DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL AND

HORTICULTURAL SCIENCES

Topic: Environmentally controlled mushroom unit

Course code: 22ELCT374
Course title: Mushroom Production Technology
Branch: AHS
Submitted to: Dr.M.L.N.Nandhini,
Asst. professor,
VFSTRU.
Submitted by: Batch 3
211FW01023
211FW01028
211FW01060
211FW01073
 ENVIRONMENTALLY CONTROLLED UNIT
Before we start thinking of establishing a commercial environment control unit, it is
important to ensure:
 To get good training, visit a commercial unit, study the market and obtain hands on
experience in cultivation of mushroom.
 To develop project report with the help of experts for following better protocols and
also getting loans.
 To arrange money in advance and take advantage of subsidies and other support
provided by the government.
Commercial unit may consist of spawn production unit, compost production unit, cropping
unit and canning unit. We have already learnt about the spawn production. Only big farms go
for setting up their spawn lab and normally prefer to purchase the seed. In Europe, all the
growers procure readymade compost. In India, however, the commercial units doing cropping
make their own compost. Very few units go for setting up a canning unit.

The size of different components will vary with the proposed capacity of the unit. It is
important to synchronize various components. That is, after deciding the size of the cropping
room (described later) we calculate the amount of compost that will be accommodated in this
room. Accordingly, we decide the size of the tunnel so that compost required for that room
can be produced in one tunnel. The size of bunker is determined by the size of tunnel and it is
normally 1.25 to 1.5 times more in surface area than that of tunnel. Similarly the size of yard,
pre-wetting area will depend upon the amount of raw materials to be handled at any given
point of time.
In the cropping rooms we need to maintain a ratio of area for compost and air. We cannot
overstuff the room. Actual calculations are bit complex but for rough estimate we use the
following formula to calculate the amount of compost that can be put in a room:
Approx. Room capacity (compost in Tonnes) = (L’ × B’ x H’)/600 ± 10%Say we have a room
20 feet wide, 60 feet long and 12.5 feet high. It can accommodate compost = 20' × 60' ×
12.5'/600 = 25 ± 10%. That is, room can normally accommodate 25 ton compost and it may
vary from 22.5 to 27.5 ton.
For calculating the amount of compost that can be produced in a tunnel we use the following
simplified formula:
Compost output of a tunnel (in tons) = (L’ × B’)/16 ± 10%
Say we have a tunnel 10 feet wide and 40 feet long from inside. It can be used to produce
about 25 ton compost (10 × 40/16 = 25).
Please remember that these are simplifications and not actual values.

Bunkers for Phase-I: These days most of the growers do phase-I in bunkers which are
open structures having provision for aeration from below. This saves space and effort and you
can process more compost in less area. Bunker has a network of pipes fitted with 4 to 6 inch
long plastic pipes (spigots) having small (about 6 mm dia) holes at a distance of 40 x 40 cm
(Fig. 11.5). Bunkers are filled up to 8-9 feet. The air speed of the fan in terms of CMH can be
calculated on the basis of requirement of fresh air @ 50 CMH per ton of the final compost.
We need high pressure fans to pass the air through the compost. The pressure of the fan can
be in the range of 40-70 cmWG. You must understand that air speed and pressure are two
different things and fan able to provide different air speed and pressure can be designed by
the experts.

