Muhammad Miftahul Munir
Mushroom cultivation is a powerful and profitable business. Mushroom products are in great demand by the public, especially in West Java, Indonesia. Most of mushrooms that have been produced is Oyster Mushrooms. In West Java oyster mushrooms produced as much as 10 tons per day. Growing mushrooms is not easy but it does not mean difficult. There are a lot of things that have to be considered, especially the ambient temperature and humidity of culturing mushrooms. Mushroom growing media in the mushrooms cultivation using a special substrate that has been sterilized (called Baglog). Baglog stored in the mushroom house (called Kumbung). The Kumbung have optimum humidity of 80-90% and a temperature of 16-22 °C. The advantages mushroom cultivation is not depending on the season, the mushrooms are relatively quickly harvested, Baglog can be used 3 to 4 times to be harvested. In a large scale by setting the start time of planting, the mushroom can be harvested every day. To help the mushroom farmers, temperature and humidity control device have been designed. The first approach is excursions (survey) the cultivation of the mushroom. Excursions aims to collect information related to the cultivation of mushrooms. The information that need to be collected from the mushroom farmers are the mushroom cultivation processes, the parameter that need to be controlled, and also the difficulties of mushroom cultivation. Furthermore, the Kumbung humidity and temperature control devices have been designed to help culuting the mushroom. Before it is used by the farmers, the control device is tested in the laboratory. The testing was done using a Kumbung simulator which have dimensions 1 m x 1 m x 1 m. Control device has been developed based on the essential aspects of the mushrooms cultivation. Two of the most influential environmental factors are humidity and temperature. Mushrooms requires high relative humidity and the temperature is not hot nor too cold. Humidifier based on ultrasonic fog generator (UFG) as the actuator has been developed and used to control the Kumbung humidity. UFG serves as the fog (mist) generator to humidify the Mushroom Chamber (Kumbung). Heater installed to regulate the level of warmth of generated mist. Blower (fan) is installed in the humidifier system to spread the mist. Testing instrument is done in two places, which is tests in the laboratory and in the field (in kumbung owned mushroom farmers). Kumbung humidity and temperature control device has been developed as a prototype. The prototype has been tested in the laboratory and in the field (in kumbung owned mushroom farmers). The humidifier is able to humidify the environment up to 100%RH (relative humidity) and the range 1-2 m. Thus, to control large kumbung some humidifier is needed.
Penerapan Teknologi Tepat Guna, Penerapan Karya Tulis
Growing mushrooms is not easy but it does not mean difficult. There are a lot of things that have to be considered, especially the ambient temperature and humidity of culturing mushrooms.