsum, rice bran, calcium, lime, sugar, and epsom salt. This is considered a good recipe for a variety of different mushrooms. Some growers who produce only one variety like nang fa may cut out a few ingredients to save costs. After packing the medium into bags, compressing, sterilizing and inoculating with spores we sell them for 7 baht apiece or put them in our four barns for harvesting. We reckon our production cost per bag is 4 baht. My wife says that those who seem to make the best profit from mushrooms are those who prepare their own growing medium. The quality of sawdust is a big factor. The first year we used rubber tree sawdust, said to be the best, but lately have been using sawdust from Jampa trees, to save costs, and have seen a real decline in yield.

Local wholesale prices are 35/kg. In the market the price is 60-70/kg. However the prices will drop soon as the markets become flooded with wild mushrooms over the next couple of months.

Our first year was a banner year, there were some months when we earned 20+K/month selling wholesale at 35baht/kg. Lately however the income is between 5-10K. We've had problems with green mold and with infestation by very small insects and have been battling these problems in a variety of ways. We have had to strip a couple of the barns of their black netting and let the bamboo frames sit exposed to the sun for a few months. This seems to help but its not long before the insects return. Perhaps its because we live in a forested area. It seems that many other mushroom farmers have the same experience: a great first year and then problems start to crop up. Many then become discouraged and give up.

We tried spraying the barns with a brew made from a bacteria called mytophagus to remove the insects but it didn't work for us.

One person suggested that we use phosphene gas inside our growing barns to kill the insects which we suspect have bored into the bamboo frames. We're reluctant to do this because of the danger to the chickens and ducks who wander around and between the barns. Has anyone else been faced with this insect problem?

During the hot season we covered one of the barns in anti-UV plastic sheeting and put black netting on top of that, to increase the humidity and ran sprinklers suspended from above a few times a day. It worked and the mushrooms were nice and plump. Very hot though, over 35 degrees, but the mushrooms (white oysters) didn't seem to mind. It seems to be important in these conditions to blow fresh air through the barn before waterings to replace the carbon dioxide with oxygen.

We use only well water when watering the plants. Yields vary widely even in the rainy season. It can be very puzzling. To reach and maintain a steady production takes a lot of trial and error, and we are not there yet but are determined to figure it out. Growing mushrooms is definitely both an art and a science.

[necronx99]

We've been growing mushrooms for three years in Chiang Mai including oyster (nang fa), abalone (bao heu), and japanese (yee-poon). We make our own growing medium from sawdust, gypsum, rice bran, calcium, lime, sugar, and epsom salt. This is considered a good recipe for a variety of different mushrooms. Some growers who produce only one variety like nang fa may cut out a few ingredients to save costs. After packing the medium into bags, compressing, sterilizing and inoculating with spores we sell them for 7 baht apiece or put them in our four barns for harvesting. We reckon our production cost per bag is 4 baht. My wife says that those who seem to make the best profit from mushrooms are those who prepare their own growing medium. The quality of sawdust is a big factor. The first year we used rubber tree sawdust, said to be the best, but lately have been using sawdust from Jampa trees, to save costs, and have seen a real decline in yield.

Local wholesale prices are 35/kg. In the market the price is 60-70/kg. However the prices will drop soon as the markets become flooded with wild mushrooms over the next couple of months.

Our first year was a banner year, there were some months when we earned 20+K/month selling wholesale at 35baht/kg. Lately however the income is between 5-10K. We've had problems with green mold and with infestation by very small insects and have been battling these problems in a variety of ways. We have had to strip a couple of the barns of their black netting and let the bamboo frames sit exposed to the sun for a few months. This seems to help but its not long before the insects return. Perhaps its because we live in a forested area. It seems that many other mushroom farmers have the same experience: a great first year and then problems start to crop up. Many then become discouraged and give up.

We tried spraying the barns with a brew made from a bacteria called mytophagus to remove the insects but it didn't work for us.

One person suggested that we use phosphene gas inside our growing barns to kill the insects which we suspect have bored into the bamboo frames. We're reluctant to do this because of the danger to the chickens and ducks who wander around and between the barns. Has anyone else been faced with this insect problem?

During the hot season we covered one of the barns in anti-UV plastic sheeting and put black netting on top of that, to increase the humidity and ran sprinklers suspended from above a few times a day. It worked and the mushrooms were nice and plump. Very hot though, over 35 degrees, but the mushrooms (white oysters) didn't seem to mind. It seems to be important in these conditions to blow fresh air through the barn before waterings to replace the carbon dioxide with oxygen.

We use only well water when watering the plants. Yields vary widely even in the rainy season. It can be very puzzling. To reach and maintain a steady production takes a lot of trial and error, and we are not there yet but are determined to figure it out. Growing mushrooms is definitely both an art and a science.

