Heat wave challenges mushroom growers

08/16/2013    Tom Burfield

Growers have been experiencing challenges due to a heat wave in the Northeast as well as an increase in demand.Mushroom sales have been strong lately, and grower-shippers hope they’ll stay that way despite a spate of hot weather in Pennsylvania.

“We’re going through a heat wave here like crazy,” Fred Recchiuti, general manager at Basciani Mushroom Farms, Avondale, Pa., said in mid-July.

Temperatures ranged from 90 degrees to 96 degrees every day from July 14 through July 20.

Without sufficient air conditioning, mushrooms face reduced yields and lower quality. In some cases they can be subjected to “thermal runaway,” which can result in total crop loss, Recchiuti said.

Basciani Mushroom Farms has the ability to add air conditioning capacity but that can dramatically increase the cost per pound.

Paul Frederic, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Avondale-based To-Jo Mushrooms, said the hot weather did not affect crops, but 95-degree days could have an impact on compost that is prepared outdoors.

“It makes everything a little bit more challenging,” he said.

A heat wave is more likely to affect production than quality, he added.

Reduction in yields could result because high outdoor temperatures and dry conditions can affect the process to produce the substrate to be used in the coming weeks or months to grow mushrooms, said Laura Phelps, president of the American Mushroom Institute, Washington, D.C.