Digger for facilitating the application of a supplement to a mushroom bed

A digger for facilitating the application of supplement to a mushroom bed comprising a shroud having a top wall and side walls, a shaft mounted to said side walls, a plurality of digging tines extending generally radially outwardly from said shaft, a drive motor connected for rotating said shaft to cause said tines to dig into a mushroom bed when said digger is placed on the mushroom bed, a direction guide mechanism on said shroud for moving said digger along the mushroom bed as said tines are rotated and dig into the mushroom bed, a compartment mounted to said shroud for containing a supply of supplement, supplement conveying means for conveying the supplement from said compartment and directing the supplement toward the mushroom bed at the location of said tines digging into the mushroom bed simultaneously with the digging action of said tines, and said supplement conveying means comprising air flow means for delivering the supplement in powder form in a flow of air to the mushroom bed.

A method of applying a supplement to a mushroom bed comprising mounting a supply of supplement in powder form to a digger having a rotatable shaft with digging tines extending from the shaft, placing the digger over the mushroom beds, moving the digger along the bed while rotating the shaft and while having the rotating tines dig into the bed, directing the supplement toward the bed in the general area that the tines are digging into the bed simultaneously with the tines digging into the bed, conveying the supplement in individual streams of air, and controlling the volume of supplement conveyed in each stream independently of the other streams.