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    Mushroom cost per pound calculator

    Cost per pound is what a block cost you divided by the fresh pounds it gave, with the blocks you lost counted in. Enter your block cost, yield and loss rate. Add power, equipment and your time for a farm number.

    Cost per pound calculator

    $

    A ready-to-fruit block you bought, or the substrate, spawn and bag you made it from.

    How do you know your yield?
    lb

    A 5-lb block at 65% moisture holds 1.75 lb.

    %
    %

    The share of blocks you start that never fruit. Their cost lands on the ones that do.

    Monthly costs, if you want them in

    Leave these empty for a per-block number. Each one is spread over the blocks you start in a month.

    $

    Electricity, water and supplies.

    $

    A tent, room, pressure canner or lab.

    Leave out for a hobby number.

    $

    What you'd pay someone else.

    Cost per fresh pound

    $15.24

    • $18.00 per block started ÷ 1.181 lb per block started
    • $33.59 per kilogram

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    How does the cost per pound calculator work?

    • Cost per pound ≈ cost per block ÷ (fresh pounds per fruiting block × share of blocks that fruit)
    • Fresh pounds per fruiting block = dry substrate weight × BE ÷ 100

    For example: An $18 block holding 1.75 lb of dry substrate gives 1.75 × 0.75 = 1.3125 lb at 75% BE. With 10% of blocks lost, each block started gives 1.3125 × 0.9, about 1.181 lb. Then $18 ÷ 1.181 lb is about $15.24 a pound.

    • Doubling BE halves the cost per pound. Losing a quarter of your blocks raises it by a third.
    • Running costs are electricity, water and supplies such as gloves, alcohol and filters. For equipment, enter what a tent, room or pressure canner cost and the months you expect it to last.
    • The result is per fresh pound, the weight on the scale at harvest.

    Where do the numbers come from?

    Every formula and figure on this page is from one of our grower guides, which cite their sources: extension services, farm trials and published studies.

    Common questions

    Should I count my own time?

    Leave it out for a hobby number. Put it in for a farm number, at the hourly rate you'd pay someone else. Five farms in a USDA SARE study averaged 0.51 hours of labor per 5-lb block, and the top three averaged 0.22.

    How many pounds does a 5-lb block give?

    About 0.7–1.6 lb of fresh mushrooms per block started in the SARE study, depending on the farm and how long blocks stayed in. The five farms averaged 0.88 lb, counting lost blocks. Cornell's trial blocks, left to fruit for 8 weeks, gave 1.36–1.63 lb.

    What does one block cost?

    From about $5 if you make it from pellets, before sterilizing, to $18–35 for a ready-to-fruit block, at the prices in our cost-per-pound guide.

    Where does Hypha come in?

    Hypha Pro and Farm work out cost per fresh pound block by block, from the supplies, bought blocks and prep you record. That figure leaves out labor, packaging, delivery, the tent, the room and power, so add those here. The free plan doesn't include cost tracking.

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