Thread: Mushroom growing house in Australia

I've made a mushroom growing chamber for my wife.
It's 6m x 3.6m x 2.7m high and made of freezer panels (steel / polystyrene / steel sandwich) left over from the house build. Walls and floor are 75mm thick and the roof 200mm.



Yes it needs some flashing to keep burning embers off in summer bushfires.

Inside there's some racks and bags -



The rack on the left is made from steel scrap (solar water heater frame, car roof rack, truss offcut etc).
The others are wine bottle racks and a shoe rack. And a steel shelf.



It's heated by a cheapo K Mart electric oil heater (2400 watts / 10 amps).



I tried a 700 watt heater but it wasn't enough for winter temps.

There's a misting system and a hose with sprayer.



The black leads hanging down are the temperature and humidity sensors connected to the control system in an enclosure outside -

< that is the display inside

T

The output of the temperature controller.
It is rated to switch 10 amps but I don't think it would for long so it drives a contactor (relay) - the white box.

The humidity controller drives a solenoid valve which drives a patio / verandah microjet misting system on the ceiling -



It's only just been set up and we're still working out the best configurations.
Obviously there's room for many more bags.

I dunno how it'll go in the summer heat .....

SW WA at latitude 33.5° S.

The mushies are oyster mushrooms but I want to grow morels.
Management no doubt will grow other species later.

Oyster mushrooms retail for $4 / 100g locally but I think the money would be in dried mushrooms or jerky for the hipster vegan market. Selling fresh means that they have to be sold or they're lost but drying them means the pressure's off.

The numbers will have to be worked out - input costs and labour hours - to decide whether it's a goer or not.