How should water be managed during the cultivation of the button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus)?
How should water be managed when cultivating the button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus)? Please provide guidance. In button mushroom production, from casing to fruiting, in addition to routine water management and moisture retention, correctly mastering and applying the following four key points about water use plays an important role in ensuring mycelial quantity and vigor, ensuring the number and uniformity of pinheads, and ensuring healthy growth of the fruiting bodies...
How should water be managed when cultivating the button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus)? Please provide guidance
In button mushroom production, from casing to fruiting, in addition to routine water management and moisture retention, correctly mastering and applying the following four key points about water use plays an important role in ensuring mycelial quantity and mycelial vigor, ensuring the number and uniformity of pinheads, and ensuring healthy growth of the fruiting bodies and their commercial quality. The mycelium-pressing water must be applied at the right time. Spray mycelium-pressing water when mycelium emerges on the bed surface.
The method is: increase ventilation so that the mycelium on the soil surface lies down; determine the amount of water to spray according to the mycelial growth in the casing layer, generally about 1 kg per sq m of compost surface, once in the morning and once in the evening, until half of the casing layer is soaked through. After spraying, the mycelium should no longer push out of the soil surface; combined with strong ventilation, the top 0.5 cm layer of soil surface should lose water and turn slightly white, while the mycelium grows laterally and connects within the casing layer below that depth, and reaches physiological maturity. The mushroom-forming water must be sprayed heavily. The mushroom-forming water is sprayed 3 days after the mycelium-pressing water. According to the moisture content of the substrate and the casing layer, spray at a rate of 3 kg per sq m of compost surface in 4 applications, until the casing layer is thoroughly wet but no water seeps downward. When spraying the mushroom-forming water, ventilation should be strengthened, and forced ventilation measures should be adopted where conditions permit. After 2-3 days, small mushroom buds can be seen appearing. The fruiting water must be sufficient. The amount and method of spraying fruiting water are similar to those for the mushroom-forming water. At this time mushroom buds have already appeared, so be careful that the water temperature is as close as possible to the shed temperature, and the temperature difference must not be too large. Where there are mushroom buds, spray water several times in small amounts; the total amount must be sufficient, but avoid water seeping into the substrate. The maintenance water must be applied regularly. In combination with maintaining the humidity of the mushroom shed, the number of sprayings and the amount of water used should be controlled every day according to temperature, ventilation and other conditions, keeping the air humidity at about 90% and the casing surface basically moist, but with whitening at the ventilation holes and near the doorway. As the fruiting bodies continue to grow, the number of sprayings and the amount of water used should also continue to increase. When the mushroom caps are 1 cm in diameter, a solution of edible mushroom three-dimensional nutrient essence can be sprayed directly, once a day in October, and every other day after mid-October, and water should be sprayed onto the fruiting bodies according to the humidity inside the shed.
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