If a farm has been built for bag growing or to take spawnable compost on shelving, it's not possible to switch to working with incubated compost on Dutch shelves just like that. A number of changes must be made first to guarantee mushroom quality and production.

- Per square metre of growing surface, 23 cubic metres of air have to be blown out by the climate installation.

- Per 100 square metres growing surface there must be an outlet opening (over pressure) of 0.5 square metres.

- The cooling installation must have sufficient capacity to cope with the often higher level of incubated compost activity.

- In warm conditions the growing room should be cooled before it is filled with incubated compost.

- Doors must be closed as soon as possible after filling.

- Expect the compost temperature to rise after filling; don't wait until the compost is already warm before activating the cooling. Different to spawnable compost, incubated compost can rise sharply in temperature within the space of 24 hours!

- With low outside temperatures, outside air can be used for cooling in the first 48 to 72 hours.

John Peeters, C point