How to Grow Wood Ear Mushrooms? Cultivation Conditions, Substitute Substrate Formulas and Ingredient Details

Wood ear mushrooms grow on the decaying wood of more than 120 species of broadleaf trees, including oak, poplar, banyan and pagoda tree, growing in clusters and often overlapping in a roof-tile pattern. They can also be cultivated artificially using logs and sawdust from broadleaf trees; growth requires diffused light, moisture and warmth.

Cultivation Conditions for Wood Ear Mushrooms

Wood ear mushroom is a saprophytic mesophilic fungus. The mycelium can grow at 6-36°C, but 22-32°C is most suitable; fruiting bodies can differentiate at 15-27°C, but 20-24°C is most suitable. Lushi County in Henan Province is a case in point, where the excellent natural environment has made Lushi wood ear mushroom a geographical indication protected product. The mycelium can grow in cultivation substrate and logs with a water content of 60%-70%. When fruiting bodies form, the water content of the wood must reach above 70%, and the relative air humidity must be 90%-95%. The mycelium can grow normally in darkness, while the fruiting body growth period requires a light intensity of 250-1000lx. It is an aerobic fungus, and pH 5-5.6 is most suitable.

Cultivation Raw Materials for Wood Ear Mushrooms

Wood ear mushroom cultivation methods include log cultivation and plastic bag substitute substrate cultivation, among others. Here we mainly introduce log cultivation and plastic bag substitute substrate cultivation methods.

1. Log cultivation

The artificial cultivation of wood ear mushrooms originated in China around 600 AD, making it the first edible fungus species to be artificially cultivated in the world, with a history of more than 1,400 years. During the Tang Dynasty, mountain dwellers in the Daba Mountains, Micang Mountains and Longmen Mountains areas of northern Sichuan adopted the "log notching" method to grow wood ear mushrooms. This primitive cultivation method persisted for over a thousand years. During the Qing Dynasty, cultivation of wood ear mushrooms also began in the Changbai Mountains of Northeast China and the Funiu Mountains of Henan. In the depths of winter during the sanjiu period, deciduous trees were felled, relying on the natural spread of wood ear mushroom spores for propagation. Harvesting depended entirely on nature, and yields were extremely low.

In 1955, Chinese scientists began cultivating solid pure wood ear mushroom spawn and invented the log drilling and inoculation method, which greatly increased the yield of wood ear mushrooms from log cultivation. However, a cycle took two to three years to complete, and the absolute yield remained low. Each high-quality log 1 m long and 10-13 cm in diameter produced only 100-150 g of wood ear mushrooms in 3 years, and was often subject to reduced yields from natural disasters. This method is still used today by only a very small number of growers in forest areas.

2. Plastic bag ground cultivation

This technology changed the history of relying on wood to produce wood ear mushrooms, taking wood ear mushroom cultivation from forest areas to open fields. Plastic bag ground cultivation of wood ear mushrooms uses sawdust and straw as raw materials, filled into plastic bags, with each bag holding 0.5 kg of dry material. After sterilization, inoculation and mycelium incubation, the bags are placed in open fields and under orchard trees to produce mushrooms. Plastic bag ground cultivation technology has greatly broadened the raw materials and cultivation areas for wood ear mushrooms and greatly shortened the production cycle. The cultivation method returns to nature, and the product is natural and pollution-free, which is more conducive to large-scale, mechanized and standardized production, with broad prospects for development.

Plastic bag ground cultivation of wood ear mushrooms was successfully invented by the Edible Fungi Research Institute of Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province. In 1994, it was listed in the "National Key Science and Technology Achievement Promotion Plan" and the "August 7 Poverty Alleviation Program". In the same year, it received two national invention patents. In 2000, it won the "Top Ten Outstanding Scientific and Technological Achievements in the National Edible Fungi Industry". In 2006, it received awards and support from the World Bank, the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, and the Ministry of Civil Affairs. With its "from nature, return to nature" approach, plastic bag ground cultivation of wood ear mushrooms conforms to the wood ear mushroom's living habits of "cold and hot, dry and wet" alternation, and achieves high cultivation success rates, yields and quality, making it the mainstream method of wood ear mushroom cultivation.