Some practical experience in enoki mushroom (Flammulina filiformis, enoki mushroom) spawn production
Some experience-based remarks on enoki mushroom spawn production
The enoki mushroom is currently one of the edible mushroom varieties with a relatively large cultivation volume in our country, and in recent years its consumption nationwide has grown larger and larger. The cultivation returns of the vast number of growers have maintained sustained and stable growth, and both factory cultivation and open-field cultivation have shown a vibrant scene. Here, the author will discuss only a few points of experience from many years in spawn production, for the reference of the vast number of growers.
1. The quality of the mother culture must be good. The yield of enoki mushrooms is most closely related to the mother culture we introduce. The quality standards of the mother culture can be grasped from the following aspects: First, judge good from bad by the mycelium in the mother culture test tube. The mycelium of a normal mother culture should grow neatly and appear pale white or fairly dense white; after the mycelium has fully grown it should appear white, and the mycelium should be relatively fine, similar to cotton fibers. Second, when preserving the mother culture, it should be placed in the refrigerator when the mycelium is about to fully grow; do not wait until the mother culture mycelium has completely grown before low-temperature preservation, because this very easily promotes the mother culture to rapidly form primordia under low-temperature conditions, causing the mother culture to lose its usable value. Third, when subculturing the mother culture, one should select the original mother culture that has not formed primordia; if primordia have formed, one should select those with small mushroom primordia that have not opened their caps; mother cultures with fully opened caps should be resolutely discarded and not used, otherwise it may cause a large decrease in enoki mushroom yield.
2. The disinfection and sterilization of the stock culture must be thorough. The preparation of enoki mushroom stock culture can use high-pressure sterilization and normal-pressure sterilization. High-pressure sterilization generally uses a pressure cooker. Many people have a misunderstanding in high-pressure sterilization, thinking that the higher the pressure and the longer the sterilization time, the better. Actually this is not so. The key to high-pressure sterilization lies in whether the cold air in the pot body is completely exhausted. The correct method is to open the steam release valve of the pressure cooker as soon as heating begins, and start timing when the water in the pot boils and a large amount of hot steam is discharged from the steam release valve; maintain 10-15 minutes for a small pot and 20-30 minutes for a larger pot, then close the steam release valve, and wait until the pressure rises to 1.5 pressures and maintain for one and a half hours to meet the requirement. Normal-pressure sterilization is currently the method commonly used by mushroom farmers. If glass bottles are used to make spawn, the sterilization time can be slightly shorter; if plastic bags are used to make spawn and there is no partition layer in the normal-pressure pot, then the sterilization time should be appropriately extended. The general principle is that the time should be longer rather than shorter.
3. Learn to correctly identify the quality of the stock culture. The quality of the stock culture is generally judged from the mycelium. Good-quality spawn has dense white mycelium, obvious aerial mycelium, and after opening has an obvious mushroom aroma. If there is an off-odor, and the mycelium is yellow-white and shrunken, it should be resolutely discarded and not used. In seasons with lower temperatures, some stock cultures may have primordia on the surface; the quality of this type of stock culture is not a problem and it can continue to be used. If corn kernels are used to make the stock culture, cracking may appear on the top and sides of the stock culture; experience proves that this kind of spawn is generally a good spawn with high and stable yield, and it can be used with confidence and boldness.
4. Two-stage spawn production is advocated, and three-stage spawn production is not advocated. Generally, spawn can be graded as follows: the mother culture test tube is the first stage; the glass bottle spawn propagated from the test tube is the second-stage spawn; and the glass bottle spawn propagated from the second-stage spawn is what we call the third-stage spawn. Experience proves that directly inoculating production mushroom bags with the second-stage spawn propagated from the test-tube mother culture results in good mycelial development, a high success rate, a low contamination rate, and noticeably higher yield and noticeably better quality of enoki mushrooms in the later period; while mushroom bags inoculated with third-stage spawn perform noticeably worse than the former in all aspects. The reasons are: first, the first-stage mother culture has a very high degree of purification and a very short spawn age, generally taking about 10 days to grow, with no hidden contamination and no aging; the second-stage stock culture inoculated with it has a consistent spawn age, and inoculating production mushroom bags with it naturally gives very good results. Second, when using second-stage stock culture to further inoculate third-stage production spawn, if selection is not strict, it is very possible to select spawn carrying hidden contamination such as bacteria; using these second-stage stock cultures to further inoculate third-stage spawn is very likely to cause the expansion of bacterial contamination, seriously affecting enoki mushroom yield. Therefore, here it is suggested that the vast number of mushroom farmers adopt the two-stage spawn production method. The production process of two-stage spawn production can be simply summarized as: mother culture test tube inoculates stock culture bottle, stock culture bottle inoculates mushroom bag, and the mushroom bag mycelium matures and directly produces mushrooms.
