Growing Mushrooms in Ridges out of Doors Around London.
In the preface to Kitchen and Market
Gardening (London) is the following:
“Mr. W. Falconer and Mr. C.
W. Shaw made, in connection with the London Garden,
what we believe to be the first attempt at long and
systematic observation of the best culture as it is
in London market gardens.” This is mentioned
to indicate that the writer speaks on this subject
from experience. And although it is now seventeen
years since I became disconnected with the London
market gardens, by revisiting them a few years ago,
and by correspondence and the horticultural press,
I have endeavored to keep informed of all changes
of methods and improvements in culture as practiced
there. At that time Steele, Bagley, Broadbent,
Dancer, Pocock and Myatt were among the largest and
best gardeners around London, and since then several
of these grand old gentlemen have passed away and
their fields have been cut up and built upon.
At that time mushrooms were one of the general crops,
as were snap beans or cauliflower, and in their season
were planted as a matter of course. To-day they
have become a specialty, and some gardeners devote
their whole energy to mushroom-growing alone, and
make from $2000 to $5000 a year clear profit from
one acre of mushrooms, and that, too, from ridges
in the open field! There is no other field crop
that yields such a large profit. There they get
twenty-four to forty-eight cents a pound for their
fresh mushrooms, here we get fifty cents to a dollar
a pound for ours. But as mushroom-growing there
is confined to fall, winter and spring, those gardeners
who restrict themselves to mushrooms only devote the
summer months to making mushroom spawn for their own
use, and also for sale.
Mr. John F. Barter, of Lancefield
street, London, the king of London mushroom growers,
writes me under date of De, 1888: “I
employ men for mushroom bed-making from August to
March; then, in order to keep on the same staff, I
get about 10,000 bushels of brick spawn made up for
sale.... By the sale of spawn I make just half
of my living.” Now let us see: 10,000
bushels - 160,000 bricks, and each brick weighs a pound,
thus we have 160,000 pounds. At ten cents a pound
(retail price) the total is $16,000; at five cents
a pound (supposed wholesale price) $8000, or at three
and a half cents a pound (supposed manufacturer’s
price) $5600.
The manure is obtained from the city
stables and hauled home by the gardeners on their
return trips from market. The manure collected
after midsummer is used for mushrooms, and an effort
is made to save the very best horse manure for this
purpose. When enough has accumulated for a bed
the manure is turned and well shaken, removing only
the rougher part of the straw, and thrown into a large
pyramidal pile to heat; this shape is adopted as being
better than the flat form for keeping out rain.
In three or four days the manure is again turned,
shaken out and piled up as before; after this it is
turned every second day, unless it rains, until it
has been turned six or seven times in all. It
should then be ready for making into ridges.
The site for the beds should be a
warm, well-sheltered piece of ground, either in the
open field or orchard; much pains should be exercised
to protect it from cold winds. Although a great
many mushroom ridges are made under the partial shade
of apple and pear trees, I always preferred making
them in the open ground. The land should be dry
and of a slightly elevated or sloping nature, so that
no pools of water can possibly collect on the surface.
Having the ground cleared, leveled, and ready, mark
it off into strips two feet wide and six feet wide
alternately. The two feet wide space is for the
mushroom bed, the six feet wide one for the space
between the beds; but after the ridges are built, earthed
over and covered with straw, they are almost six feet
wide at the base. The common sizes of ridges
are two feet wide by two feet high, and two and one-half
feet wide by two and one-half feet high, and taper
to six or eight inches wide at top.
The manure being ready and the site
for the beds lined off, the manure is carted to the
place and wheeled upon the beds. In making the
bed shake out the manure well and evenly to cause
it to hold together, tamp it with the back of the
fork as you go along, and two or three times before
the ridges are completed walk upon and tread the manure
down solidly with the feet, and trim down the sides
to turn the rain water. Two days after the bed
is made up some holes should be bored from the top
to nearly the bottom with a small iron bar to let the
heat off and prevent the inside of the bed from becoming
too dry. Make them about nine inches apart all
along the center of the bed. The old gardeners
did not use the crowbar. They were very particular
not to build their ridges before the chances of overheating
were considered past; but notwithstanding all their
care some of their beds would get overwarm, when,
without a moment’s hesitation, they tossed them
over, part to the right and part to the left, and
left the manure thus exposed for a day or two to cool,
and then make up the beds again on the same site.
Brick spawn is always used. Some
of those who make a specialty of mushrooms also make
spawn for sale as well as for their own use; but the
majority of the gardeners prefer to buy rather than
make their own spawn.
When the heat has fallen to between
80 deg. and 90 deg. the ridges are spawned,
the pieces inserted in three rows along each side,
leaving about nine inches between the pieces.
