A Detailed Guide to Lion's Mane Mushroom Planting Time and Cultivation Techniques

Lion's mane mushroom (Hericium erinaceus) is a fungus that thrives in warm conditions, so it grows best in a warm environment. Regularly eating lion's mane mushroom has the benefit of strengthening the body and supplementing nutritional elements, so many people like to buy it. It is precisely because of this that many people now want to grow it. Before planting, however, you need to have a comprehensive understanding of its cultivation techniques.

Cultivation Techniques for Lion's Mane Mushroom

1. Bagging. Open the mouth of the plastic bag and push the material into the bag handful by handful. When the bag is 1/3 full, lift the bag, shake it gently a few times over the ground, and press the material down with your hand to make it compact. Then continue filling, shaking, and pressing. When the bag is full, pound the bag mouth a few times with your fist, top up any missing material, and make the bag contents compact with no gaps. Leave 6 cm at the top of the bag, then tie the mouth shut or add a ring and a cotton plug. For 13 cm × 27 cm and 17 cm × 37 cm bags, open one end; for 17 cm × 40 cm bags, open both ends. When the cultivation scale is large, mechanical bagging is generally used, which shortens the bagging time and the time from mixing the material to sterilization, effectively preventing the substrate from souring.

2. Sterilization. The bags can be sterilized in a pressure cooker or in an atmospheric-pressure stove. Their methods of use have been introduced earlier; here we focus on the key points of atmospheric-pressure sterilization.

1. Load the stove promptly. Once bagging is complete, immediately load the bags into the sterilization stove and quickly raise the heat to begin sterilization. This prevents microorganisms from multiplying and decomposing the material, which would cause souring. This is especially important in hot seasons.

2. Stack the bags properly. When the bags are loaded into the stove, they should be stacked in rows, arranged from bottom to top. Leave a certain gap between rows and between bags so that steam can flow freely from bottom to top, preventing local “dead corners” that cause incomplete sterilization. 3. Control the temperature. After loading the bags, immediately use a fierce fire. After steam appears, pay attention to venting to expel all cold air. After venting, raise the temperature inside the stove to 100°C as quickly as possible, without stopping the fire, adding cold water, or lowering the temperature along the way, and sterilize continuously for 12-14 hours. Afterward, cover the fire and let it stew for 24 hours. During sterilization, the temperature must not fluctuate up and down, and pay attention to the water level in the pot; do not let the pot boil dry.

4. Inoculation:

1. Move the sterilized bags into the inoculation room and spray-disinfect with the fungicide kemeiling. Inoculate only after the bag temperature has dropped to room temperature.

2. Before entering the inoculation room, workers must wash their hands, change into sterilized white coats and hats, change into slippers, and bring the spawn into the inoculation room.

3. Before inoculation, workers should disinfect their hands and the outer wall of the spawn bottles with 70%-75% alcohol cotton balls, light an alcohol lamp, sterilize the inoculation tools by passing them through the flame, and open the spawn bottle above the alcohol lamp flame to remove the old mycelium. Open the mouth of the bag to be inoculated, quickly insert the spawn into the bag mouth with the inoculation tool, and then seal the opening. Each bottle of spawn can inoculate 30-35 bags.

Planting Time for Lion's Mane Mushroom

For lion's mane mushroom cultivation, inoculation should be done at the Autumn Equinox (late September), and by Minor Snow (late November) 1-2 flushes of mushrooms are produced, with another flush the following spring. In mountainous areas, you can also inoculate in early spring in January, incubate the mycelium with added heat, and grow mushrooms in March-April.

Disease Control for Lion's Mane Mushroom

1. Fungal diseases: spray carbendazim at 1:500, or copper sulfate 0.5%-1% aqueous solution, or benomyl at 1:500, or thiophanate-methyl at 1:500, or chlorothalonil 0.15% aqueous solution, or zineb 0.1% aqueous solution.

2. Bacterial diseases: spray formaldehyde 5% aqueous solution, or carbolic acid 3%-4% aqueous solution, or carbon tetrachloride 3% aqueous solution, or bleaching powder 0.5%-1% aqueous solution, or chlortetracycline at 1:500.

3. Viral diseases: clean and disinfect mushroom houses affected by viral disease; cover the material surface during mycelial growth to prevent viral invasion.

Harvesting Lion's Mane Mushroom

The standard for a mature fruiting body is a pure white fruiting body, spines about 0.4 cm long, a round and neat shape, and a firm, fleshy ball, at which point it can be picked. If the fruiting body has already turned somewhat yellow and the spines are about 1 cm long and it has begun to discharge spores in large quantities, this indicates it is overmature.

Harvesting method: pinch the base of the fruiting body with one hand, press down on the bag with the other, twist it off gently, place it in a packing box or basket, and transport it away promptly for sale.

Before planting lion's mane mushroom, you need to understand its best planting time, then proceed with cultivation. During cultivation, you need to do a good job of sterilization, bagging, and other tasks. In the later stages of cultivation, you should also strengthen pest and disease control for lion's mane mushroom; only by doing these well can you ensure its growth.