PHASE II pasteurisation tunnels: Tunnel looks like any other ordinary long room
with the difference that you can see a floor having holes. In this chamber the compost is
handled in bulk, hence at times it also called bulk chamber. Actually this room is an insulated
chamber with air tight insulated doors and it has space below it which is called plenum (Fig.
11.6). We push the air from below using a fan designed for this purpose and recirculate the
air. The position of blower fan can be below the ground or above the tunnel on roof
depending upon the design. There is also provision for injecting filtered fresh air and steam in
the air being circulated. The tunnel has two exhaust vents, one for recirculation of air and the
other for exhaust of gases on introduction of fresh air via dampers. Normally recirculation
duct is made of aluminium and is outside the tunnel. In some tunnels you may see that the air
circulation duct can be made of canvas and it can be inside the tunnel instead of outside as
can be seen in Fig 11.7 (right). In the tunnel the compost is In the tunnel we fill the compost
after completing the process of phase-I in bunkers. The compost in tunnel is filled up to 6 or
6.5 feet that means about one ton compost per square meter. There is about 25% loss in
weight of compost in 5-6 days in the tunnel. The fan used in tunnel is of centrifugal type with
its blades either radial or inclined/curved backwards. We calculate the quantity of cubic meter
air to be blown per hour (CMH) by the fan by multiplying the area of tunnel in square meter
with 200. For example in a tunnel with area of 20 sq m, we may need a fan of the capacity of
4000 CMH. The static pressure of fan should be 10-12 cm WG.

Casing unit There is need for another small insulated chamber similar to tunnel for
pasteurization of the casing soil. There is no self heat generation by casing soil and hence we
will have to install a boiler to provide steam for pasteurization of the casing soil. Sterilisation
of casing soil can be done with Formalin, but it is better to pasteurize the casing soil. This
chamber should be away from cropping rooms and well protected from dust.
Labour is a costly input and thus mechanisation is must at commercial unit. A JCB or tractor
mounted with front end loader is required to handle the straw, wet it, turn it, and fill it.
Conveyer belt and bunker filler/ tunnel filler is required for proper and loose filling of the
compost (Fig. 11.8). In case the size of the tunnel is big then it may not be possible to
manually spawn the compost and we may require a spawning and bag filling machine.
JCB or front loading assembly is used Conveyer with front moving head to turn/fill compost
for tunnel filling

Desing of cropping room

A viable commercial unit has 6-8 rooms. At least six rooms are required to ensure efficient
use of the tunnel and also setting the cropping cycle in a manner that mushroom production is
there throughout the year. The rooms can be on one side or on both sides of the corridor. All
rooms are insulated using thermocol or are made 60-80 mm thick PUF (Polyurethane Foam)
panels. We need specific dimensions as far as width of room and height of room is concerned.
Width of room will depend upon the number of rows of racks that are proposed to be put.
Normally the width of rack is around 4.5 feet. The width of path in between racks is never
less than 3 feet and preferably may be one meter (3.3'). Thus, if there are two rows, there will
be three paths and thus width of room will be = 3.3 + 4.5 + 3.3 + 4.5 + 3.3 = 19.2 feet. These
are inside dimensions and we can add about two feet for walls and insulation. Similarly
height is determined by number of racks. There is space below the lower most rack and also
above the top most rack. Distance between racks is 2'. For four racks a room of 10.5' height is
required, for five racks 12.5'; for six racks, 14.5'. Two feet are added to height for every rack.
Length is normally three times the width of the room. It can be somewhat more or less but air
circulation becomes a problem if length is more than 100 feet. In rooms with two rows, there
are two air ducts on the sides with holes on lower side. Fig. 11.9 shows cross section of such
a cropping room. The size of the duct, size of hole and distance between holes will depend
upon the dimensions of the room. These ducts are connected to Air Handling Unit (AHU)
which has mechanism for cooling and also humidification. The amount of the air and cooling
capacity of AHU is determined by the maximum amount of compost proposed to be filled in
the room. For smaller units one can have independent AHUs and for larger unit it is
economical to have central cooling facility.

