Black Fungus Cultivation Techniques: Choosing and Cutting Trees Matters

Black fungus is one of the foods many friends love to eat these days. Whether served cold or added to soups, it has a strong presence, crisp and tasty with high nutritional value. More and more farmers are starting to grow black fungus, and because they don't quite understand it, they take many detours. Today the editor will summarize black fungus cultivation techniques for everyone.

Black Fungus Cultivation Techniques

1. Tree selection

Tree selection for black fungus is very important, and there are many trees suitable for it. But you must adapt to local conditions, choosing tree species that are abundant locally and also easy for fungus growth. Apart from tree species and economic forest trees that contain pine resin, essential oils, alcohols, ethers and the like, all other tree species can be used to grow wood ear fungus. Currently the commonly used tree species include cork oak, sawtooth oak, Mongolian oak, warty birch, Castanopsis carlesii, Chinese wingnut, sweetgum, elm, black locust, willow, Catalpa, London plane, and Amur cork tree. But cork oak and sawtooth oak are the best.

2. Cutting trees

The historical custom is to cut trees during the “coldest days”. Generally speaking, felling can be done from when the leaves turn yellow and wither until before new leaves sprout, because this period is precisely the trees' “dormant” period. The nutrients in the trunk are in a state of accumulation rather than flow, there is less water, and nutrients are at their most abundant and concentrated. This is called cutting “resin-collecting trees”. At the same time, for trees cut during this period, the bark and wood combine tightly, so after felling the bark does not easily come off, which benefits the growth and development of black fungus.

3. Removing branches

After a tree is felled, do not remove the branches immediately. Keeping the branches and leaves can accelerate the evaporation of moisture from the tree, prompt the trunk to dry quickly, and cause its cells and tissues to die. At the same time, it helps the nutrients in the treetop concentrate in the trunk. Wait ten days to half a month before removing the branches. When removing them, use a sharp machete and cut flat from bottom to top against the trunk, trimming into a “copper coin scar” or “ox eye”. Do not cut too deep and damage the cortex. The scars after trimming are best smeared with limewater to prevent contamination by stray microorganisms and water accumulation, and it also makes it easier to stack and arrange them in the yard.

4. Cutting into logs

In order to make it easier to stack the ear logs, arrange them in the yard, set up racks, manage them and harvest them, and also to make it easier for the ear logs, when laid down, to absorb moisture by touching the ground, overly long trunks should be cut into short logs 3 chi long. When cutting, use a hand saw or chainsaw to cut them to even ends, and smear them with limewater to prevent infection by stray microorganisms.

5. Inoculation

Wait until the temperature of the special bags drops below 30 degrees, then inoculation can be carried out. Inoculation must be done as a sterile operation. The inoculation procedure for 17cm×33cm fungus bags is: place the cooled fungus bags into the inoculation box; wipe the outer wall of the stock culture bottle with 75% alcohol for disinfection and also place it into the inoculation box, then use 5 grams of potassium permanganate and 10 milliliters of formaldehyde per cubic meter to fumigate for 0.5 to 1 hour. During inoculation, light an alcohol lamp, use sterilized tweezers to break up the stock culture, and within the sterile zone of the lit alcohol lamp, with the mouth of the stock culture bottle facing the bag opening, evenly sprinkle the spawn onto the surface of the material in the bag, forming a thin layer. In this way the black fungus mycelium germinates quickly and preemptively occupies the material surface, thereby inhibiting infection by stray microorganisms. Each bottle of secondary spawn can inoculate about 30 bags. The inoculation method for 16cm×52cm fungus bags is the same as for shiitake.

6. Light

During the ear-producing stage, black fungus needs sufficient scattered light and a certain amount of direct light. Increasing light intensity and prolonging light duration can strengthen the transpiration of the ear pieces and promote their metabolic activity, making the ear pieces thicker, darker in color, and better in quality. The appropriate light intensity is 400~1000lx. For bag-cultivated black fungus, during the ear-producing period, the positions of the fungus bags should frequently be swapped and rotated so that every fungus bag can receive light evenly and the quality of the fungus can be improved.

7. Processing

After harvesting, the fungus should be sun-dried promptly. Before sun-drying, use scissors to cut away the culture medium at the root of the fungus. For ground-cultivated black fungus, use clean water to wash away impurities. Tear first-grade pieces into pieces with a diameter of more than 2cm, and second-grade pieces into pieces with a diameter of more than 1cm, then place them on a screen window to air-dry. After sun-drying, black fungus (with a moisture content below 14%) should promptly be put into plastic bags. Tie the bag openings tightly, and guard against moisture and insects.

Note: At harvest time, ear pieces that have not unfolded cannot be picked (because they have no commercial value); leave them for management in the next crop.

That is the summary of black fungus cultivation techniques for everyone. Cultivation is rather troublesome, but once you master the methods it is still quite easy. Everyone can consult friends or institutions that already have cultivation experience. Since you have made up your mind to start growing it, you must make all the preparations.