FACULTY OF EDUCATION

FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT AND

AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES
TAREMWA CLINTON. (Agronomist)

MUSHROOM GROWING

Steps describing how to cultivate/growing mushrooms.

1.1.1 Mushroom spawns

1.1.2 Substrate
1.1.3 Inoculation
1.1.4 Incubation
1.1.5 Harvest
1.1.6 Drying and packaging.

2 Major costs and resources needed to cultivate / establish mushrooms.

2.1. Approximate upfront capital cost required to start mushroom product.
2.2 Mushroom market price.
 Mushroom cultivation is a highly profitable and a sustainable enterprise for
small and marginal agricultural labourers.
Mushrooms contains macro-nutrients that support a healthy immune
system .According to the mushroom council,your immune system will
benefit from mushrooms whose nutrients include;
Selenium, which helps your body to make anti xodiants enzymes to prevent
cell damage.
Mushrooms can be grown to a low cost and in a relatively short time. It is a
practice that can be adopted by small scale farmers to diversify their income
during the dry season, when lack of the may challenge the cultivation of
other crops, and reduce their vulnerability to advise weather.
Mushroom production is done indoor, and it requires little amount of H2O
compared to other crops.
1 STEPS DESCRIBING HOW TO GROW MUSHROOMS.
1. MUSHROOM SPAWNS.
Mushrooms are grown in gardens where the spawns are inoculated.
The spawns are filled into sterile glass bottle through a process that
require specific tools and knowledge .Farmers can either buy
mushroom spawns from specialized producers at local markets or be
trained for producing mushroom spawns themselves.

1.2SUBSTRATE
There are very many materials that can be used as substrate i.e.

Agricultural wastes e.g. from sorghum, millet, beans, peas, wheat, maize or
cotton wastes can be used as a substrate to grow /oyster mushrooms.The
agricultural wastes which is easily available on farms, is soaked for an
overnight and then heaped for fermentation for four to six days in a closed
container after the fermentation process, the agricultural wastes is sterilized
through boiling in closed container for five to seven hours in order to eliminate
unwanted organisms and bacteria. After cooling its filled in small polyethene
plastic bags using common sanitize bowls, to serve us a substrate .The
substrate should be composed of 65% to 75% of moisture , and for the
remaining part by agricultural waste. It can be used for three harvest , and
then it can be recycled as organic mulch or fertilizer . Alternatively , cotton –
seed waste can be used as a substrate for the oysta mushroom production.

1.3INCULATION

Cylindrical polythen plastic bags are filled with the substrates about 1 kg per
bag while the black polythen plastic bags are filled with the substrate about 2
kgs per bag which is then inoculated with the mushroom spawns.

(spawns are mixed with the substrates). Each garden of about 1kg of substrate
is filled with about 50grams of spawns whereas each garden of 2kgs of the
substrate is filled with about 100grams of spawns then the plastic bags are
closed manually.

1.4INCUBATION/COLINISATION
Following the inoculation, the mushroom bags are hunged in
locally built (brick or mud walls and thatched roof), Darkened
mushroom houses for incubation /colonization. The ideal
humidity of the incubation room is 70-75% Inoculation process
takes about 14-28 days.
1.5Harvest
The mushrooms start sprouting after about 28-35 days from
inoculation.
Each mushroom garden (i.e. plastic bag containing about 1 kg of
substrates yields a minimum of 2kgs of substrates yields a
minimum of 4kgs of fresh Oysta mushrooms.
 1.6Drying and packing
Harvested mushrooms can be sold, fresh or they can be died in a
solar drier and packed into plastic bags for sale.

2. MAJOR COSTS AND RESOURCES NEEDED TO CULTIVATE OTSTA

MUSHROOM.

The approximate production carts per average mushroom garden (about 1kg of
substrate) yielding about 2kg of fresh mushrooms are the following :-

 Cost of a polythene bag 150shs per bag

 Cottonseed waste Ugx 1200 per kg
 Mushroom spawns Ugx 3000 per bottle
 Labour ugx.150,000 per service

2.1 APPROXIMATE UP-FRONT CAPITAL COSTS REQUIREDTO START

MUSHROOM PRODUCTION ARE:-
 Growing room Ugx 800,000 – 1,000,000
 Solar drier Ugx 250,000 – 500,000

2.2 MUSHROOM MARKET PRICES

 Dried mushrooms each kg is 80,000 shillings

 Fresh mushroom Ugx 8,000 per kg

NOTE:- To get 1kg dried mushrooms, you need 8 kgs of fresh Oysters
mushrooms.

2. BENEFITS OF GROWING MUSHROOMS

Mushroom growing has major roles i.e the conservation of natural
resources and increasing the recycling of agro-waste including agro-
industrial wastes.
 Mushrooms decrease the risk of cancer; some mushroom
varieties such as shiitech, Oysters, Maitech and king Oysters
have high amounts of ergothioneine.
 They lower sodium intake, Mushrooms are naturally low in
sodium and entire cap of white button mushrooms has just five
milligrams of mushrooms. They offer savory forever that
reduces that need for added salt to keep your blood pressure
low.
 They promote brain health
 They provide source of vitamin D which helps your body absorb
 calcium to maintain and build strong bones.

CHALLENGES IN MUSHROOM GROWING.

 Un-availability of good spawn

 Lack of equipment’s
 Lack of available market and promotion in local level
 Price fluctuation
 Lack of canning and processing unit and refrigerated storage.