Mushroom blogs in Zimbabwe

This short post is in honour of mushroom bloggers in Zimbabwe. Information on mushroom growing is very scarce in Zimbabwe and people primarily rely on information on the internet which is in most cases irrelevant. Zimbabwe mushroom industry (zimushindustry) is written by Nyasha Mupaso as a non profit just to raise awareness on mushroom growing and try to bring together mushroom growers to collaborate for the development of the industry in Zimbabwe,growers are free to contribute articles on Any subject as long as its mushroom growing.

I would like to honour Masimba Mpahlo for his anythingmushroom blog click here for his blog. He raise very crucial subjects and his blog has detail.

I also write another blog for my own business. Visit the mushtella blog for more. I hope we get to see more blogs in our industry.

Masimba and Nyasha also write another blog jointly kurima agro

There is a vibrant mushroom growers group on whatsapp all growers are free to join. Simply whatsapp +263773842677.

What do you think on mushroom blogs in Zimbabwe.

Mushroom growers need to understand biological efficiency.

I am delighted to announce that Zimbabwe mushroom growing has gone to whatsapp, one of the issues that has been discussed so far is on yields. I am going to say a few things and I hope these points will encourage further discussions and also clarify a few things and introduce some terminology that we need be using as growers.

Biological efficiency (BE): in simple terms refers to the conversion rate from dry substrate material into mushrooms. In other words if you harvest one kg of mushrooms from one kg dry substrate that is 100% BE if you harvest 500 grams of mushrooms from one kg of dry material that is 50% BE and so on, water is a necessary component in mushroom growing, all substrates must be moistened whether for use as they are or for compost making.

Spawning rate: the amount of spawn used has an effect on yield, not for all types or all strains of the same species. Having said that the general principle is the more the spawn the higher the yields especially for oyster mushroom.

Button growers: There are generally two cultures that are used with button growers the shelf/tray culture and the bag culture, the principle is the same but when we are looking at yields lets remember our definition of BE. Having said that the quality of the compost, quality of the casing soil, how you water, environmental management(temperature, humidity and oxygen/carbon dioxide) from experience I can tell the room has a higher that expected levels of carbon dioxide but the reality is some meters are required for serious commercial growers (thermometers, carbon dioxide meters, ph meters/strips). Compost quality is a wide subject on its own but let me just high light a few issues, before mixing compost material few growers know they need to calculate the nitrogen content of materials used. I have heard oyster mushroom growers saying I have so many bags and I have seen growers happy because they have huge bags than yours and think they are going to harvest more. The size, number of bags is of little effect on yield what matters is the quality of substrate, spawn quality and amount as well as weight of dry material, and many other factors always remember the biological efficiency definition.

Whatever you are growing keep it scientific, we need be very mathematical I always say. If you are in the mushroom industry in Zimbabwe and you are on whatsapp get in touch with me on whatsapp and I will add you to this vibrant group of mushroom lovers. The number is 0773 842 677. If you are not on whatsapp then follow me on twitter @zimushindustry or like our page on facebook: zimushindustry

Flushes: I have seen many growers failing here, lets assume a trainer or a consultant assumes 100% BE, usually the grower get excited in that the say “I am going to get 1 kg per bag” they take out their calculators and calculate their sales. Wait most times a consultant hides or is simply ignorant to the fact that the said yield is spread over a period of time. I usually tell people doing enquiries the facts and I loose a lot of prospective clients to consultants who are sensational and generalize and are magical, guys there is nothing magical about mushroom growing its so scientific. I also tell growers of need to do production planning in order to have constant supply and most times clients think I want to gain in spawn sales, you cant do one batch and rest and expect consistent production organized growers continuously inoculate new material so that they have a consistent supply. From flush one to the last yields will go down with each subsequent flush.

I don’t do very long posts so I will continue with this in the future Feel free to leave comments, tell others about this blog and some of our activities, lets grow the cycle. Please note that this article is not exhaustive, I need your input to get this so that we have comprehensive information.