How to grow bamboo fungus? Cultivation methods using the bamboo forest environment

(1) Cultivating bamboo fungus

Bamboo fungus is a precious food, delicious in taste and rich in nutrition, containing 19 kinds of amino acids and multiple vitamins.

According to measurements by the Guizhou Physical and Chemical Testing and Analysis Research Center, 100 g of Dictyophora indusiata also contains 1 mg of tryptophan, 4 mg of ornithine, 4 mg of gamma-aminobutyric acid, 6 mg of asparagine, and so on.

In addition, bamboo fungus also contains multiple trace elements, such as 46.1 ug/g of zinc and 68.7 mg/g of iron.

Bamboo fungus contains many kinds of vitamins, such as the B-group vitamins VB1, VB2, and VB6, as well as K, A, D, E, and so on. Among them, VB2 content is relatively high: each gram of dried Dictyophora indusiata contains 53.6 mg, and Dictyophora rubrovolvata contains 10.4 mg. VB2 is a prosthetic group component constituting yellow enzymes and participates in biological oxidative enzyme systems. Lack of VB2 will affect biological oxidation, cause metabolic disorder, and lead to the occurrence of multiple diseases. Wild bamboo fungus is small in quantity and expensive in price.

Since the 1980s, bamboo fungus strains have been isolated artificially, and bamboo fungus has been successfully cultivated in bamboo forests or indoors. In bamboo-producing areas of southern China, bamboo fungus is cultivated in large quantities; every 1,000 sq m of bamboo forest can produce 8-10 kg of bamboo fungus per year.

In China, the known species include: Dictyophora indusiata, Dictyophora duplicata, Dictyophora rubrovolvata, Dictyophora cinnabarina, Dictyophora duplicata, Dictyophora multicolor, and other 6 species. Among them, the first 3 species are bamboo fungi that can be cultivated under bamboo forests.

The bamboo forest environment is particularly suitable for the growth of bamboo fungus. After bamboo is cut in a bamboo forest, the remaining bamboo stumps take more than ten years to rot, and the unrotted bamboo rhizomes account for about 1/10 of the forest land, hindering the growth of bamboo rhizomes. Cultivating bamboo fungus in bamboo forests can not only promote the rotting of felled stumps, benefiting the growth of new rhizomes, but also increase economic income, achieving the goal of killing two birds with one stone.

Methods for cultivating bamboo fungus:

1. Bamboo stump cultivation: Dig planting holes 15-25 cm deep beside bamboo stumps, spread 3-5 cm thick dead bamboo leaves at the bottom of the holes, sprinkle a layer of spawn on top; then spread another layer of dead leaves, sprinkle another layer of spawn, cover with dead leaves, cover with soil, firm it down, and water. Use 0.4-0.5 kg of spawn per hole. Plant and inoculate between February and March. Harvesting can begin between May and June.

2. Cultivation by digging pits (trenches) and filling materials in bamboo forests: Select a bamboo forest with a canopy density of 0.8-0.9, dig holes or trenches in the forest land, 15-20 cm deep and 30-40 cm wide, place some dead bamboo and dead bamboo leaves at the bottom of the holes (trenches) to a thickness of 10-15 cm, firm them down, sprinkle a layer of spawn on top; then spread 3-5 cm of dead leaves, sprinkle another layer of spawn; then cover with dead leaves, cover with soil, firm it down, and water. Use about 1 kg of spawn per hole (or per 1 m long trench).

Harvesting and processing methods for bamboo fungus:

After finding the fungus buds, pick them between 5 and 7 in the morning. After picking, remove the mud and dirt on the fruiting bodies, soak them in a 1%-2% citric acid solution for 20-30 min, then rinse them 1-2 times with clean water, drain them, and place them in a drying room to dry, controlling the temperature at 40-50 C. The finished products are graded and packaged in sealed plastic bags.

(2) Cultivating Gastrodia elata

Gastrodia elata (Gasyrodiaelata) belongs to the orchid family. It is a perennial saprophytic erect herb, with no chlorophyll in the whole plant, and has fleshy, thick tubers underground. The aboveground stem is erect, yellow-red, with membranous scales at the nodes. It blooms in summer, forming a dense raceme. It grows under shady and moist forests, and the tubers of the Gastrodia elata plant are symbiotic with Armillaria mellea. The tubers are used as medicine and are a traditional Chinese medicinal material. The tubers contain vanillyl alcohol, vitamin A-type substances, glycosides, and trace alkaloids, and so on.

Cultivation methods:

(1) Site selection: require a slope below 30o, deep soil layers, rich in humus, and well-structured under a bamboo forest.

(2) Select good seeds: Tianfu should be fresh, with dense nodes and round buds; size 1-2 cm, yellow white-tip type.

(3) Prepare log materials: choose hard wood with a diameter of 3-6 cm (such as oak), cut it into 30-40 cm lengths. On the bark of the log segments, cut fish-scale-shaped incisions reaching the xylem every 5-6 cm; choose those produced in the current year with large Gastrodia elata, high yield, and good growth of Armillaria mellea hyphae.

(4) Level the land and make beds: in the bamboo forest, make beds along the contour, width 0-70 cm, length depending on the terrain; loosen the soil to a depth of 10-200 m

(5) Sowing; the sowing time is better from January to January of the following year; first scrape open the surface humus layer on the bed surface, the bed bottom should be level, then place a bottom layer of mixed new log materials and old fungus materials at 3:1 in a crosswise horizontal arrangement, and the log segments should be pressed tightly against each other; place Gastrodia elata seeds at the two ends where the log segments do not connect, and a small amount of small Gastrodia elata seeds can be scattered in the middle parts of the log segments, using about 0.5-1 kg of Gastrodia elata seeds per 1 sq m. Similarly, add another layer of mixed new and old log segments at 3:1 or 4:1, and tender bamboo branches and bamboo tips can also be used as cover material; finally cover with humus topsoil 0-2 cm thick, slightly higher than the ground, forming a turtle-back shape, then cover with dead branches, fallen leaves, or weeds.

(6) Management: prevent people and livestock from trampling on the forest land planted with Gastrodia elata.

According to Cao Qingliu's experiment, the standing bamboo density of a bamboo forest planted with Gastrodia elata is best at 2,5000-3,000/km2. After four years of cultivation, the yield of fresh Gastrodia elata can reach 7,770 kg/km2, of which the yield of commercial Gastrodia elata is 1963.5 kg/km2, and the output value reaches 29,000/km2. Therefore, cultivating Gastrodia elata in bamboo forests is an important way to improve the economic benefits of bamboo forests.

After bamboo forests are used to cultivate Gastrodia elata, both the number of new bamboo and the diameter at breast height increase.