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°
during the bearing period, and the temperature of the surface of the bed
45° to 50° 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.