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03 April, 2012
Medicinal mushrooms in Zimbabwe
The subject of medicinal mushrooms in zimbabwe is generally not talked about. There is generaly an over emphasis on other herbs yet mushrooms are well known for their medicinal properties. This is largely because as people in the industry we have not made such information available,lack of research by Zimbabweans is also to blame. This will now be a thing of the past as I will do exactly that to fullfill our mission of educating Zimbabweans of nutritional and medicinal value of specialty mushrooms.
As a way of changing the focus of this blog from general issues on mushrooms to particulary medicinal mushrooms, I am giving you the following link on wikipedia which I believe will give you all the information you may need to know on medicinal mushrooms:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicinal_mushrooms
If you have any questions or comments please post them here. Keep following this blog for more information on medicinal mushrooms.
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10 August, 2011
The Mushroom Enterprise Zimbabwe: Welcome everyone to the MushRent blog where I trus...
The Mushroom Enterprise Zimbabwe: Welcome everyone to the MushRent blog where I trus...: "Welcome everyone to the MushRent blog where I trust you will be able to get more information about profitably growing Mushrooms and selling ..."
28 July, 2011
challenges in the mushroom industry in Zimbabwe
There are a number of challenges we face as mushroom growers in Zimbabwe by mentioning them here I
hope I will get feedback from you on how we can solve some of these things.
1. Bogus trainers: we have too many bogus trainers, the worst I have seen do not grow mushrooms and
just give theoretical training, its so sad, this has led to many challenges we have to face, due to such training, we have
people who have lost confidence in the industry. Some of the trainers seem to have never read a
mushroom growing book or at least read an article because what they teach is simply dangerous. There are
so many people whom when I talk to tell me they need potato sacks to grow oyster mushrooms, I am not sure who
popularised the idea, I am not saying its wrong, but the point is it seems when he/she trained he/she taught
one method and its not the best and it seems to me the trainer did not research well, many people have lost money to these trainers firstly by paying to be trained secondly
applying methods that are outdated or which do not work, this challenge is not only peculiar to Zimbabwe but
it is common across Africa.
I supplied spawn to an orphanage in Karoi, due to negligence and poor training they did not do so well, as is common people quickly shift the blame to the spawn supplier so they took the spawn to the nearest mushroom grower who quickly concluded that it was "fake", what was clear is the grower was not told spawn can come in different forms or spawn can be on sawdust or any other material, this goes back to my point on poor trainers.
2. Lack of a growers association, this challenge is linked to the above as the association can regulate growers and trainers and bring back order, an association is very important to the growth of the industry, There are a lot of inconsistencies that we need to address and they can only be addressed if we join hands, for this reason I have joined others in the quest to form the association you can phone me or visit our group on face book: Mushroom Growers Zimbabwe if you want to join or get more information on what progress we have made in that endeavour.
I will talk of other challenges in future posts:
hope I will get feedback from you on how we can solve some of these things.
1. Bogus trainers: we have too many bogus trainers, the worst I have seen do not grow mushrooms and
just give theoretical training, its so sad, this has led to many challenges we have to face, due to such training, we have
people who have lost confidence in the industry. Some of the trainers seem to have never read a
mushroom growing book or at least read an article because what they teach is simply dangerous. There are
so many people whom when I talk to tell me they need potato sacks to grow oyster mushrooms, I am not sure who
popularised the idea, I am not saying its wrong, but the point is it seems when he/she trained he/she taught
one method and its not the best and it seems to me the trainer did not research well, many people have lost money to these trainers firstly by paying to be trained secondly
applying methods that are outdated or which do not work, this challenge is not only peculiar to Zimbabwe but
it is common across Africa.
I supplied spawn to an orphanage in Karoi, due to negligence and poor training they did not do so well, as is common people quickly shift the blame to the spawn supplier so they took the spawn to the nearest mushroom grower who quickly concluded that it was "fake", what was clear is the grower was not told spawn can come in different forms or spawn can be on sawdust or any other material, this goes back to my point on poor trainers.
2. Lack of a growers association, this challenge is linked to the above as the association can regulate growers and trainers and bring back order, an association is very important to the growth of the industry, There are a lot of inconsistencies that we need to address and they can only be addressed if we join hands, for this reason I have joined others in the quest to form the association you can phone me or visit our group on face book: Mushroom Growers Zimbabwe if you want to join or get more information on what progress we have made in that endeavour.
