Mycelocity

Mushroom Farm Calculators

All 10 calculators share one grow profile — change a value in one and every connected calculator below recomputes live, no navigating away required.

Export to spreadsheet — coming soon.

Biology

Yield, contamination and substrate fundamentals — the root of the model.

Biological Efficiency & Yield

Biological efficiency (BE) is the ratio of fresh mushroom yield to the dry weight of the substrate, expressed as a percentage. This calculator converts your BE and dry substrate weight per block into the fresh yield you can expect, in grams and pounds, and splits it across each flush. It is the root of the Mycelocity model — yield feeds revenue, margin, break-even and capacity downstream.

Formula  yield_g = (BE / 100) × dryWeight · yield_lb = yield_g / 453.592 · flush_i = yield_g × distribution_i

Inputs

%

Fresh yield as a percentage of dry substrate weight.

g

Yield per block

Yield
850 g
Yield (lb)
1.87 lb

Per-flush yield

Flush 1
425 g
50% of total
Flush 2
255 g
30% of total
Flush 3
170 g
20% of total

Contamination Loss

Contamination is the single biggest source of lost yield for most growers. This calculator takes the number of blocks you started and your contamination rate and returns how many blocks remain harvestable, how many are wasted, and the effective yield once losses are applied. It shares the per-block yield from the Biological Efficiency calculator.

Formula  effective = started × (1 − rate/100) · wasted = started − effective · effectiveYield = effective × yield_per_block

Inputs

%

Shares yield per block from the Biological Efficiency calculator.

After contamination

Harvestable blocks
92
Wasted blocks
8
Effective yield
172.40 lb
across all harvestable blocks

Substrate Moisture & Hydration

Substrate moisture content drives colonization speed and contamination risk. This calculator works two ways: measure the current moisture percentage from wet and dry weights, or specify a target moisture and get the exact amount of water to add. Field capacity for most bulk substrates sits around 60–70%.

Formula  moisture% = ((wet − dry) / wet) × 100 · targetWet = dry / (1 − targetMoisture/100) · waterToAdd = targetWet − wet

Inputs

g
g

Current moisture

Current moisture
60.00%

Operations

Per-block cost and the physical capacity to produce at scale.

COGS per Block

Cost of goods sold (COGS) per block is the all-in variable cost to produce one fruiting block: substrate, spawn, packaging, and the energy and labor of sterilization spread across a batch. This calculator builds COGS up from each component so you can see what is actually driving your cost — and it feeds directly into margin and profit.

Formula  substrate = costPerKg × kgPerBlock × (1 + waste/100) · spawn = (kgPerBlock / N) × spawnCostPerKg · steril = batchEnergyLabor / blocksPerBatch · COGS = substrate + spawn + packaging + steril

Substrate & spawn

$/kg
kg
%
$/kg
:1

Packaging & batch

$
$

Cost components

Substrate
$1.05
Spawn
$2.00
Packaging
$0.35
Sterilization
$1.20

Total

COGS per block
$4.60
all-in variable cost

Capacity & Chambers Needed

Capacity planning answers a simple question: how many fruiting chambers do you need to hit your production target? This calculator computes blocks per chamber from shelf area and block footprint, cycles per year from your cycle length, and the number of chambers required for your target annual output.

Formula  blocksPerChamber = (shelfArea / blockFootprint) × shelves · cyclesPerYear = 365 / cycleDays · chambersNeeded = ceil(targetAnnual / (blocksPerChamber × cyclesPerYear))

Chamber layout

ft²
ft²

Targets & cycle

blocks
days

Colonization + fruiting + turnaround.

Per-chamber throughput

Blocks per chamber
960
Cycles per year
13.04

To hit your target

Chambers needed
2
for 20,000 blocks / year

Economics

Turn yield and cost into revenue, margin and break-even.

Profit per Block

Profit per block ties the whole model together. It takes your species, biological efficiency and substrate weight to derive yield, multiplies by price for revenue, subtracts COGS for margin, then scales by your monthly volume against fixed costs for monthly net profit and break-even. Change any single input and every downstream result recomputes instantly — this is the connected hub in action.

Formula  revenue = yield_lb × price · margin = revenue − COGS · monthlyNet = margin × blocks − fixed · breakeven = ceil(fixed / margin)

Inputs

Sets BE, price & spawn ratio globally — overridable below.

%
g
$/lb
$
COGS chained in: $4.60/blockadjust →

Tier 1 · Biology

Yield per block
850 g
1.87 lb
Price
$8.00
per pound

Tier 2 · Per block economics

Revenue / block
$14.99
Margin / block
$10.39
after $4.60 COGS

Tier 3 · Monthly outcome

Break-even
289
blocks / month
Monthly net profit
$1,156.58
after fixed costs

Break-even

Your break-even point is the production volume at which contribution margin exactly covers fixed costs — below it you lose money, above it you profit. This calculator divides monthly fixed costs by the contribution margin per block to give the blocks, and then pounds, you must sell each month. Margin is shared live from Profit per Block.

Formula  breakevenBlocks = fixed / margin · breakevenLbs = breakevenBlocks × yield_lb

Inputs

$
Contribution margin chained in: $10.39/blockadjust →

Break-even point (per month)

Break-even blocks
289
blocks / month
Break-even pounds
541.00 lb
lbs / month

Revenue per Square Foot

Revenue per square foot is the headline KPI of vertical farming: it tells you how hard your fruiting space is working. This calculator multiplies blocks per chamber, cycles per year, yield per block and price into annual revenue, then divides by the fruiting footprint. It reuses capacity and yield from the rest of the hub.

Formula  annualRevenue = blocksPerChamber × cyclesPerYear × yield_lb × price · revPerSqFt = annualRevenue / footprint

Inputs

ft²
$/lb

Chained in from the hub:

  • 960 blocks / chamber
  • 13.04 cycles / year
  • 1.87 lb / block

Annual output

Annual revenue
$187,607.24
per chamber

The KPI

Revenue per square foot
$938.04
per ft² of fruiting space, per year

Finance

Capital required to start and how fast it pays back.

Startup Cost

How much capital does it take to start a mushroom farm? This calculator itemizes the major startup line items — equipment, initial substrate and spawn inventory, facility deposit, licensing and build-out — into a single total with a category breakdown. That total feeds the payback and ROI calculator.

Formula  total = equipment + inventory + facilityDeposit + licensing + buildOut

Startup line items

$
$
$
$
$

Breakdown

Equipment
$12,000.00
44% of total
Substrate & spawn inventory
$1,500.00
5% of total
Facility deposit
$4,000.00
15% of total
Licensing
$800.00
3% of total
Build-out
$9,000.00
33% of total

Total

Total startup capital
$27,300.00

Payback & ROI

Payback and ROI translate operating profit into an investment return. This calculator takes your total startup capital and monthly net profit to compute how many months it takes to recover your investment, your annual return on investment, and your cash-on-cash return. Both inputs flow in automatically from Startup Cost and Profit per Block.

Formula  paybackMonths = capital / monthlyNet · ROI% = (annualNet / capital) × 100 · annualNet = monthlyNet × 12

Both inputs are chained in from the hub

  • Total startup capital$27,300.00
  • Monthly net profit$1,156.58
Edit capital →Edit profit →

Return

Payback period
23.6 mo
≈ 2.0 years
Annual ROI
50.84%
Cash-on-cash
0.51×
annual net / capital
Annual net cash flow
$13,878.94