Mushroom Culture: Its Extension and ImprovementRobinson, W. (William)
Science
Mushroom Culture: Its Extension and Improvement
Robinson, W. (William)
Mushroom culture; Mushrooms
Among the many and various structures in which mushrooms may be grown,
but which we rarely see utilized for that purpose, may be mentioned all
kinds of greenhouses, stoves, pits, and frames. Some of the best crops I
have ever seen were in cold greenhouses almost too ruinous to grow
anything else. In mid-winter the floors of all houses in which a genial
temperature is kept up for forcing or other purposes, offer excellent
positions for producing mushrooms quickly and abundantly. Small
ridge-like beds might be made on the floor of these, and, with the
genial temperature usually kept up in such places, would probably come
into bearing a month or so after being spawned. How often, for example,
do we notice the floors of large vineries, in mid-winter or very early
spring, quite bare, especially after the vines are started. Now just at
that season the genial heat that would be given off from the slightly
fermenting materials used for the mushroom-bed is that which would be
most congenial to the tender breaking vines, and with a little attention
in this way a first-rate crop of mushrooms could always be gathered from
the early vinery, and in houses where no artificial heat was applied
they could also be grown abundantly. A covering of hay would, however,
be necessary in cold houses in mid-winter, to prevent excessive
variation of the temperature, and also in spring and summer to prevent
excessive drying or scorching of the beds by a hot sun. I have even seen
excellent crops grown on the floor in an old lean-to house, the beds
covered with a foot or so of hay, occasionally sprinkled with water to
prevent excessive heat on the surface of the bed. In small places where
every foot of space in the glass-house is likely to be occupied with
plants, it is not easy to carry out the foregoing suggestions, but even
if a small early vinery were occupied with plants, it would be desirable
and practicable to introduce a series of rough boxes devoted to mushroom
culture.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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