A Detailed Guide to Lion's Mane Mushroom Cultivation Techniques and Growing Management Methods

Lion's mane mushroom (Hericium erinaceus) is a rare edible fungus, named for its resemblance to a monkey's head, and it is still quite popular in our country's market. Its price has been rising continuously, attracting many people who want to grow it, but growing it requires mastering the cultivation techniques. Let's take a detailed look below.

1. Greenhouse Construction

Choose a location with flat terrain, a clean environment and close proximity to a water source to build the greenhouse; the size of the greenhouse depends on the scale of cultivation. Since lion's mane mushroom is a thermophilic fungus, the greenhouse must have good insulation measures; double-layer hollow walls are recommended, and ventilation measures must also be well implemented. Dig 50cm down into the ground, cover the roof with non-drip film for insulation, and you can also use a winter-warm vegetable greenhouse to grow lion's mane mushroom.

2. Raw Material Formula

The choice of cultivation raw materials is an important point in growing lion's mane mushroom. Below are two raw material formulas for your reference: ① 90% cottonseed hulls, 8% wheat bran, 1% gypsum, 1% superphosphate; ② 58% cottonseed hulls, 30% mixed sawdust, 10% wheat bran, 1% gypsum, 1% superphosphate. Mix and stir them, then water and stir evenly; the water content should be around 65%, not too much or too little.

3. Bagging and Sterilization

After the culture substrate is prepared, it is time to start bagging. Choose polypropylene plastic bags as the culture bags, with a specific specification of 15×32cm, filling each bag with 8 liang to 1 jin of substrate, pressing it appropriately tight when filling, and tying it tightly with fine string after filling. Next comes high-temperature sterilization. There are atmospheric-pressure sterilization and high-pressure sterilization. For atmospheric pressure, place the cultivation bags into a sterilization pot, heat to 100 degrees, keep it going for 10-12 hours, then stop the fire and let it sit for 5-6 hours. For high pressure, place them into a high-pressure sterilization pot and maintain a pressure of 1.2-1.5 kilograms per square centimeter for 2-3 hours.

4. Inoculation

This is the last step in growing lion's mane mushroom. Send the sterilized and cooled cultivation bags into the inoculation room; before entering, spray-disinfect with a chemical agent, commonly the fungicide kemeiling. During inoculation, the workers must undergo a series of disinfection procedures before they can enter the inoculation room, so as to avoid inoculation failure. When inoculating, first disinfect and sterilize the outside of the spawn bottle, then open the spawn bottle, remove the upper layer of old mycelium, then open the cultivation bag, use a tool to inoculate the mycelium into the bag, and then seal the opening. The movements must be continuous and quick; generally each bottle of spawn can inoculate 30 bags.

The above are the cultivation techniques for lion's mane mushroom. We hope they can help you. To learn more about fungus cultivation knowledge, please stay tuned to us.