Can Red Mushrooms Be Cultivated? A Feasibility Analysis of Artificially Cultivating Red Mushrooms

Red mushrooms have a relatively wide distribution range. Most species in the Russula genus are edible, with a delicious taste, and are rich in various amino acids, polysaccharides, vitamins and more that the human body needs. More and more people are fond of this precious wild fungus. Can red mushrooms be cultivated? How should it be done?

I. Can red mushrooms be cultivated

Red mushrooms can be artificially cultivated. Their cultivation does not involve burying them directly in soil; instead, the spawn needs to be placed on treated bedding material for culturing.

II. Artificial Cultivation of Red Mushrooms

1. For a mushroom yard using fermented material for mushroom bed cultivation, choose an outdoor site near mountains and water, with fertile soil, facing the sun and sheltered from the wind. Make the bed about 1.3 m wide, shape the bed surface into a turtle-back form, dig drainage ditches around it, and set up a shade shed above to maintain a light level of “three parts sun, seven parts shade.”

2. Red mushroom inoculation methods are mainly divided into bag cultivation and bed cultivation.

① Bag cultivation: When the temperature of the material bag drops below 28°C, inoculate the red mushroom spawn into the culture medium inside the bag under sterile conditions, and seal the opening well with a cotton plug. After inoculation, move it indoors at 23-25°C for mycelial growth culture, with relative air humidity below 70%, maintaining air circulation to prevent a sudden increase in indoor carbon dioxide concentration. Mycelial growth culture usually takes about 30 days. After the mycelium has fully colonized the bag, move the bags to an outdoor shade shed, remove the bags, and place them horizontally on sterilized beds inside the shed, then cover with 3-5 cm of humus soil. Seal the edges of the bed with soil, allowing the fungus logs to continue mycelial growth culture inside the bed.

② Bed cultivation: Spread the fermented material in the bed to a thickness of 15-18 cm, and sow in 3 layers, that is, first spread a layer of material on the bed surface, sow spawn, continue spreading a layer of material, sow a layer of spawn, then cover with another layer of material, forming 3 layers of material and 2 layers of spawn. Generally use 10 kg of dry material per sq m, with the spawn amount accounting for 10% of the material amount. After sowing, level the material surface and press it down lightly. Then arch a film cover above the bed to protect against rain. When the mycelium has consumed 2/3 of the material, cover with 3-5 cm of soil. But be careful to ventilate so that the air in the bed remains fresh, which favors mycelial development.

3. After covering with soil, mushrooms generally emerge in about 20 days. At this time, keep the temperature at 23-26°C, and use artificial temperature-difference stimulation with alternating dry and wet conditions to promote the mycelium to knot and form primordia, which then differentiate into mushroom buds. During the fruiting body development stage, uncover the film for ventilation every morning, and combine this with spraying water once, keeping the relative humidity of the space at a suitable 90%. Keep the air in the mushroom shed fresh.

To obtain large quantities of red mushrooms, at present this mainly relies on artificial cultivation.