High-quality enoki mushroom cultivation techniques: solving the problem of poor quality in the third flush of conventional cultivation

    The conventional enoki mushroom (Flammulina velutipes) cultivation method widely used in various regions today can harvest 3 flushes a year, but the biological conversion rate of the substrate reaches only 100% at most, a single growth period lasts as long as 95 days, and only 3 cycles can be run in a year; moreover, the third flush enoki mushrooms have short, thick stipes and open caps easily, resulting in poor commercial quality. A new cultivation technique based on the growth characteristics of enoki mushroom, using a one-time substrate, achieves a biological conversion rate as high as 193%, shortens the cultivation cycle by 40 days, and increases the number of fruiting bodies and the stipe height, raising profits. Its key technical points are as follows:

Enoki mushroom

    Homemade substrate:Take 84% cottonseed hulls, 14% wheat bran, 1% gypsum, 0.2% monopotassium phosphate, 0.25% magnesium sulfate, and 0.55% carbendazim; mix evenly, then add water at a substrate-to-water ratio of 1:1.3 and mix thoroughly to obtain the enoki mushroom substrate.

    Filling and sterilization:Put the substrate into wide-mouth bottles or bags; when filling, keep the firmness moderate so as to avoid mushrooms emerging all over the bottles and bags later. After filling, seal the mouths of the bottles and bags tightly, place in a normal-temperature pot for sterilization, and steam at 100°C for 8-10 hours.

    Cultivation at suitable temperature:After thorough cooling, in the inoculation room or inoculation box under the flame of an alcohol lamp, use an inoculation spatula to dig the spawn blocks out of the spawn bottles and transfer them into the cultivation bottles and bags, then place them in the culture room for mycelial culture. The culture room temperature must be controlled at 22-26°C; it is strictly forbidden to prolong the culture period at low temperature, so as to avoid fruiting before the mycelium has fully colonized, which would affect the yield and quality of enoki mushroom.

    Careful management:After the mycelium has fully colonized, promptly move them into the mushroom yard, open the bottles and bags, and perform scratching to stimulate fruiting. When mushroom primordia form, carry out regeneration management to increase the density of mushroom buds, then cover with bags or newspaper so that a high concentration of carbon dioxide forms inside the bottles and bags, which favors the growth of enoki mushroom.

    When the mushrooms grow to 4-5 cm tall, pay attention to water management; keep the humidity of the cultivation site at 80-90% and the temperature at 8-14°C, and shade the light with straw curtains or black plastic sheeting; the light intensity should be such that a person with normal vision can vaguely make out No. 5 Chinese characters. When the enoki mushrooms grow to 15-20 cm tall, they can be harvested.