Mushroom Farming

[tingtong]

i think that 10.000 bags should get you the result.

but to be consistent, probably you will need to have like 3000-3000 batches with 1-2 weeks between them, so, production will be more balanced?

[ray23]

Thanks I will give it a go and see what happens. Timing is right for building the houses as well.

Thanks so much

[ray23]

i think that 10.000 bags should get you the result.

but to be consistent, probably you will need to have like 3000-3000 batches with 1-2 weeks between them, so, production will be more balanced?

Ting Tong what is yuor normal rotation time on plants?

we seem to get about five months oit of them

[tingtong]

we are just stared to have in a more commercial size, prior only have couple dozens for our own home consumptons, nang faa.

they seem to produce 5-6 months, of course less and less....some old bags still have an occasional mushroom after about 8 months...but i wouldnt plan on such.

[IsaanAussie]

Is there anyone out there who has grown mushrooms on compost beds or straw bales?

[ray23]

Is there anyone out there who has grown mushrooms on compost beds or straw bales?

I haven't done it, but, if you do a google search a I recall you can find out a lot about it, under straw mushrooms.

The wild mushrooms picking really didn't inpact us much. Most peplel around Udon have jobs, so one weekend was it.

[ray23]

we are just stared to have in a more commercial size, prior only have couple dozens for our own home consumptons, nang faa.

they seem to produce 5-6 months, of course less and less....some old bags still have an occasional mushroom after about 8 months...but i wouldnt plan on such.

In sitting up my business plan I'm thinking rotation three times a year. I think gives me some room for error. We will add 2.000 more Kor Kao at the end of the month. Hold with the 3,000 nog faa. I'm not expectimg ,much from them in the upcoming heat. Have another 3500 that need to be replaced very soon. I want to lean more heavy to Kor Kao for the summer months. Houses have to be a bit different. So I hope to be able to modify them at different times of year. So that should put us very close to 8,000 mushromms. Beyond that will require a fifth house. I started with 1,000 and slowly built things while larning. So this is trully a big move for me. Plants alone I'm thinking somewhere around 240K a year in costs.

I;m not worried about growing them, seeing if I can sake at that level in anothe problem. We shall see what see. Talk about buiyng 50 Kilos a day is one thing another to do it. I didn't decide to do this until I had a plan B.

Wahyt we have been doing is we don't do sales. Our houskeeper does it all over the phone and she getrs 10% for doing it on top of her salary. So it repesents a good hunk of money to her family as well. If this works between fish adn mushrooms she should knock down over 200 K a year. Hopefully between everything, we should see somewhere in the area of an addtional 500K a year. All the wife ha to do is keep it going when I check out and she is sit for life.

Nice deam lets see how close I can get to it

Edited February 4, 2013 by ray23

[IsaanAussie]

Sounds like a plan Ray. Good luck.

I am thinking of making up beds of compost instead of buying in bags or packing them myself. Since the compost is laced with LAB it will not have a pathogen issue and therefore not need to be sterilised. It also has a healthy fungal population so the substrate should be capable of being colonised by the mushroom spores. Casing it with a worm compost based seed raising mix that has been solar sterilised will provide the mushroom forming layer. The spent compost can be used in our garden products range.

OK Ray, how does that "theoretical plan" sound?

[tingtong]

we are just stared to have in a more commercial size, prior only have couple dozens for our own home consumptons, nang faa.

they seem to produce 5-6 months, of course less and less....some old bags still have an occasional mushroom after about 8 months...but i wouldnt plan on such.

In sitting up my business plan I'm thinking rotation three times a year. I think gives me some room for error. We will add 2.000 more Kor Kao at the end of the month. Hold with the 3,000 nog faa. I'm not expectimg ,much from them in the upcoming heat. Have another 3500 that need to be replaced very soon. I want to lean more heavy to Kor Kao for the summer months. Houses have to be a bit different. So I hope to be able to modify them at different times of year. So that should put us very close to 8,000 mushromms. Beyond that will require a fifth house. I started with 1,000 and slowly built things while larning. So this is trully a big move for me. Plants alone I'm thinking somewhere around 240K a year in costs.

