Gaylords in Kennett Square and the mushroom belt

Mushroom growing is a manufacturing process in disguise: climate-controlled houses, compost made on site, picking in shifts, and packing in a hurry. The farms around Kennett Square do all of it within a few miles of each other, and bulk boxes touch the process at several points, from compost and supplies in to crop and packing out.

The air is the problem and the point. Mushroom houses are humid on purpose, and a corrugated box in humid air loses strength fast. A used box that has lived in or near a growing house is not the same as one from a dry warehouse. Ask about storage, and expect us to ask you.

Chester County mushroom farmers produce more than 500 million pounds a year, roughly half the U.S. crop, most within a 10-mile radius of Kennett Square (WHYY). Our research adds food packing, compost and nurseries to the belt's fillers and emptiers of boxes.

Corrugated loses about 50 percent of its compression strength when relative humidity rises from 50 to 90 percent. That figure is why we treat boxes from humid places with care.

This page covers 19348, 19374, 19390, 19311 and 19350. The industries to expect there, from our market research: mushroom farming, food packing, compost and nurseries.

Growing is continuous, so packing never stops. Nurseries peak in spring and early summer.

• Buy. Packers and nurseries needing dry, sound boxes; a liner helps. See liners.
• Sell. Packers with clean, dry empties from supply deliveries.
• Recycle. Damp or compost-stained board, which a baler can still use if clean enough.

Tell us how and where the boxes were stored. Humidity decides the grade here.

• Spawn. The mushroom equivalent of seed, a grain carrying the fungus, shipped in bags and bins to growers.
• Growing house. A climate-controlled building in which mushrooms fruit, kept humid on purpose, which is hard on corrugated.
• Peat. Partly decayed plant matter used as a casing layer on mushroom beds and in nursery mixes, delivered in bulk.

• How and where the boxes were stored.
• Whether they were near growing houses.
• The count, footprint and grade.
• Whether a liner was used.