GROWING GOURMET - Anto2ni.it

Figure 167. Bouquets of Golden Oyster mushrooms
(Pleurotus citrinopileatus) fruiting from columns of
pasteurized-wheat straw.
individual mushrooms.
Automated column-packing machines have
been developed and tested in North America
and Europe with varied results. Typically the
machines rely on an auger or "Archimedes
screw" which forces the straw through a cylinder
with considerable force. Straw can be
pasteurized, cooled, and inoculated along a
single production line. Columns are packed,
usually horizontally, in a sleeve which can be
removed for the vertical placement of the column
in the growing room. Several inventive
engineers-turned-mushroom growers are currently
developing production systems based on
this concept. For many, separating each activity—
pasteurization, inoculation, filling, and
** Readers should be note that many suppliers sell ducting
in "lay-flat" diameter, which is actually 1/2 of
circumference. Simply divide the "lay-flat" measurement
by 1.6 for true, inflated diameter.
CROPPING CONTAINERS 199
positioning—simplifies the process and prevents
cross-contamination.
Vertical cylinders can be made of a variety
of materials.The least expensive is the flexible
polyethylene ducting designed for air distribution
in greenhouses, available in rolls as long as
5000 ft. and in diameters from 6-24 inches. **
Drain-field pipe, polycarbonate columns, and
similar"hard" column materials have also been
employed with varying degrees of success.
More extravagant systems utilize inner-rotating,
perforated, hard columns equipped with
centrally located air or water capillaries which
double as support frames but I have yet to see
such a system perfected. Many farms even use
overhead trolleys for ferrying the columns into
and out of the growing rooms. (See Figure 148).
Of the many variations of Column Culture, the
ease and inexpensiveness of the flexible poly-
Figure 168. Cross section of 15 inch diameter column
of Oyster mushroom mycelium contaminated
with an anaerobic core.
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