I;m not worried about growing them, seeing if I can sake at that level in anothe problem. We shall see what see. Talk about buiyng 50 Kilos a day is one thing another to do it. I didn't decide to do this until I had a plan B.

Wahyt we have been doing is we don't do sales. Our houskeeper does it all over the phone and she getrs 10% for doing it on top of her salary. So it repesents a good hunk of money to her family as well. If this works between fish adn mushrooms she should knock down over 200 K a year. Hopefully between everything, we should see somewhere in the area of an addtional 500K a year. All the wife ha to do is keep it going when I check out and she is sit for life.

Nice deam lets see how close I can get to it

Ray23,

i like your post a lot, but i dont get the numbers, maybe it is my mind....and sorry, i dont like to be a pain, just to see clear.

you say the plants cost about 240k a year....and be bellow 8000....even 10.000 plant 3x replaced, 7 thb a plant is 210.000....and you are bellow this yet.

you say your housekeeper keeps 10%. that you estimate 200.000/year.

if that is correct you should bring home not 500.000......

either you bring in near to 2.000.000thb or your housekeeper makes 50.000 only....

again, i read all this with interest, and tring to follow a similar path about raising the production step-by-step, thus the numbers are important.

a question: if you already have about 20-30kg/day stable production, wouldnt be worth to have an employee, maybe a local grandma who sells it on a larger market at real retail price, that is about 70-80thb/kg....

salary could be covered from the difference between 50thb wholesale vs the retail price, and it seems like many market charge very low daily fees....in our nearby small town there is 5thb a day fee for the afternoon/evening market.

just thinking that it might worth a try, even if the housekeeper lady miss out some commission.

[ray23]

we are just stared to have in a more commercial size, prior only have couple dozens for our own home consumptons, nang faa.

they seem to produce 5-6 months, of course less and less....some old bags still have an occasional mushroom after about 8 months...but i wouldnt plan on such.

In sitting up my business plan I'm thinking rotation three times a year. I think gives me some room for error. We will add 2.000 more Kor Kao at the end of the month. Hold with the 3,000 nog faa. I'm not expectimg ,much from them in the upcoming heat. Have another 3500 that need to be replaced very soon. I want to lean more heavy to Kor Kao for the summer months. Houses have to be a bit different. So I hope to be able to modify them at different times of year. So that should put us very close to 8,000 mushromms. Beyond that will require a fifth house. I started with 1,000 and slowly built things while larning. So this is trully a big move for me. Plants alone I'm thinking somewhere around 240K a year in costs.

I;m not worried about growing them, seeing if I can sake at that level in anothe problem. We shall see what see. Talk about buiyng 50 Kilos a day is one thing another to do it. I didn't decide to do this until I had a plan B.

Wahyt we have been doing is we don't do sales. Our houskeeper does it all over the phone and she getrs 10% for doing it on top of her salary. So it repesents a good hunk of money to her family as well. If this works between fish adn mushrooms she should knock down over 200 K a year. Hopefully between everything, we should see somewhere in the area of an addtional 500K a year. All the wife ha to do is keep it going when I check out and she is sit for life.

Nice deam lets see how close I can get to it

Ray23,

i like your post a lot, but i dont get the numbers, maybe it is my mind....and sorry, i dont like to be a pain, just to see clear.

you say the plants cost about 240k a year....and be bellow 8000....even 10.000 plant 3x replaced, 7 thb a plant is 210.000....and you are bellow this yet.

you say your housekeeper keeps 10%. that you estimate 200.000/year.

if that is correct you should bring home not 500.000......

either you bring in near to 2.000.000thb or your housekeeper makes 50.000 only....

again, i read all this with interest, and tring to follow a similar path about raising the production step-by-step, thus the numbers are important.

a question: if you already have about 20-30kg/day stable production, wouldnt be worth to have an employee, maybe a local grandma who sells it on a larger market at real retail price, that is about 70-80thb/kg....

salary could be covered from the difference between 50thb wholesale vs the retail price, and it seems like many market charge very low daily fees....in our nearby small town there is 5thb a day fee for the afternoon/evening market.

just thinking that it might worth a try, even if the housekeeper lady miss out some commission.