1. The quality of the mother culture must be good. The yield of enoki mushrooms is most closely related to the mother culture we introduce. The quality standards of the mother culture can be grasped from the following aspects: First, judge good from bad by the mycelium in the mother culture test tube. The mycelium of a normal mother culture should grow neatly and appear pale white or fairly dense white; after the mycelium has fully grown it should appear white, and the mycelium should be relatively fine, similar to cotton fibers. Second, when preserving the mother culture, it should be placed in the refrigerator when the mycelium is about to fully grow; do not wait until the mother culture mycelium has completely grown before low-temperature preservation, because this very easily promotes the mother culture to rapidly form primordia under low-temperature conditions, causing the mother culture to lose its usable value. Third, when subculturing the mother culture, one should select the original mother culture that has not formed primordia; if primordia have formed, one should select those with small mushroom primordia that have not opened their caps; mother cultures with fully opened caps should be resolutely discarded and not used, otherwise it may cause a large decrease in enoki mushroom yield.
2. The disinfection and sterilization of the stock culture must be thorough. The preparation of enoki mushroom stock culture can use high-pressure sterilization and normal-pressure sterilization. High-pressure sterilization generally uses a pressure cooker. Many people have a misunderstanding in high-pressure sterilization, thinking that the higher the pressure and the longer the sterilization time, the better. Actually this is not so. The key to high-pressure sterilization lies in whether the cold air in the pot body is completely exhausted. The correct method is to open the steam release valve of the pressure cooker as soon as heating begins, and start timing when the water in the pot boils and a large amount of hot steam is discharged from the steam release valve; maintain 10-15 minutes for a small pot and 20-30 minutes for a larger pot, then close the steam release valve, and wait until the pressure rises to 1.5 pressures and maintain for one and a half hours to meet the requirement. Normal-pressure sterilization is currently the method commonly used by mushroom farmers. If glass bottles are used to make spawn, the sterilization time can be slightly shorter; if plastic bags are used to make spawn and there is no partition layer in the normal-pressure pot, then the sterilization time should be appropriately extended. The general principle is that the time should be longer rather than shorter.
3. Learn to correctly identify the quality of the stock culture. The quality of the stock culture is generally judged from the mycelium. Good-quality spawn has dense white mycelium, obvious aerial mycelium, and after opening has an obvious mushroom aroma. If there is an off-odor, and the mycelium is yellow-white and shrunken, it should be resolutely discarded and not used. In seasons with lower temperatures, some stock cultures may have primordia on the surface; the quality of this type of stock culture is not a problem and it can continue to be used. If corn kernels are used to make the stock culture, cracking may appear on the top and sides of the stock culture; experience proves that this kind of spawn is generally a good spawn with high and stable yield, and it can be used with confidence and boldness.
4. Two-stage spawn production is advocated, and three-stage spawn production is not advocated. Generally, spawn can be graded as follows: the mother culture test tube is the first stage; the glass bottle spawn propagated from the test tube is the second-stage spawn; and the glass bottle spawn propagated from the second-stage spawn is what we call the third-stage spawn. Experience proves that directly inoculating production mushroom bags with the second-stage spawn propagated from the test-tube mother culture results in good mycelial development, a high success rate, a low contamination rate, and noticeably higher yield and noticeably better quality of enoki mushrooms in the later period; while mushroom bags inoculated with third-stage spawn perform noticeably worse than the former in all aspects. The reasons are: first, the first-stage mother culture has a very high degree of purification and a very short spawn age, generally taking about 10 days to grow, with no hidden contamination and no aging; the second-stage stock culture inoculated with it has a consistent spawn age, and inoculating production mushroom bags with it naturally gives very good results. Second, when using second-stage stock culture to further inoculate third-stage production spawn, if selection is not strict, it is very possible to select spawn carrying hidden contamination such as bacteria; using these second-stage stock cultures to further inoculate third-stage spawn is very likely to cause the expansion of bacterial contamination, seriously affecting enoki mushroom yield. Therefore, here it is suggested that the vast number of mushroom farmers adopt the two-stage spawn production method. The production process of two-stage spawn production can be simply summarized as: mother culture test tube inoculates stock culture bottle, stock culture bottle inoculates mushroom bag, and the mushroom bag mycelium matures and directly produces mushrooms.