The Latest High-Yield Cultivation Techniques and Methods Tutorial for Poria

Poria is the dried sclerotium of the fungus Poria cocos (Wolfiporia cocos) in the family Fomitopsidaceae, also known as Yuling, Fuling, Wanlinggui, Futu, and others. It often parasitizes on pine roots, is shaped like a sweet potato, spherical, with a pale brown or dark brown outer skin and a pink or white interior. After refining, it is called white Poria or Yunling. Its cultivation value is extremely high. Now let us take a look together at the high-yield cultivation techniques for Poria!

Cultivation Conditions for Poria

1. Nutrition: In the pure culture of Poria mycelium, potato juice, pine sawdust, and pine wood chips are commonly used as comprehensive nutrient sources, or glucose, sucrose, and rice bran are used as carbon sources, amino acids and peptone as nitrogen sources, and monopotassium phosphate, magnesium sulfate, magnesium nitrate, ammonium nitrate, and burnt gypsum as mineral sources. To ensure the needs of Poria mycelium for various mineral elements, natural water rather than distilled water is used when preparing the culture medium.

2. Temperature: The mycelium can grow at 10-35°C, with the optimum temperature being 23-28°C. Above 35°C, the mycelium is prone to aging, and if the duration is long or the temperature is too high, it will cause death. Below 20°C, growth is slow. At a low temperature of 0-4°C, the spawn can be preserved.

3. Humidity: The growth and development of the mycelium and sclerotium require a soil moisture content of about 20%, and the formation of the fruiting body requires an environment with a relative air humidity of 70-85%.

4. pH: Poria grows in soil with a pH of 3-7, and a soil pH of 4-6 is best for cultivation.

Cultivation Preparation for Poria

1. Cultivation site: The Poria cultivation site should be selected on mountain slopes at an altitude of 600-900 m, with a slope of 15-30 degrees, requiring a plot that is sheltered from the wind and facing the sun, with somewhat sandy soil, neutral to slightly acidic, and good drainage. Remove weeds, roots, stones, and other debris, then dig pits along the slope. The pits are 60-80 cm deep, and the length and width depend on the amount and length of the wood segments, generally 90 cm long, with a spacing of 20-30 cm between pits, and drainage ditches dug around the perimeter.

2. Cultivation material preparation: Prepare the material in the autumn and winter of the previous year by cutting Masson pine. After cutting, remove the branches and make 3-10 vertical cuts through the bark at intervals according to the size of the pine wood, with a cut surface width of 3 cm and a depth of 0.5 cm into the xylem, so that the pine wood dries easily and exudes pine resin. Set up the cut pine wood on site to dry fully. When the cut ends of the pine wood stop exuding resin and produce a crisp sound when tapped, saw it into 65-80 cm long wood segments and place them in a ventilated and light-transmitting place for later use. Around June, arrange the wood segments into the pits, with three segments per pit, matching thick and thin, placed in layers, ready for inoculation.

Spawn Preparation for Poria

1. Mycelium spawn: Mycelium spawn is artificially pure-cultured Poria mycelium. The mother spawn of the mycelium is obtained by tissue isolation, but it is best to produce spawn using Poria spores. The method is to place a fresh sclerotium of 8-9 kg on a water container, about 2 cm above the water, at a room temperature of 24-26°C, with an air humidity above 85%, and bright light. After only 1 day, a white honeycomb-like fruiting body appears near the water surface of the sclerotium. After 20 days, the fruiting body can discharge a large number of spores, and at this time, sterile operation can be carried out.

2. Flesh spawn: Flesh spawn is slices of fresh Poria. It is best to select newly dug individuals of medium size, each 250-1000 g, with sufficient juice.

3. Water spawn: Water spawn refers to wood material inoculated with flesh spawn, that is, wood segments bearing mycelium. In early May, select dry pine trees with loose texture and a diameter of 9-10 cm, peel the bark and leave the resin ducts, then saw them into 50 cm long wood segments. Use newly dug fresh Poria for inoculation. Generally, a pit with 10 kg of wood segments uses 0.5-0.7 kg of fresh Poria. Inoculate by the head-inoculation method, that is, attach the Poria spawn slices to the upper end of the wood segment near the bark, cover with 3 cm of soil, and they can be dug out by early August. Select those that are yellow-white, have obvious mycelium under the bark and resin ducts, and have the aroma of Poria as wood spawn seed.

Inoculation Management for Poria

1. Mycelium spawn: For mycelium spawn inoculation, choose a sunny day, sharpen the upper ends of the medium and fine wood segments in the pit, then insert the cultivation spawn bottle or bag upside down on the pointed end. After inoculation, cover with 3 cm of soil in time. Alternatively, pour the cultivation spawn out of the bottle or bag, centrally inoculate it at the saw cut on the upper end of the wood segment, cover with a layer of wood chips and leaves, and then cover with soil.

2. Flesh spawn: For flesh spawn inoculation, according to the thickness of the wood segments, place them in layers with two on top and three below or one on top and two below. When inoculating, use a clean knife to cut open the winter spawn, press the flesh side of the Poria tightly against the wood segment with the Poria skin facing outward, and cut while inoculating. The inoculation amount also depends on regional and climatic conditions. Generally, 50 kg of wood segments uses 250-1000 kg of spawn Poria.

3. Wood spawn: For wood spawn inoculation, dig out the wood segments selected as seed and saw them into 2 sections. Generally, 1-2 sections of water spawn are used per pit. When inoculating, join the wood spawn and the wood segment end to end. The inoculation season varies by region. In areas with high temperatures, carry out inoculation in early April; in areas with low temperatures, inoculation can be done from early May to June. After inoculation, the mycelium germinates and grows in 3-5 days, and spreads in 10 days. During this period, special attention should be paid to preventing termite damage. After inoculation, sclerotia can form in 3-4 months. When sclerotia form, do not pry or move the wood segments to prevent breaking the mycelium. During the sclerotium formation period, Poria grows quickly, and cracks often appear on the ground. Timely fill and seal the cracks and remove weeds.

Harvesting and Processing of Poria

When Poria is yellow-brown on the outside, it can be harvested. If it is yellow-white, it is not yet mature; if it is black, it is overripe. Choose a sunny day for harvesting, brush off the mud and sand, pile it indoors in layers, add a layer of straw at the bottom and on the surface to induce sweating, and turn it once every 3 days. When the moisture is dry and the Poria skin wrinkles, the outer skin can be peeled off, which is Poria skin. The inside is cut into uniformly thick slices. Pink ones are red Poria, white ones are Poria slices, and those with a woody core in the center are Fushen. It can also be left unsliced; after the moisture is dried, then air-dry it in the sun, and it becomes whole Poria.