Keep in my mind in the immediate area we have over a million people, the farm is six klms from the center of town. 50 baht is what we retial them for, so no loss to me if the guys buys 50 kilos at 50 baht. I really have no idea what the markets in this area sell them for. That 50 baht has gotten me a 45% profit with giving up the 10%.

The other thing that is good about the housekeeper if we want to escape for a day or so. I trust the housekeeper with the money and she fills in nicely, for us. Been with uus for six years, not satang missing in six years.. That's hard to replace.

Were paying 8 baht for these. We had better luck with them last year, then the ones we haev been buying for 6 baht. I will stick to the housekeeper it has worked for over a year now. If she can't handle it then I will modify things.

Issan sounds like you have a handle on things

Edited February 4, 2013 by ray23

[emiubon]

Hi guys wanted to ask, what do you do with pest?

Like ants? beatles etc?

I tought I havre read on this thread some natural remedies, but I cannot manage to find right now.

Looking online I have found remedies for some of the insects and molds, using Bt(Bacillus thuringiensis) and Bs(Bacillus subtilis)

any other natural remedies especially for ants?

thanks

I just started managing this mushroom farm, now I am keeping everything clean most possible, but the re are already ants going around.

I tryed spraying a mixture of lemongrass and wine vinegar outside the mushrom houses, and work well, I dont know if spray also inside and directly on the mushroom bags.

I did a mixture of little bit of white chalk stuff mixed with some honey, but look like ants really dont like.

are black ants, probabily they were also already present, hen they build the house in the bamboo, they are nesting between the bags, right now I see them move around, carrying the small pupa.

I try to remove some by hands, actually I dont really know if they are really bad, either, I cant find answers in google.

thanks for any info

[slapout]

borax mixed with some bacon grease, set around in small containers for ant control.

Edited February 4, 2013 by slapout

[emiubon]

borax mixed with some bacon grease, set around in small containers for ant control.

thanks a lot, do you know what kind of shop have it?

thanks

[slapout]

chemist shops, chinese chemist, are good sources. Take the chemical composition in for them to see, to prevent communication problems.

[sutton1001]

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

[tingtong]

4 baht sounds really cheap...

maybe that price is old?

however, if correct, why not buy a smaller amount and give it a try?

BIL could buy 100 bags for you, that is a very small investment....

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

me no Enlish, so, no idea how one fit a mushroom....pull/cut out from the plastic ring we do.

[ray23]

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 I was checking in the biginning you can make the bags for 3 baht yuorself, It is one heck of a lot a work. I paid 8 baht as the guy has to frive 320 klms round trip. Locally it will be cheaper.

Picking depends on the variety, Nong Faa yuo just pull, you won't need take the rings off to that. Khor Kao you cut.

We have an insecticide we use whenever we pull the plants and replace them I will try to get the name for you.

[tingtong]

can someone send me the phone number/address to the previously mentioned Khon Kaen/Manchakiri? mushroom seller?

would appriciate a lot, thanks!

[sjefrie]

A question for the mushroom farmers

What is your average yield per bag (Total over a period of 3 months) ???

Because i have been reading depending on the type of mushroom, one substrate bag can produce a total of 250 to 500 grams of mushrooms ???

http://www.fao.org/docrep/004/AB497E/ab497e07.htm

[tingtong]

we have both Nang Rong and Nang Faa...

one time, the mushrooms weights about 50-90 grams....if they produce say 4x each, that would be 200-360 grams, or any number between? avarage is about the middle, 65-70 grams....so, with 4x production those fao numbers seem to be doable i think.

will they produce 4x each? more? less? i cant tell.

[ray23]

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

Edited February 6, 2013 by ray23

[nev]

can someone send me the phone number/address to the previously mentioned Khon Kaen/Manchakiri? mushroom seller?

would appriciate a lot, thanks!

Name is tom, 0844051069, say falang from nonsomboon gave you. nev

[tingtong]

can someone send me the phone number/address to the previously mentioned Khon Kaen/Manchakiri? mushroom seller?

would appriciate a lot, thanks!

Name is tom, 0844051069, say falang from nonsomboon gave you. nev

thank you Nev!

wife talked to them, bought 1000 Khon Kao, 8 thb/ bag...the rest they sell 7....delivery cost of about 400thb to us...

