Abel Kiddu, a mushroom farmer at Makindye, Kampala, says mushroom growing is a business that can be profitable within few weeks.
He advises that is better to start your mushroom venture with the oyster variety because it has a high demand and profitability is good.
Harvest starts from 21 days and can go on for over 150 days. Air temperature during cropping should be between 57 to 62 degrees for good results.
During the dry season, it is important to irrigate. Therefore, if you have water and you can plant these crops now, you will leap much because at the time of your harvest, many of the farmers will be planting, and thus supply will be low and the prices high.
Kiddu says making a mushroom garden is not so complicated.
“You need cotton husks, which in my case, I buy in bulk from districts like Lira and Soroti and store since I make many gardens on a daily. A bag of 40kg costs sh20, 000,” he says.
You need to sock the cotton in water for about an hour, then you drain it to a level of just being moist before packing it into polythene bags so that you boil the bags all together and kill the germs that could be on them.
“You need to have water because it is necessary to sock and cook, and it is one of the highest expenditures because every month, I pay about sh200,000 in water bills,” Kiddu says.
Pack the cotton husks in polythene bags before cooking them. After packing, place it well into a metallic drum. But put sticks at the bottom to prevent water from logging into your cotton because it affects the quality of that cotton, garden and harvest as well.
It is advisable to cook in the evening for about three hours and then you let it cool down slowly throughout the night so that you open it in the morning.
After cooling you put it in a clean, dry and cold place for 1-2 days before you put the mushroom seeds (spawn), after which it will take about 30 days to be ready to bare mushrooms.
“I sell my gardens at 27 days where a farmer cares for them for about 3-4 days only and he/she starts harvesting,” Kiddu says.
Whenever you are going to touch on the gardens, you have to wash your hands with water mixed with Jik or any other disinfectant to ensure all the germs are killed.