I will talk of other challenges in future posts:
11 July, 2011
Poisonous mushroom: facts and myths in Zimbabwe
As a mushroom enthusiast, I am concerned with the fear that many people have for mushrooms, most people I meet just have fear of the mushrooms even if they can not explain why they are afraid, I usually ask people, do you have a friend or a relative who died of mushroom poisoning?, I have only met one lady who had a brother who died of mushroom poisoning since I started mushroom growing in 2003. Before I go on with this subject let me state that all cultivated mushrooms are safe. The subject of poisonous mushrooms only comes into picture when we talk of wild mushrooms. I have learnt that what people usually talk of are just myths. In the wild there are poisonous mushrooms and non poisonous mushrooms, if you can not identify which is edible and non edible you are recommended not to venture into mushroom hunting, let experts do that(in Zimbabwe the experts are usually the old people or those who have received the knowledge from such people). If you are buying mushrooms on the roadside you better be sure of the type you are buying or you are putting your life in the hands of the one who gathered. Let me also state the danger of mushroom poisoning is generally overstated, out of all those who consume mushrooms only a small percentage eat the poisonous ones compared to the edible ones. I have only read two reports of poisoning in the last two years, there might be some unreported cases, the reported cases I managed to pick in the press give me an average that does not exceed people per year(this is an average I have come up considering reported cases I heard of or read-for the past five years). Statistically how many people die from road accidents per week, but people are not afraid to travel-the conclusion the fear is propagated by myths especially the myth that mushrooms growing under gum trees are all poisonous such that before a person buys mushroom they ask you are there not grown near gum trees (I will talk about how this myth developed in Zimbabwe In my future posts.
My advise to those who want go for mushroom hunting, go with an experienced person, this reduces the risk, the most safe way is to buy mushrooms from your local supermarket or directly from a grower near you, as I mentioned earlier - cultivated mushrooms are 100% safe. The bookshops have what are generally called field guides to mushrooms/mushroom hunting, my advise is those books are good but must never be trusted solely, relying on a field guide may be fatal, its better to go with someone experienced and then compare with the filed guide(descriptions may not be enough, colours may not be clear in the field guide and some mushrooms change colour as they grow, a good guide explains where to get the mushroom, arrangement of gills, colour, if the mushroom has a volva, a ring, structure of the stem and cap.
this post is not exhaustive I just touched on a few things, so be careful poisonous mushrooms exist.
My advise to those who want go for mushroom hunting, go with an experienced person, this reduces the risk, the most safe way is to buy mushrooms from your local supermarket or directly from a grower near you, as I mentioned earlier - cultivated mushrooms are 100% safe. The bookshops have what are generally called field guides to mushrooms/mushroom hunting, my advise is those books are good but must never be trusted solely, relying on a field guide may be fatal, its better to go with someone experienced and then compare with the filed guide(descriptions may not be enough, colours may not be clear in the field guide and some mushrooms change colour as they grow, a good guide explains where to get the mushroom, arrangement of gills, colour, if the mushroom has a volva, a ring, structure of the stem and cap.
this post is not exhaustive I just touched on a few things, so be careful poisonous mushrooms exist.
28 June, 2011
secrets of successful mushroom growing
Well there are not much secrets to mushroom growing, I believe mushroom growing is both an art and a science. I have seen many growers try to reinvent the wheel. I will pursue the topic of secret of mushroom growing in the future but today I just want to say mushroom growing is the science of eliminating contamination.
Contamination does so many things on a farm I will just mention a few today.
a) Reduces yield: contamination reduces yields like in a conventional farm people remove weeds as these compete for nutrients with the desired crop, so contamination are fungi or bacteria competing with your mushroom mycelia for nutrients, so I will call contamination “weeds”. Eliminate “weeds” or at least keep the percentage low, besides reducing yields contamination can wipe out the whole crop before you even harvest, so watch out, green mold is our top enemy which at times start disguised as mushroom mycelia, it takes an experienced farmer to identify green mold in its initial stages unless it just start off green.
b) It affects future crops: once there is an outbreak of contamination then you are sure it will always recur and affect future crops, how you dispose contaminated media is crucial, the best is to sterilize the media before dumping, cleaning the rooms is key to its total elimination
c) Slows down growth: some contamination slows down growth in such cases its usually not visible to the naked eye such that growers will not even know there is contamination, this will effect on yields eventually
Whatever you do keep the “weeds” out and be profitable
Contamination does so many things on a farm I will just mention a few today.
a) Reduces yield: contamination reduces yields like in a conventional farm people remove weeds as these compete for nutrients with the desired crop, so contamination are fungi or bacteria competing with your mushroom mycelia for nutrients, so I will call contamination “weeds”. Eliminate “weeds” or at least keep the percentage low, besides reducing yields contamination can wipe out the whole crop before you even harvest, so watch out, green mold is our top enemy which at times start disguised as mushroom mycelia, it takes an experienced farmer to identify green mold in its initial stages unless it just start off green.
b) It affects future crops: once there is an outbreak of contamination then you are sure it will always recur and affect future crops, how you dispose contaminated media is crucial, the best is to sterilize the media before dumping, cleaning the rooms is key to its total elimination
c) Slows down growth: some contamination slows down growth in such cases its usually not visible to the naked eye such that growers will not even know there is contamination, this will effect on yields eventually
Whatever you do keep the “weeds” out and be profitable
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