Key Technical Points for High-Temperature Oyster Mushroom Cultivation

Oyster mushroom, also known as pleurotus, brown-skin pleurotus, oyster mushroom, black peony mushroom, and in Taiwan, China also called Xiuzhen mushroom, is a common gray edible mushroom. It contains rich nutrients. Oyster mushrooms are generally planted in summer because they require high-temperature fermentation. So, what are the high-temperature oyster mushroom cultivation techniques?

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 miscellaneous bacteria and the occurrence of insect pests.

2. Preparing the nutrient substrate

Any one of sawdust, cottonseed hulls, waste cotton, rice straw, sugarcane bagasse, corn cobs, corn stalks, peanut shells, bean stalk powder, etc. can be chosen as the raw material, then an appropriate amount of auxiliary materials such as wheat bran, rice bran, gypsum, and superphosphate is added. Prepare 85 kg of corn cobs, 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 bagging

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 for several more days, then sterilize at high temperature. Then bag it; when bagging by hand, press with your fingers as you fill, pressing the areas around the bag wall tightly, pressing the center slightly, tight around the sides and loose in the middle, tight at both ends and loose in the middle. After bagging, place the bags on the rack in the pot for sterilization at 100℃ for 8-10 hours; when the temperature drops to 80℃, take them out and move them into the mushroom house.

4. Inoculation with spawn

Wait until the temperature inside the bagged substrate drops to 30℃ before inoculating. Before inoculation, first disinfect your 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 puts it into the bag; after inoculating, tie the bag mouth tightly, then do the other end. After inoculation is complete, roll the cultivation bags once over lime powder so that the lime powder fills the small holes in the bags to prevent contamination by miscellaneous bacteria.

5. Mushroom house management

Two days after planting, keep the substrate temperature below 30℃ and the room temperature below 15℃. After 10 days, when the mycelium has grown over the surface of the substrate, the room temperature can be raised to 20-25℃, and in 20-30 days the mycelium will have grown throughout the entire cultivation substrate. After mushrooming begins, the indoor temperature can be maintained at 15-18℃; ventilate for 1 hour when the air temperature is at its lowest, and spray water according to the humidity. In the peak mushrooming period and the late mushrooming period, the nutrients in the cultivation substrate are nearly exhausted, so fertilizer should be applied promptly.

Although a certain high temperature needs to be maintained during the oyster mushroom cultivation process, after bag inoculation the mycelium cultivation management must control the temperature inside the substrate and ventilation.