Evaluating the profitability of high-value end products produced from spent mushroom substrate

Evaluating the profitability of high-value end products produced from spent mushroom substrate

Summary

The goal of our project is to evaluate the profitability of several uses of spent mushroom substrate. These uses include producing compost, worms, worm castings and fresh mushrooms of other varieties.

We constructed a 4’ x 40’ x 1.5’ worm bed and installed 5 pounds of European night crawlers on 200 pounds of bedding. The bedding consisted of 50% spent mushroom substrate and 50% aged cow manure. We also installed 10 pounds of red worms on 400 pounds of bedding using the same ratio. With the onset of cooler weather we have brought the worms and bedding indoors in large plastic totes. We plan on raising the worms indoors until spring. At that time we will harvest the worms and worm castings. Data will be collected on the amounts of each and a nutritional analysis of the castings will be performed. 500 pounds of the spent mushroom substrate/aged cow manure mix is also being composted separately and a nutritional analysis will also be done on this in the spring. It has been determined that the Canadian night crawlers will perform best on a thoroughly composted bedding. Therefore we plan on installing 5 pounds of Canadian night crawlers on 200 pounds of the thoroughly composted spent mushroom substrate/aged cow manure mix. The fresh mushroom component of our project has been delayed due to an inability to locate the proper mushroom cultures. Arrangements have been made to procure these cultures in the early spring 2013. We will compensate for the delay by effectively doubling the culture incubation rate. We will accomplish this by using the same amount of mushroom cultures to inoculate half the proposed space (10’ x 10‘). We anticipate fresh mushrooms in the fall using this inoculation rate. All fresh mushrooms will be harvested and weighed.

As our outreach project we plan to host a festival at the farm during the worm harvest to publicize the grant and promote worm bin composting.

Accomplishments/Milestones

There have been some slight changes mentioned above. One new idea that I would like to explore more thoroughly is using our composted mixture to grow agaric mushrooms indoors.

We have spent the year developing new markets and plan on continuing that in 2013.

Kurt Grevenberg provides general farm labor such as moving and mixing compost. Wendy Rizzo provides administrative support. Adam Michaelides, compost educator, provides technical advice regarding compost, worm bedding, etc.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

Collaborators: