A detailed guide to silver ear mushroom cultivation techniques: master the methods of cultivation and management

Silver ear mushroom, also known as white wood ear, snow ear, silver ear fungus, etc., belongs to the fungal family Tremellaceae and the genus Tremella; it is the fruiting body of the basidiomycete fungus Tremella fuciformis, and has the reputation of “the crown of mushrooms.” Let's take a look below at the cultivation techniques for silver ear mushroom.

1. Ingredients.

The culture material for cultivating silver ear mushroom is made by selecting the main raw materials according to local resources and local conditions, and combining them with other auxiliary materials. Hardwood tree species such as poplar, willow, and various fruit trees can all have their wood shavings used. The branches of these trees can also be cut into thin slices, sun-dried, and then crushed into powdery wood shavings. Cottonseed hulls are a good raw material for cultivating silver ear mushroom, and the yield per unit area can be increased by 20%-30% compared with wood shavings. In addition, corncobs, sugarcane bagasse, peanut shells, sunflower seeds, etc., after being sun-dried and crushed into fine shavings, can all be used for cultivation.

Formula 1: 100 kg wood shavings, 25 kg wheat bran, 4 kg gypsum powder, 0.4 kg urea, 0.4 kg lime powder, 0.5 kg magnesium sulfate, 100-110 kg water.

Formula 2: 100 kg cottonseed hulls, 25 kg wheat bran, 4 kg gypsum powder, 0.4 kg urea, 0.4 kg lime powder, 100-200 kg water.

Formula 3: 40 kg sugarcane bagasse, 20 kg cottonseed hulls, 40 kg wood shavings, 30 kg wheat bran, 3 kg gypsum powder, 2 kg superphosphate, 0.5 kg urea, 100-110 kg water.

After selecting the formula, pour the main raw materials together with dry materials such as wheat bran and gypsum powder onto a concrete floor. After dissolving sucrose, chemical fertilizer, magnesium sulfate, etc. in water, pour them into the dry materials. After stirring repeatedly three times, sift, break up clumps, and mix evenly, controlling the moisture content at 55%-65%. Mixing ingredients should be done on a sunny day or on a cloudy morning; rainy days are not suitable.

2. Bagging.

The mixed culture material must be promptly put into cultivation bags. For silver ear mushroom cultivation bags, low-pressure high-density polyethylene tube film should be selected, with a flat width diameter of 12 cm, film thickness of 3.5-4 silk meters, and length of 50 cm. Each kilogram of tube material can be cut into 220-240 cultivation bags. Cans and bottles can also be used as cultivation containers. Generally, farmers use manual loading of material. When half-filled, shake it, compact it, and then continue filling. For large-scale production, a bagging machine specially used for edible and medicinal fungi should be used, which can fill 400 bags per hour. When bagging, it is required to fill tightly and solidly, and tie the bag opening with plastic rope. Punch 4-5 inoculation holes on the wall of the material bag, with a hole diameter of 1.2 cm and a depth of 1.5 cm. Then wipe off the wood shavings adhering to the bag surface, and seal the hole openings with 3.3×3.3 cm square paper tape. This completes the culture medium for cultivating silver ear mushroom. From mixing the material to finishing bagging, it is best not to exceed 5 hours, to prevent the culture medium from turning sour and spoiling.

3. Sterilization.

Place a steamer on a large stove, stack the bags inside the steamer, with the tape side facing up. For large-scale production, build a special brick sterilization stove, with 1,000 bags per stove being suitable. Sterilization must pay attention to three key points: first, after the bags enter the stove, there must be a fierce high heat and leakage must be prevented, so that the temperature rises to 100 degrees C within 4 hours; second, maintain 100 degrees C for 14-16 hours to kill miscellaneous bacteria in the bags; third, after reaching the sterilization temperature and time, take them out while hot to prevent the tape from becoming damp.

4. Inoculation.

For the sterilized material bags, inoculation can be carried out only after the material temperature drops below 30 degrees C. Before inoculation, first disinfect the inoculation room, and thinly scrape off a layer of aged mycelium from the surface of the spawn, then dig downward and stir the mycelium evenly. During inoculation, first open the tape on the bag hole openings, use an inoculator to take spawn about the size of a broad bean, quickly and centrally pass it through the alcohol lamp flame into the holes, and promptly seal the tape well to prevent miscellaneous bacteria from invading. The spawn should be 1-2 mm lower than the tape, which is beneficial for primordium formation. Each bottle of cultivation spawn can inoculate 25-30 cultivation bags.

5. Spawn running.

The spawn running and fruiting of silver ear mushroom can use the same room, and an ordinary residential house can be used. Specialized growers with the means can build dedicated spawn-running rooms and cultivation rooms. The site should be slightly elevated, close to a water source, convenient for cleaning the site, with ventilated doors and windows and good light. A simple mushroom shed can also be built in the courtyard. Whether it is a residential house or a simple mushroom shed, racks for arranging cultivation bags must be set up inside. The rack layers can use bamboo and wood as the frame, with a rack height of about 2.5 m, a width generally of 50 cm, and the rack divided into 8 layers, with a layer spacing of 30 cm. Each layer of the rack should be laid flat with bamboo and wood to facilitate the arrangement of spawn bags. The interior surroundings can be enclosed with plastic film to provide good heat preservation and moisture retention. The cultivation room should be disinfected by spraying with Lysol and dichlorvos liquid medicine.

For the inoculated spawn bags, keep the indoor temperature at 28% for the first 4 days, preferably not exceeding 30 degrees C; from day 5, a room temperature of 25 degrees C is more suitable. After 5 days of cultivation, the mycelium spreads toward the hole openings. At this time, a turning and inspection should be carried out once. If miscellaneous bacteria contamination is found at the inoculation holes, inject formalin to kill it. For the arrangement of spawn bags indoors, at the beginning, stack 4-5 bags in a well shape to increase bag temperature and speed up mycelial development. From day 5, the bags should be placed one by one on the rack beds, arranged horizontally in sequence, with about 1 cm spacing between bags. If the temperature is insufficient in winter, coal fire can be used to raise the temperature, but attention must be paid to removing carbon dioxide to avoid harming the silver ear mushroom mycelium.

The indoor relative air humidity should be below 70%. On the premise of maintaining room temperature, open doors and windows once or twice a day for ventilation and air exchange, 30 minutes each time. If the air temperature has already met the above requirements, windows can be opened for a long time to keep the airflow fresh.

Uncover the tape for ventilation: after about 10 days of cultivation, the mycelium in the bags has spread around the inoculation openings, forming round shapes. When the mycelium grows to a diameter of 10 cm, that is, when the mycelial circles of the holes connect with one another, lift the tape to make round openings the size of soybean grains, allowing oxygen to penetrate into the material and speeding up mycelial growth and development. But before uncovering the openings, first lightly spray the bag surface and the space with dichlorvos pesticide. Twelve hours after the tape is lifted, spray with clear water 3-4 times a day, but do not spray directly into the holes, and combine this with ventilation. After 4 days, protruding white downy mycelial masses gradually appear in the holes, commonly known as “white downy masses.” At this time, the indoor temperature should preferably be 20-23 degrees C, and the relative humidity 80%-85%. As the mycelium physiologically matures, light yellow water droplets appear on the white downy masses (secretions from mycelial metabolism). At this time, the bags can be tilted toward the hole openings to let the yellow water flow out of the holes, and the room temperature adjusted to 25 degrees C to make the yellow water shrink. Generally, 15-16 days after inoculation, when white broken-rice-like young fruiting bodies gradually appear in the holes, all the tape should be torn off completely, and a whole sheet of newspaper should be covered over each spawn bag, with water sprayed on the paper to keep it moist.

6. Fruiting management.

Silver ear mushroom differentiates from the primordium into the fruiting body generally in about 18 days. The specific methods for management during the fruiting period are:

1. Expand the holes to increase oxygen: use a blade to cut away about 1 cm of film along the edge of the fruiting hole openings, enlarging the hole openings and increasing oxygen inside the bags.

2. Spray water to increase humidity: during the fruiting stage, spray water 1-2 times a day onto the covering newspaper, often keeping the newspaper moist as appropriate. When the fruiting body grows to 3 cm, to avoid rotten fruiting bodies, remove the covering newspaper, expose it to sunlight for one day, and then put it back into use. This should be done once every 3-5 days. Each time the newspaper is removed, leave it off for 12 hours to let the fruiting body contact oxygen, then cover it again and continue spraying water to retain moisture. During the young fruiting body stage, spray more water; in cloudy and damp weather, spray less and ventilate more. In the middle growth stage of the fruiting body, water absorption is relatively greater; in sunny and dry weather, spray more and ventilate less.

3. Pay attention to ventilation: when the silver ear mushroom fruiting body grows to 24-29 days, it is at the stage of strongest vitality, and the bag temperature is relatively high. If the room temperature exceeds 27 degrees C, doors and windows should be opened all day for long periods of ventilation, combined with water spraying management to prevent the fruiting body sheets from drying after ventilation.

4. Stop spraying and wait for harvest: about 30 days after inoculation, when the fruiting body has grown to about 12 cm, stop spraying water on the newspaper to prevent the fruiting body sheets from becoming too wet and moldy. After stopping moisture for 5-7 days, the fruiting body sheets thicken and enter the harvesting period.

5. Harvesting and processing: from inoculation to harvest, the whole process for silver ear mushroom is generally 35-40 days, but if cloudy and rainy weather is encountered at harvest time, harvesting can be extended by 5 days. Mature silver ear mushroom is white and crystal clear, shaped like a peony, as large as a jade bowl, with extended fruiting body sheets and elasticity. Usually each one reaches 15-20 cm in diameter, and the fresh weight can reach 150-200 grams.