How to Grow Termitomyces Mushrooms? Detailed Explanation of Planting Techniques and Precautions

Termitomyces mushrooms are very nutritious and taste extremely delicious. From their origin to the present day, they cannot be artificially cultivated; they are truly a “gift” from nature to humanity. So everyone will wonder, how exactly do you grow termitomyces mushrooms, what precautions should be taken when growing them, and what techniques are needed. These are all points of concern, so let's take a look together.

How to Grow Termitomyces Mushrooms

1. Mushroom house requirements: The site should be on relatively high ground, open on all sides, with a clean environment. The house should face south, with a vent installed on the roof, and rectangular skylights and ground-level windows arranged symmetrically on the north and south walls. The mushroom house must be windproof and rainproof, capable of retaining heat and moisture indoors, with ventilation and diffused light, and a floor that is easy to wash, or easy to cover with fresh tamped soil for each cultivation cycle. The surrounding walls should be disinfected with limewater, and the interior can be fumigated and disinfected each time to prevent contamination by foreign bacteria.

2. Composting of the growing substrate

The growing substrate must undergo composting and fermentation to break down into nutrients that the mushrooms can absorb and use. In the past, single fermentation was mostly used, but the fermentation was not thorough enough, the nutrients were not fully decomposed, and foreign bacteria and pests still remained. To solve this problem, secondary fermentation (post-fermentation) technology has been developed in recent years.

3. Sowing and casing soil

When the substrate temperature drops below 28°C, sowing can begin. Spread the growing substrate into a flat surface about 12-15 cm thick, and use hole sowing with a spacing of about 9×9 cm. Each bottle of spawn (750 ml) is enough for about 1 sq m. If faster colonization is desired, more spawn can be used. After sowing, attention must be paid to moisture retention. When the mycelium begins to germinate and grow, ventilation should be gradually increased to encourage the mycelium to grow into the substrate and to control the growth of foreign bacteria (remove them if found). The mushroom bed should be covered with fine soil aggregates so that the mushroom fruiting bodies can form and grow normally. Sun-dried fertile soil such as garden soil or bean-field soil can be sieved, with large clumps about the size of a pigeon egg and small clumps about the size of a peanut kernel. This can be done when the mycelium has covered the surface and penetrated most of the growing substrate. First cover with coarse soil (about 2.4 cm thick, 20% moisture content), then with fine soil (about 1.2 cm, slightly dry).

4. Water management

Water management for mushrooms should follow the principle of light and frequent spraying. The growing substrate and casing layer are basically wet at the bottom and dry on top, wet inside and dry outside. Keep the temperature at 10-18°C, which is most suitable for fruiting body formation and growth. When small mushroom buds are found on the coarse and fine soil layers, spray fruiting water. When the fruiting bodies develop to the size of a bean, more water can be sprayed to promote mushroom production. During the fruiting period, keep air humidity at 80-90%. After the third batch of autumn mushrooms is picked, as the temperature drops, apply top dressing with 0.2% urea or ammonium sulfate, decomposed human feces and urine, livestock urine, or 1% glucose. After winter begins, strengthen management, and you can also experiment with increasing the mushroom house temperature to continue producing mushrooms. Spring mushroom production begins around March, and management requires heat and moisture retention, timely watering, and applying top dressing after each batch is picked and before the next batch of mushroom buds forms.

Termitomyces Mushroom Growing Techniques and Precautions

1. Pre-wetting must be thorough: Rice straw should be fully soaked to facilitate fermentation. Insufficiently soaked rice straw requires a large amount of water supplementation when turning the pile. If the water cannot be replenished sufficiently before the second turning, it will be very difficult to make up later, which will affect mycelial growth.

2. Turning must be even: When turning the pile, follow the principle of “raw material in the middle, cooked material on both sides; the middle goes to the two ends, the two ends go to the middle.” If this principle is not followed when turning, the growing substrate will ferment unevenly and the purpose of turning will not be achieved.

3. Soil collection must meet requirements: Some farmers use untreated garden soil for casing, and some even add incompletely decomposed cow dung. Such soil often carries a large number of pathogens and insect eggs, which can easily cause various diseases and bring losses to mushroom farmers.

4. Do not add urea when casing: New farmers habitually equate mushroom growing with growing other crops and add urea during casing, which causes excessive ammonia odor and leads to mycelial death.

5. Do not spray “closed-door water”: Spraying “closed-door water” during the early high-temperature period of mushroom cultivation creates a high-humidity environment, causing excessive mycelial growth, formation of mycelial mats, and death of small mushrooms; spraying “closed-door water” in the later period easily causes mycelial degeneration and premature aging.

6. Disease prevention must be timely: Some farmers, lacking basic knowledge of identifying and controlling pests and diseases, often begin control only when the infestation has become severe, thus missing the best control period and causing serious reductions in mushroom yield.

How to Harvest Termitomyces Mushrooms

For harvesting termitomyces mushrooms, the principle is the younger the better, that is, from just emerging until the cap edge forms an angle of 45 degrees or less with the stem is best, and the minimum standard is before the cap edge becomes flat. If the cap has become flat or even turned upward, it is already too old and the texture will be poorer. Within a few days after heavy thunderstorms, it is best to go out early each morning to search for and harvest mushrooms in places where they may appear. If it is past noon, the mushrooms often rot quickly due to excessively high temperatures.

How to Store Termitomyces Mushrooms After Harvest

For storage of termitomyces mushrooms, after harvesting, cut off the pseudorhiza one by one and wash off the soil attached to the base of the stem, then wrap them in paper, place them in a plastic bag or a Tupperware fresh-keeping box, and store them in a storage room at 12°C. They can maintain good freshness for more than a week. If termitomyces mushrooms are stored below 10°C, they will gradually suffer frost damage as the temperature drops, affecting the taste. If the temperature is above 14°C, they will gradually rot faster as the temperature rises. In particular, when the temperature reaches above 30°C, termitomyces mushrooms generally rot within one day.

With modern artificial cultivation technology so advanced, and termitomyces mushrooms still unable to be artificially cultivated, everyone should now know how to grow them after reading the above. Termitomyces mushrooms have extremely strict environmental requirements for growth, growing in high-temperature, high-humidity jungles. Moreover, the cultivation benefits of termitomyces mushrooms are very high.