A study of mushrooms and mushroom spawnJacob, Edward Henry
Science
A study of mushrooms and mushroom spawn
Jacob, Edward Henry
Mushroom culture
_Manufactured Solely by_
EDWARD H. JACOB
WEST CHESTER, PA.,
U. S. A.
On the following pages will be found full and complete instructions for
those who wish to grow Mushrooms for home use as well as for the market.
=SELECTION OF A PLACE TO GROW MUSHROOMS=
Any cellar which maintains a uniform temperature of from 45 to 65
degrees may be used.
Any barn or outbuilding may be supplied with heat and used
successfully, but the temperature should be kept as nearly uniform as
possible.
Any cold building which it is not practical to heat, may be planted
during September while the weather is still warm and the beds allowed
to get cold and even freeze up solid during winter months. Such beds
will produce the finest kind of mushrooms during the early spring
months when the temperature rises sufficiently.
The larger growers usually build houses especially for mushrooms and
heat by means of hot water pipes. Some use abandoned caves or mines,
while florists often grow mushrooms successfully under greenhouse
benches.
=PREPARATION OF MANURE=
Select _fresh_ horse manure where wheat or oats straw has been used as
bedding.
Never use old manure or manure mixed with shavings or sawdust.
Place the fresh manure in a neat pile and cover with two or three
inches of earth.
In the course of three or four days turn the manure over, shaking and
mixing the earth in thoroughly. Add water if necessary to keep the
manure in reasonably moist condition.
Cover again with earth which will be sufficient, and allow the pile to
heat, through the action of bacteria in the manure, for five or six
days. Then turn again, shaking up thoroughly each time, and turning
the outer dried or whitened portion of the pile toward the centre. Add
water with a sprinkler when necessary to keep plenty of moisture. After
about four turnings in this way, covering a period of three or four
weeks the manure will be sufficiently rotted and decomposed to make
into the beds.
=MAKING THE BEDS=
The manure should be placed on the floor or prepared bed spaces to
a depth of 8 to 10 inches in winter weather. In warm weather 6 or 7
inches are enough.
The compost should be compressed in making the bed and provided it is
not too wet it may be tramped, which prevents too much drying out,
while the manure is heating in the beds.
The only practical test of the proper moisture content of the manure at
time of making beds, is when upon compression in the hand water cannot
readily be squeezed out of it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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