How to Grow Reishi Mushrooms? A Detailed Guide to Reishi Cultivation Techniques

Reishi mushroom has long served as the iconic image of the "immortal herb" in people's minds. Especially in "Legend of the White Snake," after the white snake used the reishi immortal herb to bring Xu Xian back from the dead, the status of reishi became ever more deeply rooted. With science's in-depth exploration of reishi, reishi will also gradually step down from its altar and become a widely cultivated medicinal material.

How to Grow Reishi Mushrooms

1. Preparation of the Growing Substrate

1. About 75% mixed wood sawdust, about 25% wheat bran, about 0.2% ammonium sulfate, with a moisture content of 70% after mixing;

2. About 75% mixed wood sawdust, about 25% wheat bran, with a moisture content of 60% after mixing;

3. About 50% mixed wood sawdust, about 50% wheat bran, 0.1% urea, with a moisture content of 60% after mixing;

4. 79% cottonseed hulls, about 20% wheat bran, 1% sucrose, with a moisture content of 60%-65% after mixing;

5. 50% corn cob residue, about 30% mixed wood sawdust, about 20% wheat bran, with a moisture content of 60%-65% after mixing;

6. 75% poplar leaves, 25% rice bran (or wheat bran), with a moisture content of 60% after mixing;

7. 45% rice straw powder, about 30% mixed wood sawdust, about 25% wheat bran (or rice bran), with a moisture content of 60%-65% after mixing.

2. Filling and Sterilization

After mixing the growing substrate, let it sit covered for half an hour before filling. A standard plastic bag can hold 0.25-0.3 kg of dry substrate. When filling the bag, press it down firmly by hand and level the substrate surface, then use a conical wooden stick to poke a ventilation hole 2.5 cm in diameter from the center of the substrate surface, plug the bag opening with a cotton plug, and wrap a layer of kraft paper around it. If using bottles, you can use wide-mouth bottles or mushroom bottles with a volume of 500-1000 mL and a mouth diameter of 3.3-4.6 cm; the filling method is basically the same as for bags. After filling, arrange the substrate bags (or bottles) in layers in the pot and sterilize under a pressure of 1.5 kg/sq cm for 1-2 hours, or sterilize at normal pressure for 8-10 hours. The requirement is to fill, sterilize and inoculate on the same day.

3. Inoculation and Cultivation

Inoculation for cultivation is best done in an inoculation box; if there is no inoculation box, it can also be done above the flame of an alcohol lamp or above boiling water steam. The inoculation room and inoculation tools should also be strictly disinfected, and workers should wear masks and wash their hands with soap three times. Use an inoculation rake or tweezers to take out a piece of spawn the size of a jujube from the bottle, quickly place it into the cultivation substrate bottle (bag), then plug the bottle opening (or bag opening) with a cotton plug and wrap it with kraft paper, and move it to a sterilized cultivation room for cultivation and sterilization. Maintain room temperature at 24°C-28°C; about 25 days after inoculation the mycelium will have grown throughout the bottle (bag). During the mycelium growth stage, management should be strengthened to prevent contamination by foreign microorganisms, and any contaminated cultures should be promptly discarded.

When the bottle (bag) is full of mycelium, white finger-sized mushroom buds, namely the fruiting body primordia, gradually appear on the surface of the growing substrate. When their growth approaches the cotton plug, the cotton plug can be removed, the room temperature controlled at 26°C-28°C, the relative humidity raised to 80%-90%, scattered light provided, and ventilation carried out every day; after about 20 days the stipe can grow out of the bottle (bag) opening, and the cap differentiates at the end of the stipe. When the light white or light yellow color at the edge of the cap disappears, the edge of the cap stops growing and hardens, and when the color changes from brilliant to dull pinkish-brown, it can be harvested.

Key Points for High-Yield Reishi Cultivation

1. Choose a suitable cultivation period: In Taizhou City, Jiangsu Province, the most suitable cultivation period for reishi is from April 10 to May 10, and bags are opened successively to produce mushrooms after May 20. June to July each year is the plum rain season, so it is necessary to ensure that all bags are opened to produce mushrooms before June 10, so that the growth of reishi fruiting bodies can be in a high-temperature and high-humidity environment, thereby achieving high and stable yields.

2. The growing substrate must be fresh and dry: The growing substrate for cultivating reishi must be especially fresh and dry. Fresh growing substrate is rich in nutrients and contains few foreign microorganisms, which is conducive to the germination of mycelium and inhibits the growth of foreign microorganisms.

3. Ventilation and air exchange during the mycelium growth stage: Reishi is an aerobic fungus, so during the cultivation process of reishi, attention must be paid to ventilation and air exchange. When making reishi fungus sticks, it is best to seal the openings with plastic and cotton plugs. For fungus bags tied with plastic rope, after the mycelium covers the surface, micro-holes must be poked at both ends of the fungus bag for ventilation.

4. Reasonable water spraying during the mushroom-producing stage: During the growth of reishi fruiting bodies, the air humidity in the reishi room is required to be 85%-95%. Under conditions of suitable ambient temperature, too low humidity will make reishi fruiting bodies thin and small, or even become rigid and stop growing. In the initial stage of fruiting body formation, water management mainly consists of spraying water on the walls, bed frames, floor and space. After the reishi cap diameter exceeds 3 cm, the number of water sprayings should be increased along with greater ventilation, 3-4 times a day, spraying directly onto the reishi.

5. It is advisable to use the imitation-wild cultivation method: Under the same cultivation conditions, wall-style imitation-wild cultivation can increase yield by 20%-30% compared with bag cultivation. This is because in imitation-wild cultivation, the soil contains the nutrients needed for reishi growth, and the soil has good water-holding capacity, which can provide suitable, continuous and stable moisture conditions for reishi growth. Moreover, the mycelium extends and grows through the soil to connect into a whole, allowing it to exert its overall advantage.

Places of Origin of Reishi

Reishi is native to eastern Asia, and in China it is most widely distributed in Jiangxi. It is cultivated in most parts of the country, with Mount Lu in the south being the most famous.

Reishi is produced in Europe, the Americas, Africa and eastern Asia. It is commonly distributed in China, but mostly south of the Yangtze River, in the high-temperature and rainy areas south of the Yangtze River; the specific provinces are: Anhui, Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi.

The species of the Ganodermataceae family in the world are mainly distributed in the tropical and subtropical zones of Asia, Australia, Africa and the Americas, with a few distributed in temperate zones. Europe, located in the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere, has only 4 species of the genus Ganoderma, while North America has about 5 species. China spans from the tropics to the cold temperate zone, and the Ganodermataceae family has many species and a wide distribution.

Where Reishi Grows

Reishi is a medicinal material famous at home and abroad. Those growing in forests are considered the best in quality and highest in medicinal efficacy. They mainly grow in relatively moist places, on the base of dead trunks of various broadleaf trees and on the ground around them; the stipe grows on underground dead tree roots and decaying wood. At present, some are also cultivated in artificial greenhouses. About 100 or more species of fungi of the genus Ganoderma are currently known; the most widely distributed is Ganoderma lucidum (red reishi), followed by Ganoderma sinense (purple reishi), and there are also Ganoderma applanatum (artist's bracket), Ganoderma tsugae (hemlock reishi) and Ganoderma capense, all of which are used medicinally.

Although wild reishi absorbs the essence of nature and grows in the most suitable areas, with the development of science and technology, good progress has been made in exploring reishi spore powder and in creating suitable living environments for reishi, providing the possibility for the widespread application of reishi in the future.