Why not build the barn with poly tube PVC?

[Petey]

Why not build the barn with poly tube PVC?

That's an interesting idea, actually. I hadn't considered it I suppose because I haven't seen any buildings that size (10m X 6M) framed with PVC but I suppose it should work and be more cost effective than bamboo in the long run. Thanks for the suggestion.

[ray23]

What variety actually thrives in the heat?

I was impressed by what I saw of the fan system. Of course you can't find anything like that around so I made myself two today, They get installed tomorrow. We will run them until the cool weather hits or when it rains and we get tempature drop. So the big experiment is on.

I also believe you would be better off doing your own spores. But, finding all that would be needed diesn;t seem likley here.

How do you get saw dust?

I really need to go watch the process someday.

Man that is a lot of mushrooms, we are not required to clean ours. But, even just picking would be a huge operation.

I believe we can really establish ourselves if we can grow in this heat. As no one esle is, so worth a shot.

Hardly no effort involved in selling our 19 Kilo day. That was encouraging. Right now we have 2.000 plants and room enough for another 1,000. When your talking about 3,000 plants big difference between 4 baht and 9

So far we haven't ran into a bug problem. But, keep in mind we don't a have full season in yet.

If the wife could average 20 kilos day that would be a good living for her in the future.

In the mean time, I'm enjoying the tinkering.

[rice555]

Hello All, this is from last years Ag Show in Korat.

rice555

[finnomick1]

Hello All, this is from last years Ag Show in Korat.

rice555

The cloche ( tent ) in the foreground is a much smaller version of what a lot of rice farmers do when the fields are empty. They bend bamboo's then stretch a plastic sheet over them. lay straw on the ground then put the spores ( straw mushrooms ) onto the straw, water and wait. This is a very simple, cheap and ( unfortunately for us ) effective way to grow our type of mushrooms. Why ? It brings the market price down !

[finnomick1]

Hello All, this is from last years Ag Show in Korat.

rice555

Rice, is this show an annual event ? And, do they hold it at the same time each year ? We'd be interested in going along for a look.

[rice555]

Hello All, next show is 2013.

rice555

[tingtong]

Hello All, next show is 2013.

rice555

too bad, i would also like to check it out, but then waiting it is.

[ray23]

Well there the puppy is works fine I have replace the heads acts more like a sprinkler then a mister.

As luck would have it raining rigth now. I left the fans on to pull in as much cool air as possible.

[finnomick1]

Petey,

we had a huge problem with a fungal growth -- this was at the end of December going into January. We were lucky in that we broke even that time, others made a loss. Everyone in our whole area was affected and nothing would stop it from spreading. It was everywhere, the shelves and even the ground. Even the very experienced agent said they had not seen this before. We stripped everything out of the houses and opened up the tents to let everything dry out. We've got a pressure washer, so this was the next stage, then dried it all out again. It didn't appear again during this last batch, so we're keeping everything crossed it was a one off.

[ray23]

Petey,

we had a huge problem with a fungal growth -- this was at the end of December going into January. We were lucky in that we broke even that time, others made a loss. Everyone in our whole area was affected and nothing would stop it from spreading. It was everywhere, the shelves and even the ground. Even the very experienced agent said they had not seen this before. We stripped everything out of the houses and opened up the tents to let everything dry out. We've got a pressure washer, so this was the next stage, then dried it all out again. It didn't appear again during this last batch, so we're keeping everything crossed it was a one off.

That's scary didn't happen to take any photos did you?

[ray23]

Well there the puppy is works fine I have replace the heads acts more like a sprinkler then a mister.

As luck would have it raining rigth now. I left the fans on to pull in as much cool air as possible.

Problem I'm having is finding actual mist nozzles, I went to global got the smallest they have. Even that turns out to be for a irrigation drip sysytem. I;m probaly going to have to make one myself.

http://www.google.co.th/search?q=swamp+cooler+diagram&hl=en&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=vA6-T6u_MYrzrQe2ttWTCg&sqi=2&ved=0CGoQsAQ&biw=989&bih=608

I would really like one of these. Cances of getting that in Thailand would be pretty slim I would think. But, it would be perfect fro the job.

[finnomick1]

Petey,

we had a huge problem with a fungal growth -- this was at the end of December going into January. We were lucky in that we broke even that time, others made a loss. Everyone in our whole area was affected and nothing would stop it from spreading. It was everywhere, the shelves and even the ground. Even the very experienced agent said they had not seen this before. We stripped everything out of the houses and opened up the tents to let everything dry out. We've got a pressure washer, so this was the next stage, then dried it all out again. It didn't appear again during this last batch, so we're keeping everything crossed it was a one off.

That's scary didn't happen to take any photos did you?

Unfortunately not. The mushrooms would grow up through the ' carpet ' of fungus, but then just turn to mush.