Detailed Explanation of Key Techniques for Cultivating Oyster Mushrooms with Fermented Substrate

The oyster mushroom is one of the common mushrooms and is rich in nutrients. Most mushrooms can only be cultivated with fermented substrate. So, what are the cultivation techniques for oyster mushrooms with fermented substrate?

1. Building the mushroom shed

Existing empty rooms, basements, etc. can be converted into mushroom houses, or new mushroom houses can be built. The mushroom house must be disinfected before use to reduce contamination by competing microbes and the occurrence of insect pests.

2. Preparing the nutrient substrate

Any one of sawdust, cottonseed hulls, waste cotton, rice straw, sugarcane bagasse, corncobs, corn stalks, peanut shells, bean stalk powder, etc. can be chosen as the raw material, and then an appropriate amount of auxiliary materials such as wheat bran, rice bran, gypsum, and superphosphate is added. Prepare 85 kg of corncobs, 10 kg of wheat bran, 5 kg of cornmeal, 5—6 bags of Gudazhuang, 1 kg of compound fertilizer, 3 kg of lime, and 0.2% carbendazim.

3. Mixing the substrate and filling bags

Mix the nutrient substrate with clean water, then pile it up and let it sit for 12—18 hours so the substrate can mature. After mixing, ferment it for several more days, then sterilize it at high temperature. Then fill the bags; when filling by hand, press with your fingers as you fill, pressing the area around the bag wall firmly, pressing the center slightly, firm around and loose in the middle, firm at both ends and loose in the middle. After filling, place the bags on the rack in the pot for sterilization at a temperature of 100°C for 8-10 hours. When the temperature drops to 80°C, take them out and move them into the mushroom house.

4. Inoculating with spawn

Wait until the temperature inside the bagged substrate drops to 30°C before inoculating. Before inoculation, first disinfect both hands, the inoculation tools, the plastic bags, and the mushroom house. During inoculation, one person opens the bag mouth while another person quickly digs out the spawn and inoculates it into the bag; after it is inoculated, tie the bag mouth tightly, then do the other end. After inoculation is completed, roll the cultivation bags once over lime powder so that the lime powder fills the small holes in the bags and prevents contamination by competing microbes.

5. Managing the mushroom house

Two days after planting, keep the substrate temperature below 30°C, and keep the room temperature below 15°C. After 10 days, when the mycelium has grown over the surface of the substrate, the room temperature can be raised to 20—25°C, and after 20—30 days the mycelium will have grown throughout the entire substrate. After mushrooms appear, the indoor temperature can be kept at 15—18°C. Ventilate for 1 hour when the air temperature is at its lowest, and also spray water according to the humidity. In the peak fruiting period and the late fruiting period, the nutrients in the substrate are nearly exhausted, so fertilizer should be applied in time.

During the cultivation process, careful management should be carried out according to the characteristics of each growth stage of the oyster mushroom, so as to avoid the occurrence of the above factors causing no fruiting or abnormal fruiting and achieve stable and high yields.