How to Harvest Mushrooms
Mushrooms have a production cycle of 3 months and 3 weeks. It starts with composting and ends with steaming off after harvest.
Mushroom cultivation with the best techniques yields up to 4lbs per square foot. With the average being 3.12lbs per square foot. A food mushroom grower will ensure all factors are monitored and controlled for maximum yield to be realized. Experience matters a lot in the commercial production of this fungus.
Sure, the basics of growing mushrooms are important, the knowledge behind harvesting them is also important and must be well understood to prevent loss of yield.
In this write-up, I'd explain when and how to harvest this delicate crop, as well as the best way to store your harvested yield. Sit tight and prepare to be enlightened.
When To Harvest Mushrooms
Growing mushrooms is a time-sensitive process. Knowing the exact times to pick them is more delicate than knowing how to pick them up. If they're harvested at the wrong time, it could reduce the quality and quantity of your yield.
The window between picking too early and picking too late is very narrow, which is why knowing the right time is very delicate.
Timing is everything in mushroom production.
Like I mentioned earlier, there's very little time before the pining process and the harvesting period.
An expert explained the harvest of Psilocybe cubensis.
This magic mushroom is one of the most popular, but easy-to-cultivate mushrooms. With this mushroom, there are a few days after the pining phase for harvest to occur.
Waiting too long after pinning may cause the pin of the shroom to develop into a fruiting body. Generally, this window is around one to three days.
How To Identify The Best Time To Harvest
The best time to harvest these magic mushrooms is when the membrane at the bottom of the mushroom's cap is closed and about to be severed.
This is done to prevent the propagation of these shrooms. When a membrane breaks off itself, it opens up the cap of the mushroom Which will then allow spores to gain entry into the mycelium substrate of these mushrooms.
Using this physical occurrence to judge can be easy to miss, but it is the most perfect way of determining the right time to pull out these magic fungi.
Simply out; when your shrooms are no longer intact and when they're looking like they're about to come off, harvest them. It is better to harvest too early, than to harvest too late.
Spores have black coloration, and their release will cause some mushroom cap to be stained with its black and inky oil appearance. Most importantly, harvesting just before the release of these spores will greatly increase the quality of your yield.
Harvesting Your Mushrooms
You now know the right time to harvest your mushrooms. Now, you need to know how to perfectly execute the process of harvesting these shrooms.
As with most consumables, when picking or harvesting your magic mushrooms, all hygienic conditions must be met. To avoid the products being contaminated with bacteria and other harmful compounds.
Materials needed include latex gloves, tweezers, a container for the harvested shrooms, a mushroom knife, and a brush.
The next steps are the most effective and prudent ways of harvesting these shrooms in a homegrown setting. In most homegrown settings, the farmer has to harvest by hand in the absence of a mushroom knife.
Use sterile latex gloves or in case of using bare hands. make sure you wash and scrub your hand with soap and water before commencing the harvest.
Furthermore, all tools to be used must be cleaned/ sterilized before they're used for freshly produced mushrooms.
Just two fingers can be used. Positing both fingers at the base of the mushroom, close to the soil. With very little pressure applied, gently twist the stem in an anti-clockwise direction. This will pull out the bottom of the stem gently. You can now bend the stem a little for the strands still holding the stump to break off without causing any harm to the mycelium network. This network is below the stem.
This step is for shorter and more delicate mushrooms that cannot be pulled from the soil. They are most times hard to reach. With a tweezer, you can gently pick them.
First, you use a brush to dust off peat moss or other substrates that are holding on to the stem.
Do not rinse mushrooms under a running tap!
After which, you proceed to clean all the materials used.
Some home growers prefer to cut the stump off, to do away with the stress of cleaning the substrate clinging to the base.
For Commercial Growers
Must possess a mushroom knife. In the commercial cultivation of mushrooms, there is very limited time available to harvest the many mushrooms that can be found per square meters of the large-scale growing area.
With the mushroom knife, the farmer makes a quiet cut at the stem base. The stump is left behind.
Harvesting Too Late
Harvesting after the spores has been released and mushroom veils stained reduces the worth of your mushroom. It mostly ruins the aesthetic effect of the batch of shrooms.
For example, Psilocybe cubensis have golden caps and white stems. When you harvest late, its perfect coloration gets ruined by the dark and oil color of the released spores.
Bottom Line: Storage of Harvested Mushrooms
The state of your harvested mushrooms depends on how they're stored.
If your mushrooms are cultivated on a small scale, the yield is quite low. But most times more than the farmer can consume in one sitting. It can be kept in the refrigerator if it is consumed in less than 10 days. If not, then a drying process must take place. On a commercial scale, the farmer realizes a more than average yield, drying process.
The process of drying involves spreading out the mushroom pins evenly on a surface, with enough space between each shroom. At room temperature, drying completes within 10 days. For a faster and quicker drying process, a dehydrator can be used.
While there's still plenty to learn, this overview would come in handy for mushroom harvesting.
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