A Detailed Guide to the Science-Based Cultivation Techniques and Harvesting and Processing Methods of Polyporus umbellatus
Polyporus umbellatus can be used as medicine and has very high medicinal value and health-preserving value, with effects such as boosting resistance, fighting cancer, and preventing disease. Its distribution range is very wide, mainly in Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan, Henan and other places. Below, let's take a look with the editor at the cultivation techniques of Polyporus umbellatus!
Science-Based Cultivation Techniques for Polyporus umbellatus
Pit cultivation is used, with pits generally 50 cm deep and 70 cm long and wide. Cultivation under forest not only prevents destruction of the forest, but also creates a suitable environment for Polyporus umbellatus and prevents soil erosion. Before cultivation, first cultivate the fungus bed or fungus wood well inoculated with Armillaria mellea. Generally, rotten tree roots, branches and bark bearing Armillaria mellea are used as spawn, and newly cut tree sticks (about 10 cm thick and 50-60 cm long short sections) are piled in the pit, covered with 20-25 cm of soil; with suitable temperature, they can be used after 1-2 months. One may also use fungus wood already prepared for planting Gastrodia elata, or old sticks that have been used to grow Gastrodia elata and have not yet rotted and have no contamination by other fungi, to cultivate Polyporus umbellatus.
For one nest, use 5 fungus sticks and sow 0.18 kg of sclerotia. When planting, select complete, uninjured, fresh wild small Polyporus umbellatus, or divide the sclerotia of Polyporus umbellatus into small pieces, each about the size of a walnut, and press firmly with fingers so that the broken mycelium cross-section of the sclerotium closely combines with the fungus wood. On one fungus stick, 7-8 sclerotium pieces can be pressed and placed. After planting one stick, use humus soil to bank up all around it, leaving no gaps. Following this method, generally only one layer is planted, and it is best to cover with 20-25 cm of humus soil, slightly higher than the ground surface; after two years, it can be dug and harvested.
Harvesting and Processing of Polyporus umbellatus
Polyporus umbellatus has a perennial habit; within one or two years the yield is not high, and it is in the third or fourth year of cultivation that it enters the period of vigorous reproduction. During harvest, pay attention to the sclerotia in the surface soil layer. It can be harvested throughout the year, but harvesting in summer and autumn is better. Those that are black in color and hard in texture are called old sclerotia; these are commercial Polyporus umbellatus, that is, first-generation and second-generation Polyporus umbellatus. Fresh and tender grayish-brown or yellow Polyporus umbellatus generally have soft sclerotia and can be used as seed sclerotia.
At harvest, remove the old and keep the young. Remove impurities from the harvested Polyporus umbellatus sclerotia, scrub and wash them clean, then air-dry them naturally in sunlight; after drying, they can be packed and transported for sale. Pack in hemp bags or bamboo baskets and store in a dry place.
Growth Characteristics
Polyporus umbellatus prefers fertile, moist, humus-rich, well-drained cultivated slopes in shade. It begins to grow when the temperature 5 cm below the ground surface is 8-9°C; growth is most suitable at 15-20°C; at 25-30°C the mycelium stops growing and enters a short dormancy or produces fruiting bodies, enduring adverse conditions and reproducing by spores. In late autumn and early winter, when the temperature 5 cm below the ground surface is lower than 8°C, it again enters winter dormancy. During the year, April to June and September to October are the active growth periods of Polyporus umbellatus mycelium.
Medicinal Effects of Polyporus umbellatus
1. Promoting diuresis and draining dampness: Polyporus umbellatus is bland in flavor; bland mainly promotes leaching, enters the spleen to free the water passages, and is used to treat watery diarrhea and damp diarrhea, relieve strangury and remove dampness, reduce edema, and treat jaundice; for this alone it is the most rapid. Clinically it is mostly used to treat difficult urination, edema and distention, damp turbid leukorrhea, jaundice, beriberi, and so on.
2. Draining heat and quenching thirst: Polyporus umbellatus is bland and draining; its qi rises and its rain-like action can also descend, so it can open the interstices and promote urination. In Treatise on Cold Damage it is also mentioned, “If the pulse is floating, there is fever, thirst with desire to drink, and difficult urination, Zhuling Tang governs it.”
3. Treating malaria and stopping diarrhea: Polyporus umbellatus is sweet, bland, and slightly bitter. Although bitter has a descending action, sweet and bland can also leach, drain, and disperse; it can rise and also descend, descend and also rise, so it is good at opening the interstices, distinguishing the qi of the exterior yang and interior yin, and promoting urination. Therefore, in ancient times it was mainly used to treat intermittent fevers.
Through the above content, I believe everyone has gained some understanding of Polyporus umbellatus. The growth period of Polyporus umbellatus is relatively long and its yield is high, and it has extremely high medicinal value and edible value. It is deeply loved and sought after by everyone. From this perspective, the cultivation prospects for Polyporus umbellatus are relatively broad.