How do you grow enoki mushrooms at home? Master these cultivation methods

The enoki mushroom (Flammulina velutipes) is an edible fungus cultivated in autumn, winter and early spring. It is renowned worldwide for its smooth, tender caps, crisp stems, rich nutrition and delicious, palatable flavor. It has both good edible value and high medicinal value, and is therefore deeply favored by people. So how do you grow enoki mushrooms at home? The method below may be worth a try.

1. Strain selection

Choose strains with excellent traits and strong resistance, such as Jin 18-1 and F81 of the white enoki mushroom, and Jin 851 and Jin 19 of the yellow enoki mushroom.

2. Spawn production

For the first-level spawn, use PDA rejuvenation medium as the culture substrate. Sterilize under high pressure (121°C, at 1 kg/sq cm pressure) for 30 minutes, pour into slants, and after cooling, inoculate under sterile conditions. Once the mycelium has covered the slant, select those with vigorous, uniform mycelial growth for later use.

For the second-level spawn, use cottonseed hulls and wheat bran as the culture substrate, supplemented with tested and qualified gypsum and other ingredients. Use 500 ml canning jars, sterilize under high temperature and high pressure (128°C, at 1.5 kg/sq cm pressure) for 1.0-1.5 hours, and after cooling, inoculate with the prepared first-level spawn under sterile conditions. Then culture at a constant 25°C in the dark for about 25 days until the mycelium fills the spawn bottle. Remove contaminated and poorly growing ones and keep the rest for use.

3. Sterilized substrate cultivation

Sterilized substrate cultivation of enoki mushrooms refers to a cultivation method in which the culture substrate is sterilized by atmospheric or high pressure and then inoculated and cultured under sterile conditions. This method has a high success rate and produces uniform fruiting.

Using the sterilized bag cultivation form, the cultivation substrate should use corn cobs, cottonseed hulls, wood chips (from broadleaf trees), wheat bran, gypsum, white lime, salt, etc. The following formula can be chosen for production use:

Corn cobs 100 kg, cottonseed hulls 100 kg, wheat bran 50 kg, cornmeal 10 kg, gypsum 5 kg, white lime 4 kg, salt 1 kg.

4. Bagging and sterilization

Choose plastic bags 15-17 cm wide and 33 cm long for fruiting from one end, or bags 15-17 cm wide and 55 cm long for fruiting from both ends. While filling the bags, compact the substrate as you go, and after filling, tie both ends with thin rope into slip knots. Sterilize by high pressure or atmospheric pressure using conventional methods.

5. Scratch inoculation surface

Scratching the inoculation surface means removing the old spawn blocks and mycelial skin. It is best to use the flat scratching method, which does not damage the substrate surface and results in earlier fruiting and more mushrooms per cluster. After scratching, promptly induce pinning, control the temperature at 12-13°C, and provide sufficient low-temperature stimulation to promote primordium formation. Initially maintain the relative air humidity at 90%-95% so that the mycelium can recover growth after scratching.

6. Fruiting management

For cultivation bags that are fully colonized, the management steps during the fruiting period are: untie the bag opening → roll back the bag opening → stack the bags and cover with film → ventilate and maintain moisture to induce pinning → remove the film and ventilate for 1 day → cover with film to promote stem elongation → harvest → scratch the surface and irrigate → keep warm and moist to induce pinning. The management method is the same as above until 4 flushes of mushrooms are harvested.

For cultivation bags that are half colonized, during the spawn-running period, after the mycelium has colonized half the bag, young mushrooms will form at both ends. At this point, the bags should be moved into the cultivation site in time according to the management method for fully colonized bags.

It can be seen from this that growing enoki mushrooms at home is rather troublesome, with much equipment to buy and many things to pay attention to and control, but those who are interested can still give it a try!