Udon is cheaper, but since from there delivery is 2500thb, as we are far away from Udon, for the time being this was the more budget friendly solution!

[nev]

can someone send me the phone number/address to the previously mentioned Khon Kaen/Manchakiri? mushroom seller?

would appriciate a lot, thanks!

Name is tom, 0844051069, say falang from nonsomboon gave you. nev

thank you Nev!

wife talked to them, bought 1000 Khon Kao, 8 thb/ bag...the rest they sell 7....delivery cost of about 400thb to us...

Udon is cheaper, but since from there delivery is 2500thb, as we are far away from Udon, for the time being this was the more budget friendly solution!

Glad you got sorted mate, and good luck with your crop.

[witchhunter]

Hi guys wanted to ask, what do you do with pest?

Like ants? beatles etc?

Ants do not eat mushrooms. IMO, they are your friends as ants are hunting on larvae of mushroom flies and nematodes.

You may reduce the number of mushroom pests by shortening of the fruiting time of your bags.

Some people are using a propane torch inside the growing house to burn the adult flies if there are many of them.

[ray23]

Something I forgot, sometimes we sprinkle lime on the dirt floor. Mihgt give that a try we don't seem to have much of problem till the get old. Might be a signal it's time to replace them.

When we take the old ones completely out we spray insecticide before we put in the news ones. Allow a few day in between.

It's all trial and error for us. So I could be very wrong just what we do.

Interesting with the weather on and off our production is low right now. That with 2,000 new Kon Kao and 3,000 new Nong Faa. Right now the weather deosn't seem to be good for either one of them.

Edited February 17, 2013 by ray23

[nev]

Something I forgot, sometimes we sprinkle lime on the dirt floor. Mihgt give that a try we don't seem to have much of problem till the get old. Might be a signal it's time to replace them.

When we take the old ones completely out we spray insecticide before we put in the news ones. Allow a few day in between.

It's all trial and error for us. So I could be very wrong just what we do.

Interesting with the weather on and off our production is low right now. That with 2,000 new Kon Kao and 3,000 new Nong Faa. Right now the weather deosn't seem to be good for either one of them.

Same for me mate not many growing right now, i had 5ks of mushroom that i was about to throw out as they was brown and smelly, but just before i did a young lad turned up come 22ks on his bike from khonkaen to see if we had mushrooms for a regular buyer who did not have our number and bought them so i gave them at a reduced price.

[ray23]

Yes difficult especially with Nong Faa at the moment. I have been trying different watering techniques to to get buggers busy. We should be bringing our khon Kao up to 4,000 next week and another 2,000 to follow a few weeks later.

The local Talots only have Khon Kao at the moment. Been sick for about a week, so I really having gotten to do my experiment propely yet. The temps have gotten below 25 at night so I think our problem is they have been to much water on them. About to find out now that I feel better.

I will post how that works out, when i know.

Edited February 22, 2013 by ray23

[ray23]

Does anyone know of a reason beyond heat and watering that would no allow Nong Faa Nan Khon KAo being in the same house.?

I figure come May is your not going to have a cool house no matter what you do.

I;'m thnking baout taking a shor at it. 4th house is finished now and 2,000 more plants are in it.

The fifth should be donwe next week adn we will add 3,000 more. These are Khon Kao, we got these at 6.5 baht. The next 3,000 will be 7 baht. It;s called inflation adn one can hardly argue it with what we have these days.

What I did on the watering, was to feel inside the package if it was wet I would pass on the direct spray and just water the dirt. It worked well. Last two days they are dry every day, so they are sprayed three times a day.

The weather is supposed to cool off for the next three days, so we should get a short period of better production with the Nong Faa.

At the end of next week we will have hit or 10,000 in production.

3,000 are Nong Faa so I;m not expceting much from them. I have 2,000 old Nong Faa working as well. That would be where I would place the addtional Khon Kao.

Those are on their last legs so that have to go anyway. Might just take the Gamble unless someone knows why it wouldn't work?

No problem with sales what so ever.

[chillem]

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

Edited March 7, 2013 by chillem