Cropping of mushrooms on shallow layers of compost

An inverse relation between quantity of compost per unit bed area and yield of mushrooms per unit weight has been found for mushrooms grown on layers of compost 2.5–12.5 cm deep. The average increase in yield per 1 000 kg of compost was 8.3 kg of mushrooms for each centimeter reduction in depth. The feasibility of a mushroom cropping system based on thin layers has been examined and several factors likely to be important in its development have been identified.