"How many pounds of food does my mushroom food plot produce?" "What would it take to cover a quarter acre?" We get asked about poundage and acreage a lot and they're legitimate questions.
Yield Potential.
I've seen some massive flushes or fruitings of Stropharia and I've picked 3-5 lbs per square foot, per year in most years with little attention given to the plot. Ive also irrigated it to coax the crops along and seen well over 5 lbs a square per year.
Here's some external source Yield numbers.
"Average yields are 2-3 lbs. / sq.ft.", "Maximum yields are nearly 6 lbs. per square foot." Page 213, The Mushroom Cultivator, A Practical guide to growing Mushrooms at Home. Paul Stamets and J.S. Chilton 1983.
"By 2019 the cultivation area in China had reached approximately 1300 hectares with a production of about 30-45 tons per hectare." pages 13-14, The nutrition, cultivation and biotechnology of Stropharia Rugosoannulata, Hu Y, Kakumyan P, Bandara A, Mortimer P
For us, 3-5lbs per sq. for 3-5 years is the more apropriate range in a sit and forget scenario with modern genetics. So for todays purpose I'm gonna say 4 lbs per square.
We sell the Double Down Mushroom Food Plot which covers 100 sq ft. In reality we apply the 100 sq ft Double Down and get mushrooms fruiting bodies 3-5-8 ft away from the perimeter in all directions as well as on the applied are of the Plot itself. We call these satellite mushrooms or satellite fruiting bodies and label the space as the intermediary zone. So placing 100 sq ft of actual coverage is in reality 300+ square ish when considering the satellite fruits and the intermediary space.
So let's use the 100 sq ft, 10# Double Down Mushroom Food Plot as an example. 4lbs a sq ft per year, per 100 sq ft. is 400lbs, but the mushrooms occur as far as 3-5-8 ft away in the intermediary zone too so its more like 300 sqft x 4lbs = 1,200 pounds. Either way thats a lot of deer chow for 3-5 years in a small space.
A square quarter acre is approximately 104 ft long and 104 ft wide. To cover a quarter acre efficiently, it would require 35 seperate 100 sq ft mushroom food plots, spaced out 10 ft away from each other in every direction to account for the satellite mushroom fruiting bodies that occur around the perimeter. The yield of 4 lbs a sq per year, on the actual coverage of 35, 100 sq plots would be approximately 14,000 pounds per quarter acre per year. If we account for the intermediary spaces and satellite fruiting bodies, 1,200 lbs x 35, 300 sq ft plots equals 42,000 pounds of fungal fruits per quarter acre per year for 3-5 years ish.
For reference, here's some other food stuffs poundage yields per acre:
- Corn yields average 172 bushels per acre, a bushel is 56 lbs. 172 multiplied by 56 lbs equals 9,632 pounds of corn per acre.
- Soybeans average 49.5 bushels per acre and 60lbs per bushel, which equates to 2,970 lbs per acre.
- Acorns yield 2,000 lbs an acre.
- The very best Food Plots may produce 20,000+lbs an acre.
- Successional Habitat produces 1-2,000 lbs of browse
- Forbes clock in at 3,000 lbs of forage per year.
30# Honey hole Mushroom Food Plot,
Actual coverage of 300 sq ft at 4 lbs average equals 1,200 lbs. The coverage with the intermediary space included is 900+ sq ft at 4 lbs a square = 3,600 lbs for 3-5 years.
50# Land Manager Pack Mushroom Food Plot,
Actual coverage of 500 sq ft at 4 lbs average equals 2,000 lbs. The coverage with the intermediary space included is 1,500+ sq ft at 4 lbs a square = 6,000 lbs for 3-5 years.
I want to close with this, firstly it is not a versus thing, Mushroom Food Plots are complimentary to other endeavors and food sources and very much fit into a layered approach in our other habitat improvements. As you see though, they can clearly hold their own in a single feature setup too.
Matt