How to Grow Termite Mushrooms? A Detailed Guide to the Key Cultivation Techniques
When the temperature is stable at 12-24 degrees, prepare some ingredients such as sawdust, gypsum and bran, mix them into a culture medium, then bag, sterilize and inoculate them, and finally place them in a culture room for cultivation; after 40-60 days the mycelium will grow out. Next, prepare a cultivation plot, plant the grown mycelium into the field beds at appropriate spacing, and finally do a good job with watering, temperature and other tasks; by June-October the mushrooms will fruit. The specific termite mushroom cultivation techniques are as follows.
1. Arrangement of the cultivation season
Spring cultivation is preferable. In the Shunan Bamboo Sea area, the temperature in March-April is 12-18°C, which is the most suitable temperature range for the growth of termite mushroom mycelium. Bagging and inoculating at this time requires no heating and gives a high success rate. After 40-50 days the mycelium fills the bags, and once the temperature rises they can be buried in the soil; the first batch of fruiting bodies will soon grow out, and harvesting can continue until September-October of that year.
2. Making the cultivation bags
The culture material has the same formula as the mother culture and the cultivation spawn medium. Use 17 cm × 35 cm × 0.05 cm polyethylene plastic bags to hold the material, and seal them by fitting a neck ring and adding a cotton plug or by punching holes and applying adhesive tape. After sterilization, inoculate when the material temperature drops to 25°C; each bottle of mother culture can inoculate 20-30 bags. Increasing the inoculation amount can promote mycelial growth and reduce the contamination rate. Place the inoculated bags in a clean, dark culture room for cultivation, with the temperature controlled at 16-20°C; after 40-50 days of cultivation, the mycelium will fill the bags. If cultivation is continued, many coral-like nodules will appear on the bag walls, indicating that the mycelium has reached physiological maturity, and in April-June the bags can be buried for cultivation.
3. Selection of the cultivation site
The cultivation site should be chosen facing north-south, with flat terrain, fertile soil, and an acidic vegetable garden plot or idle land in front of or behind the house; first level it into sunken beds 40-100 cm wide, with a length depending on the site, and 15 cm deep. Given that termite mushrooms prefer an acidic environment and are insensitive to fungicides such as carbendazim and thiophanate, it is not advisable to spread lime powder on the bed bottom as when cultivating other edible fungi; instead, carbendazim or thiophanate used for food grains can be spread, and drainage ditches should be opened around the beds.
4. Cultivation method
Remove the plastic film from the bags that have reached physiological maturity and arrange them neatly in the beds, then cover with 20 cm of sun-exposed vegetable garden soil or fertile forest soil (the less compacted the better) so that the beds stand 15 cm above the ground as raised beds, and cover the bed surface with waste newspaper, bamboo leaves, pine needles, etc., to retain moisture and provide shade.
5. Management
After removing the bags and covering with soil, the main management tasks are moisture retention, temperature control and pest and disease control. The fruiting season of termite mushrooms is June-October, when the temperature is high and the relative air humidity is low; therefore, cooling and moisture retention are the key to management. A shade shed must be built, with the shed height 17-34 cm above the bed surface, which can shade, cool and retain moisture; spraying water on the cultivation site and around it can widen the day-night temperature difference as a stimulus.
6. Harvesting
When the cap of the termite mushroom is about to straighten but has not yet split open, it can be harvested. To harvest, hold the base of the stalk with your hand, cut it off along the lower part of the swollen stalk with a small knife, and pull it upward; the slender false roots can be left in the soil.
Overall, termite mushroom cultivation techniques are still quite simple: as long as the culture medium is well prepared, disinfection and sterilization are done well, and conditions such as humidity and temperature are controlled well, the mycelium will grow out; finally, with good management of water and temperature, the termite mushrooms will grow.