Watering mushroom beds.
If the beds get dry they should be
watered, for mushrooms will not grow well in dry beds
or in a dry atmosphere. Watering is an operation
requiring much care. In properly-made beds the
manure should remain moist enough from first to last,
and whatever dryness is evident should be in the loam
casing of the beds and the atmosphere. In all
artificially heated mushroom houses the beds and atmosphere
are apt to get too dry at one time or another; in
underground houses or cellars this is less apparent
than in above-ground structures; in shaded north-facing
houses dryness is less troublesome than in houses more
openly placed.
Endeavor by all fair means to lessen
the necessity for watering the beds, but when water
is needed never hesitate to give it freely. Mulching
the beds and maintaining a moist atmosphere are the
best preventives. After the beds are spawned
and molded it is a good plan to cover them with a
light coating of strawy litter or hay to prevent drying,
but this mulching should be removed when it is near
time for the young mushrooms to appear. A light
sprinkling of water over this mulching every few days,
but never enough to reach the soil, assists in preserving
enough moisture in the bed under the mulch and also
in the atmosphere of the house.
Clean, soft water at a temperature
of 80 deg. or 90 deg.; a little warmer or
a little colder will not hurt, but do not use water
higher than 110 deg., as it might injure the
little pinheads, nor lower than the average temperature
of the house, as it would chill the bed, and this should
always be avoided.
Use a small or medium-sized watering
pot with a long spout and a fine rose sprinkler.
Apply the water in a gentle shower over the bed, mushrooms
and all, but never use enough to allow it to settle
in pools or run off in little streams. Clean
water sprinkled over the mushrooms does not appear
to hurt them, but they should never be touched with
manure water, as it stains them. Just as soon
as the surface of the bed shows signs of dryness give
it water, the quantity depending upon the condition
of the bed. Never let a bed get very dry before
watering it. To thoroughly moisten a very dry
bed requires a heavy watering; so much, indeed, that
the sudden change might injuriously affect the young
mushrooms and spawn. Give enough water at a time
to moderately moisten the soil, not to soak it, but
never sufficient to pass through the soil into the
manure. Clean water only should be used until
the beds come into bearing, but after that time manure
water may be employed with advantage; however, this
is not at all imperative; indeed, excellent crops
can be and are continually being produced without the
aid of manure water at all.
In the case of beds in full bearing,
manure water is beneficial to the crop. Apply
it from a small watering pot with a long narrow spout
but no rose, and pour the liquid on gently over the
surface of the bed, running it freely between the
clumps but never touching any of the mushrooms.
For this reason a rose should not be used.
I have always used manure water for
mushrooms more or less, but during the past two seasons ’87-’88
and ’88-’89 I have experimented
with it continuously and very carefully, using it
in some form or other on part of every bed, and am
satisfied that manure water made from fresh horse
droppings is the best, and the dark colored liquid,
the drainings from manure piles, is the poorest; in
fact, this latter is not as good as plain water, for
it seems to have a deadening rather than quickening
effect upon the beds. Cow manure and sheep manure
make a good liquid manure, but still I prefer the
horse manure, and although having given hen and pigeon
manure and guano fair tests I am not satisfied that
they have benefited the crop, and there is always
a risk in their use. Liquid manure made from
the contents of the barnyard tank has not done much
good, but fresh urine from the horse and cow stables
diluted twelve to fifteen times its bulk has given
favorable results.
Mushrooms not only bear with impunity
but appear to enjoy a stronger liquid manure more
than do any other cultivated plants, and I am satisfied
that the weak liquids usually recommended for pot and
garden plants would be barely more efficacious than
plain water for mushrooms.
The manure water that has given me
most satisfaction is prepared as follows: Dump
two bushels of fresh horse droppings into a forty-five
gallon barrel and fill up with water; stir it up well
and let it settle over night. Drain off the liquid
the next day and add a pound of saltpeter to it.
For use, to a pailful of this liquid add a pailful
of warm water. Water of about 80 deg. to
90 deg. is best for mushroom beds. Saltpeter
is an excellent fertilizer for mushrooms. I use
it in two ways, namely: First, powdered and mixed
in the soil for casing the beds, at the rate of two
ounces of saltpeter to the bushel of earth. Second,
dissolved in water at the rate of two ounces of saltpeter
to eight gallons of water, and sprinkled over the
beds.
Common salt I use as an insecticide
and also as a fertilizer, and am satisfied that it
proves beneficial in both ways. Sometimes I sprinkle
it broadcast on the surface of the beds, always on
the bare places, never touching the mushrooms, and
leave it there for a day or two, then with a fine,
gentle sprinkling of water wash it into the soil.
This is to help destroy the anguillulae. As a
fertilizer only dissolve four ounces of salt in ten
gallons of water, and with this sprinkle the beds.
A too dry atmosphere can be remedied
by sprinkling the floors, walls, or litter coverings
on the beds with water, not heavily or copiously, but
gently and only enough to wet the surfaces; better
moisten in this way frequently than drench the place
at any one time. But I very much dislike sprinkling
the beds in order to moisten the atmosphere. An
experienced man can tell in a moment whether or not
the atmosphere of the mushroom house is too dry.
The air in the mushroom house should always feel moist,
at the same time not raw or chilly, and the floor and
wall surfaces should present a slow tendency to dry
up, and the earth on the beds should retain its dark,
moist appearance. The least tendency to dryness
should at once be relieved by damping the wall and
floor surfaces.
In houses heated by smoke flues, or
still more by ordinary stoves and sheet iron pipes,
it may be necessary to dampen the floors and walls
once or several times a day to maintain a sufficiently
moist atmosphere, but where hot water pipes are used
and the houses are tight enough to require but little
artificial heat, such frequent sprinkling will not
be necessary. In the case of beds in unheated
structures the ordinary atmosphere is generally moist
enough.
Manure Steam for Moistening the Atmosphere.- The
late James Barnes, of England, a grand old gardener,
writing in the London Garden, Vol. III,
page 486, describes his method of growing mushrooms
sixty years ago, and says: “In winter a
nice moist heat was maintained by placing hot stable
manure inside, and often turning it over.”
Mr. John G. Gardner, of Jobstown, N. J., is one of
Mr. Barnes’s old pupils and a most successful
mushroom grower, and he now practices this same method
of moistening the atmosphere by hot manure steam.
See page 21.
In damping the floors of the mushroom
house, as well as the beds, I use a medium-sized watering
pot and fine rose; but in sprinkling the walls and
other parts not readily accessible by the watering
pot I use a common garden syringe.