COMPOSTING

compost: one of the most important basic materials for the mushroom industry

The growing cycle of mushrooms starts with compost. Compost preparation starts with horse manure. The compost factories get the horse manure from large horse breeding companies that pay the compost factories to collect the manure. Straw, gypsum, chicken manure and water are added to the horse manure. The straw improves the structure, gypsum ensures the proper acidity and the two manures are the nutrients. The compost is produced in tunnels in order to prevent the smell from becoming a nuisance. As manure emits ammonia, compost factories purify the air with ammonia wash to prevent the emission of gases. The indoor fresh compost looks like earth from a forest. Dark brown, full of trampled bits of straw. The compost is steaming, due to the composting process: heat is generated which digests the components. What’s left is a very fertile, nutritious source for mushrooms. On one batch of compost, two to three flushes of mushrooms can be grown. A square metre of compost (which is equal to 90 kilos) yields a maximum of 35 kilos of mushrooms. After that it’s no longer lucrative to reuse the compost. The leftover compost can still be used as a soil conditioner in other agricultural companies