CASE STUDY 1
Cultivation of Button Mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) Under Controlled
Condition: An Initiative in Bastar Plateau of Chhattisgarh
Abstract
The experiment was conducted at Mushroom Production unit at SG College of agriculture
and research station, Jagdalpur during July 2017 -January 2018 under controlled condition.
Fresh culture of Agaricus bisporus S-11 was maintained on potato dextrose agar. Compost
was prepared by short method of composting and cultivation trials of Agaricus bisporus
Spawn, Pinning, 11 was carried out in a closed room provided with air conditioner as source
of cooling. The Casing, Composting relative humidity inside the cropping rooms was
maintained to 60 -70%. Spawn run completed in 15 days and required 12-15 days more for
case run. The pinheads developed into solid button sized mushrooms in another 5recorded for
this mushroom revealed an average stipe length of 3.02 cm having girth of 1.7-7 days.
Morphological characteristics While the average pileus length and width was 2.1 cm and
3.37 cm respectively. Mushroom yield of 18.17 kg/100 Kg compost was recorded. Average
weight of mushroom recorded was 19.1 kg with average number of fruiting bodies of 960
from 100 kg of compost. Benefit cost ratio for mushroom cultivation was estimated to be
1.98.

Conclusion
The present results indicate that button mushroom can possibly be cultivated under
laboratory condition. This can be a means of livelihood and a source of economic
empowerment for women in both urban and rural areas, and for small holder farmers, apart
from being a source of food production.

CASE STUDY 2

Automated Controlled Environment Mushroom House

Abstract:
Mushroom can be served as flavoursome food, but most importantly, it can be
served as nutritional and medicinal value food. Therefore, mushroom is an essential
commodity under the Malaysia National Agro-Food Policy. Currently, mushroom cultivation
is being done in the conventional method, not in a proper and hygienic condition. Therefore
controlled environment mushroom house (CEMH) has been developed by transforming a
greenhouse into a controlled environment mushroom house integrated with the internet of
things (IoT) system. This CEMH micro-climate is automatically controlled by the
combination of data parameters provided by various types of sensors. The integration of the
IoT system has further enhanced this system to overcome extreme weather changes and
override the control anytime and anywhere. The computation and monitoring process can be
done either locally or remotely. The current system is set up for Grey Oyster mushroom
(Pleurotus pulmonaris) cultivation to identify the best isolate to be proposed for mass
production. The interconnection of sensors, mechanical and electronic systems is to optimize
the growth condition. The developed system manages to control the temperature consistently
o o
and relative humidity (% RH) in the range of 18 C to 27 C and % RH not lower than 70%,
respectively. For this condition, this system can produce at least 30% more yield than
ordinary mushroom houses. Moreover, the contamination rate is successfully kept below 2%
and is considered very low compared to ordinary entrepreneur mushroom houses, usually
more than 10%. This system can provide the research facility for the high nutritional and
medicinal value mushrooms.

Conclusion
The control system can control the CEMH ambient temperature and relative humidity
for optimum growth conditions to overcome the relatively hot environment of Malaysia,
which the temperature can rise to 41°C and the low relative humidity by 58% or even much
lower during the hot season (Wafi et al., 2011) which is clear that temperature and humidity
of Malaysia weather are far from the optimal condition for oyster mushroom cultivation. The
farmers can also take corrective and preventive measures in advance based on the data
provided and alarming status reports anywhere and anything sudden weather change to
decide to override regular program basic to reduce the extreme environment change that will
affect the mushroom productivity (Elijah et al., 2018). This research can help the local
industries produce good quality various varieties mushroom spawns (seeds), especially for
the popular, Grey Oyster Mushroom (P. pulmonaris) and reduce the imported especially for
those have the high nutritional and medicinal value mushrooms. After achieving the proof of
concept in reducing contamination and increasing yield, future works will be studying the
minimum required commercial productivity scale to minimize the needed person-hours and,
at the same time, maximize the profit margin. In the future, this IoT system aims to be
applied in the supply chain as it will help provide real-time balancing between the demand
and supply (Elijah et al., 2018) to prevent the losses of overproduced oyster mushrooms due
to their short shelf life. This automated CEMH also provides the research facility to help the
growers
identify the most stable, good quality strain and the best isolate to be proposed for mass
production.