Growing mushrooms in sheds.
Any one who has a snug, warm shed,
may have a good mushroom house, but it is imperative
that the floor should be dry, and the roof water-tight.
Of course a close shed, as a tool-house or a carriage-house,
is better than an open shed, but even a shed that
is open on the south side, if closely walled on the
other sides, can also be made of good use for mushroom
beds. While open sheds are good enough for beds
that yield their crop before Christmas, they are ill-adapted
for midwinter beds. The temperature of the interior
of a mushroom bed should be about 60 deg. during
the bearing period, and the temperature of the surface
of the bed 45 deg. to 50 deg. at least;
if lower than that the mycelium has a tendency to
rest, and the crop stagnates. Now this temperature
can not be maintained in an open shed, in hard frosty
weather, without more trouble than the crop is worth.
The beds would have to be boxed up and mulched very
heavily. And even in a close, warm shed, protection
in this way would have to be given, but the bed should
not be under the penetrating influence of piercing
winds and draughts. The mushroom beds should
therefore be made in the warmest parts of the warmest
sheds.
The beds should be made upon the floor
and as much to one side as possible, so as to be out
of the way, and in form flat on the ground, or rounded
up against the sides of the shed; in the latter case
the house should be well banked around on the outside
with litter or tree leaves or earth, so as to exclude
frost from the lower part of the walls, and thereby
prevent the manure in the beds from getting badly chilled.
The beds should be made deeper in a cool shed than
in a cellar or warm mushroom house, so that they may
retain their heat for a long time.
Shelf beds should not be used in unheated
sheds, because of the difficulty in keeping them warm
in winter. As a rule, shelf beds are not made
as deep as are those upon the floor; hence they do
not hold their heat so long. When cold weather
sets in it is easy to box up and cover over the lower
beds to keep them warm, but in the case of shelf beds,
that are exposed above and below, it is more trouble
to protect them sufficiently against cold than they
are worth.
Generally speaking, the term shed
is applied to unheated, simple wooden structures;
for instance, the wood-shed, the tool-shed, a carriage-house,
or a hay-barn. But we often use the name shed
to designate heated buildings, as the potting and
packing sheds of florists. Were it not that these
heated sheds are simply workrooms, and where there
is a great deal of going out and in, and, consequently,
draughts and sudden and frequent fluctuations of temperature,
the treatment of mushroom beds made in them would
be the same as that advised for regular mushroom houses;
but as the circumstances are somewhat different the
treatment, too, should not be the same. A warm
potting shed is an excellent place for mushroom beds.
Here they should be made under the benches and covered
up in front with thick calico, plant-protecting cloth,
or light wooden shutters, to exclude cold currents
and sudden atmospheric changes, and guard against the
beds drying too quickly.