When growing champignons, gardeners are faced with the fact that in order to ensure yields, it is necessary to create a favorable microclimate that includes not only humidity and temperature, but also compost for champignons, which is close in composition to the natural environment.
Composting for champignons
Pros of homemade compost
Self-prepared compost for champignons can be brought to the quality to which they are accustomed in the natural habitat. Properly selected components and adherence to the cooking algorithm provide the first stable mushroom crops after 3 months.
Mushrooms do not grow on ordinary soil suitable for growing vegetables and fruits.
A compost substrate specially made for growing mushrooms includes the carbon elements needed for nutrition and the mineralized additives needed for growth. At the same time, a self-made compost mixture makes it possible to save costs on the purchase of ready-made compost for mushrooms, the price of which starts from 15 thousand rubles. for 1 t
Required Components
The basis of the compost mixture suitable for growing mushrooms is mowed hay. Sometimes instead of straw, fallen leaves and plant debris from the garden are used.
The main requirement for straw is the absence of rot and pathogens of infectious diseases. The dried product acts as a carbon source of mushroom nutrition.
Among the other ingredients that make up the compost mixture, note:
- fresh manure or chicken droppings, which are organic sources of nitrogen,
- urea, bone meal, gypsum mixture or chalk, which are sources of mineral nutrition,
- bioactive substances that accelerate the availability of compost substrate.
All the ingredients included in the composition undergo the process of composting - fermentation of living microorganisms, which takes time, therefore, compost for mushrooms should be prepared in advance.
Cooking algorithm
For self-composting for growing champignons, you need 2 places on the site: one site will be occupied by steeping the mown hay, and the other for composting. The sites are pre-paved (concreted) in order to avoid the contact effect of the compost mixture with the soil layer.
In the absence of a concreted area, a piece of land is covered with dense polyethylene.
They are enclosed by wooden sides about 0.5 m high. It varies depending on the amount of the estimated volume of compost substrate.
Mushroom yield depends on the quality of compost
Do-it-yourself compost for champignons is prepared in stages:
- Initially, hay or dry grass and foliage are soaked at the rate of 40 liters of water for every 10 kg of dry raw materials.
- Organic is mixed with soaked raw materials: manure or chicken droppings. With a large volume of compost substrate, the components are laid in layers, each of which is tamped and watered.
- Over the course of 4-5 days, the collected pile is abundantly watered in the morning and evening, they are covered with gypsum mixture from above, mixing the components by spreading on a second platform with a pitchfork, the substrate is leveled and watered for another 5 days, while to speed up the fermentation process, add to irrigation water biodestructive agents.
- The compost mixture is transferred from one site to another with an interval of 5-6 days to ensure that oxygen enters the inner layers for the active life of microorganisms and the process of decomposition of manure with dry raw materials.
Number of components
For cooking, I take the components in the following volume:
- straw - 100 kg
- litter and manure - 30 kg each
- urea - 0.5 kg
- gypsum-chalk mixture - 8 kg.
As a result, a heap with a size of at least 1.2 x 1.5 m is obtained. It is permissible to grow up to 100-150 kg of mushrooms on a self-prepared compost substrate. For planting mushrooms with mycelium, the compost substrate becomes suitable after 25 days, when it acquires an ammonia odor and a brown tint.
Cooking time
The technology for interrupting the compost mixture is distributed at intervals:
- in 1 day, lay the raw materials on the site,
- on the 7th day the compost pile is interrupted and the gypsum mixture is introduced,
- on the 14th and 20th days, the substrate is interrupted, watering abundantly,
- on day 25 the prepared compost mixture is again interrupted, ready for use.
For high-quality rotting of straw, foliage and grass, the ingredients are pre-crushed in a feed mill.
On hot days, the fermentation process is accelerated. Biological products such as Baikal, Radiance, and Renaissance can reduce the rotting time of uncrushed raw materials. Among folk remedies that accelerate fermentation processes, yeast and milk serum are noted.
Conclusion
Self-prepared at home conditions compost for mushrooms can reduce the cost of the finished substrate and provides high-quality soil for growing mushrooms in the country. The average time for preparing the compost mixture is 25 days.
