Progress report for FNE24-077
Project Information
Objective One: Fruit 60 ready to
fruit mushroom blocks, producing 60+ pounds of shiitake, oyster,
and lion’s mane mushrooms on three different farms while
recording data on yields and fruiting conditions. Repeat this
process a second time with the recently trained farmers running
the production cycle.
Objective Two: Sell 60 pounds of
mushrooms on three different farms, while recording data on total
sales and sales avenues. This process will be repeated two times
at each farm.
Objective Three: This project
aims to educate 500 potential growers on the opportunities,
benefits, and drawbacks of growing specialty mushrooms outdoors
on purchased ready to fruit blocks.
There is an amazing opportunity for diversified farms to quickly and easily produce mushrooms outdoors. This opportunity allows farms to more easily sell an additional product to existing customers, thereby increasing overall profit and customer retention. Many studies have looked at the feasibility of outdoor shiitake log cultivation or indoor cultivation on supplemented sawdust ready-to-fruit blocks (referred to simply as blocks in this document) but none have looked at the intersection of the two. Outdoor shiitake log cultivation is very slow—the initial inoculation method is time intensive and crop cycles take four years to complete. Over the last ten years, specialized farms have emerged throughout the region that sell blocks. Typically, these blocks are fruited indoors in specialized rooms that control temperature, humidity, and lighting. Creating and maintaining these rooms is expensive and time consuming. This project aims to blend these two methods for the merged benefits of each.
Fruiting blocks outdoors, in natural environments, can yield high quality mushrooms. Compared to the four year crop cycle of inoculated logs, blocks have a crop cycle of between two to four weeks. Generally, the blocks are inoculated on separate specialized farms, saving substantial amounts of time. Farmers managing diversified farms have a lot to manage. Adding indoor mushroom cultivation areas, which require daily maintenance and specialized care is often a big barrier of entry. By contrast, fruiting in outdoor areas requires very minimal maintenance, initial set up, or specialized knowledge. Amazingly, much of the time the mushroom quality is increased when fruited outdoors, particularly in the spring and fall.
The combination of these factors allows profitable production of mushrooms to become accessible to a far greater number of farmers. Between 2021 and 2022 specialty mushroom sales increased 32% . This trend of increased production and sales is expected to continue. Diversified farmers can tap into this increased demand and value by producing mushrooms on-farm and selling through their existing channels. They will be able to produce a variety of mushroom species including shiitake, oyster, and lion’s mane, offering variability to their customers. With the fast crop cycle of outdoor blocks, farmers can develop experience and apply their observations quickly, adjusting the amount of each mushroom species produced based on sales, orders, and local weather patterns. This method of cultivation is just now becoming feasible because of the development of specialized agricultural businesses that produce the blocks. Farms throughout the Northeast have access to localized mushroom block producers like Cap N Stem in Maine or Mycoterra in Massachusetts.
Introducing simple fruiting methods for these blocks to diversified farms will help to continue to deconstruct barriers to on-farm mushroom production and incorporate mushrooms into a full farm system.
Cooperators
- - Producer
- - Technical Advisor
Research
Mushroom's were cultivated on 3 different farms during the 2024 growing season. Two rounds of blocks were purchased for each farm and grown out on the farm. One farm decided to do a 3rd trial to continue offering mushrooms in their farm store. This farm will continue producing mushrooms on their farm during the 2025 season.
Different areas were prepared unique to each farm for the production of the mushrooms. Natural roots fruited under a stand of pine trees on top of an old shiitake soaking tub. The blocks were placed on the upside down metal stock tank and a hose was used to spray the blocks down daily if extra humidity was needed. Beech Hill Farm placed pallets on the ground in a high traffic area, put low tunnel hoops over the pallets and covered with 2 layers of shade cloth. A hose was used to spray the blocks down daily as needed. At Up Top Acres originally a fully shaded area was chosen to place the blocks on the side of a raised bed. The high amount of wind on top of a building in Washington DC dried the blocks out preventing fruiting. A wire rack was placed in the shaded area with plastic around it to keep the humidity in. Misting units were in place on top of each shelf and used to increase humidity in the inclosure.
Farm 1: Natural Roots. The first and second round they produced mushrooms from (60) five pound blocks purchased from Mycoterra Farm. During the first round approximately 44 pounds of mushrooms were produced and sold for $780. During the second round approximately 38 pounds of mushrooms were produced and sold for $675. A second flush of oysters and lions mane were missed during this second round which would have led to a higher yield. For the third round of production 30 ten pound blocks were purchased from Cap N Stem mushrooms. These produced 47 pounds of mushrooms which sold for $712.
Farm 2: Beech Hill Farm produced mushrooms from (60) ten pound blocks purchased from Cap and Stem mushrooms. During the first round approximately 75.5 pounds of mushrooms were produced. Shiitake 17.5, oyster 28, Lion's mane 30. Mushrooms were sold by the pound, in pints, and quarts. In total sales from this first round were $976 with the sale of shiitake mushrooms being under reported. The second round of fruiting was more abundant. In total approximately 126 pound of mushrooms were produced. Shiitake 18, oyster 65, lion's mane 43. Mushrooms were primarily sold by the pint and quart resulting in total sales of $2,111.
Farm 3: Up Top Acres produced mushrooms from (60) five pound blocks purchased from Mycoterra Mushrooms. During the first round approximately 52 pounds of mushrooms were produced. 29 pounds of oyster's and 23 pounds of lion's mane, the shiitake dried out and never fruited during the first round. Mushrooms were sold by the pound to restaurants for a total of $802. The second round Up Top Acres produced from (30) ten pound blocks purchased from Cap and Stem. During the second round approximately 73 pounds of mushrooms were produced. Shiitake 10, oyster 31, lions mane 32. These were sold by the pound resulting in sales of $1136.
There were two large variables which impacted the viability of this method of mushroom production between the farms, yield and price. Yield per block varied from .6 lbs per block all the way up to 3 pounds per block. Modifying for the weight of the block this would be a range of 1.2-3 lbs of mushrooms produced per block. The other variable was the price/pound the mushrooms were sold for. Depending on the farm and method of sale this ranged from $9-$20 per pound. Combining these two ranges of 1.2-3 pounds of mushrooms harvested per block and $9-20 per pound a block could generate anywhere from $10-$60 of revenue. The next step is to analyze what impacts this range of factors.
All 3 farms successful produced and sold mushrooms for 2 trials. It was relatively easy to sell the mushrooms through the existing channels the farms had with almost no surplus of mushrooms being produced and unable to sell. This demonstrates that farms with existing markets can easily add mushrooms as another crop sold through those markets.
The income generated between trials and farms varied significantly. With the right market and more experience, honing the techniques and timing the weather this method could be consistently profitable at all of the participating farms.
Education & Outreach Activities and Participation Summary
Participation Summary:
To date only 5 private consultations either in person, on the phone or via email have been conducted discussing this project and the possibility of other farms replicating this method of mushroom production.