What are the widespread uses of lime in edible mushroom production?

Lime has a pronounced disinfecting and sterilizing effect and is rich in calcium, giving it a wide range of uses in edible mushroom production. Its applications are briefly described below:

I. Application on the site

This includes the spawn culture room, the fruiting site, and the surrounding environment. First clear the weeds around the site and sprinkle a layer of lime powder, then clean the culture room thoroughly, spray conventional insecticide, and sprinkle another layer of lime powder. This can kill some contaminant fungi and reduce the contamination baseline, especially bacterial contamination, and can also prevent pests such as slugs from invading the site and causing damage.

II. Application in the substrate

Most edible mushrooms can grow normally in a slightly alkaline substrate. Except for acid-loving species such as Hericium erinaceus (lion's mane), adding 1%-2% lime to the substrate can basically control contaminant fungal contamination in raw-material cultivation. Practice has shown that for oyster mushrooms cultivated from raw material, adding 2% lime versus no lime: the former has a contamination rate below 2%, while the latter reaches as high as 20%-30%. This is because substrate without lime becomes fairly acidic after composting and fermentation, with pH generally below 5-6, which favors the growth of various contaminant fungi and easily causes explosive contamination; substrate with lime added is alkaline and can maintain a pH of around 8 after fermentation, making it harder for contaminant fungi to grow, thereby achieving the goal of controlling them. In addition, because lime contains a large amount of calcium, after use the mycelium is thick and white, and it can also enhance the firmness of the mushroom blocks and increase yield.

III. Application in rodent prevention and pest elimination

Because mycelium has a special fragrance, mice like to eat it very much. If lime is used together with chemical rodent control, the effect is doubled with half the effort: at the entrance and exit of the spawn-running room, a line of lime powder will stop mice in their tracks because they inhale the lime. Fu Yuerong