A dibber should not be used on any account. The
spawn is put in tightly with the hand and the manure
pressed down. It should be put in level with
the face of the bed, so that the mold may just touch
it when the bed is cased. In the event of cold
or wet weather, just as soon as the beds are spawned
a slight covering of rank litter is laid over them.
After a few days this is removed and the beds are
molded over with mold from ground to which manure has
not been applied for some time. But the general
market gardeners do not make this distinction; they
use the earth from between the ridges, which has been
manured regularly every year for a couple of hundred
years or more. The mold is put on evenly with
the spade and is about two inches thick at the base
of the ridge and one inch thick at top, and well firmed
by beating with the back of the spade; indeed, the
ridges are now commonly watered through a water-pot
rose, again beaten very firmly and the surface left
smooth and even. This smooth surface readily sheds
rain water, but I question if it has any advantage
over a well-firmed unglazed surface. After molding
the beds are covered with litter, that is, the rankest
straw that had been shaken out of the manure, to a
depth of four, six, eight, or ten inches, according
to the state of the bed and weather; if the bed is
inclined to be cool or if the weather is cold, thicken
the covering.
Drenching or long drizzling rains
are more injurious to the beds than is cold, and in
order to ward them off old Russia mats and any other
sort of cloth or carpet covering obtainable is laid
over the litter on the beds and weighted down with
poles, boards, stones, or anything else that is convenient.
Do not disturb this covering for about four weeks,
and then on a dry day strip it off and shake up the
litter loosely so as to dry it. If there is any
white mold on the surface of the soil take a handful
of straw and rub it off. If the bed is rather
cold put a layer of clean, dry hay next the bed, and
on top of this replace the littery covering.
The first beds are made in August,
and one or more every month after till March, just
as time, convenience and material permit. Summer
beds are not attempted unless in exceptional cases.
The bulk of the beds are generally put in in September
and October. In early fall, also in spring, beds
yield mushrooms in about six weeks after spawning;
in winter they take eight or nine weeks or more, much
depending on the weather.
In cold weather the mushrooms are
gathered at noon-day; if the weather is windy and
it is possible to postpone gathering for another day
this is done, as the litter can not be replaced satisfactorily
in windy weather. In gathering the mushrooms
one man carefully pulls the straw down from the top
of the bed, rolling it toward him; another gathers
the mushrooms (pulling them out by the roots, never
cutting them) into baskets, and a third man covers
up the bed. In this way the three men go up one
side of the ridge and down the other, and the work
is done expeditiously and well, without exposing any
part of the bed more than a minute or two at a time.
It is necessary that the uncovering be done by rolling
the straw down from the top of the ridge; if it were
rolled up the covering on the other side of the ridge
would be sure to slip down a little, and break off
many small mushrooms. The mushrooms as gathered
are of three grades; the large or wide-spread ones
are called “broilers,” the full-sized
ones whose neck frill is merely broken about half
an inch wide are “cups,” and the small
white ones whose frills are not broken at all are
termed “buttons.” All of these are
kept separate. They are marketed in different
ways, but the growers who make mushrooms a specialty
assort and pack them in chip baskets, boxes, or otherwise,
as the metropolitan and provincial markets demand or
suggest. Mr. John F. Barter, writing to me from
London, says: “As to punnetts, we use the
same as for strawberries or peaches” (the abundance
of peaches we have in America is unknown over there),
“they hold just one pound. But it is getting
more general now to have little boxes made to hold
say three to five pounds each; these are better for
packing in larger cases for long journeys.”
The first cutting is a light one.
After this the bed is cut twice a week for three weeks
in mild weather, or once a week in inclement weather.
The last two or three pickings are thin and only secured
once a week. Altogether ten or eleven good pickings
are gathered from each bed.
I never knew of a single instance
in which any attempt was made to renovate an old or
worn-out bed. But when the beds become so dry
as to need watering a small handful of salt is dissolved
in a large pailful of water and with this solution
the beds are freely watered over the straw covering,
but never, to my knowledge, under it.
My old friends, George Steele and
Mr. Bagley, of Fulham Fields, used to run part of
their beds east and west, not only for convenience
sake so far as the beds themselves were concerned,
but with the view of growing early tomatoes against
the south side of these beds in summer, and here they
got their finest and earliest crops, for the London
gardeners can not grow tomatoes out of doors in the
open fields as we can in America. Other gardeners
clear away the manure for use elsewhere in their fields,
and as it is so well rotted it is in capital condition
for cauliflower, lettuces, snap beans, and other crops.
But as the mushroom growers who restrict themselves
entirely to mushrooms, and who, after the mushroom
beds have finished bearing, have no further use for
the manure in the spent beds, are always able to dispose
of it at one-half the cost price. It is excellent
for garden crops and as a topdressing for lawns, on
account of its fineness and freedom from all rubbish
as sticks, stones, old bottles, old shoes, and the
like, is in much demand.