A Detailed Guide to Mushroom Cultivation Techniques and Growing Methods
Mushrooms are a food that everyone loves, and chicken stewed with mushrooms in particular is a dish that everyone enjoys. There are actually many kinds of mushrooms on the market now, but most of the cultivation techniques are the same. So do you know how to grow mushrooms? How can you grow them better? What should you pay attention to? Now follow along with the editor to take a look at mushroom cultivation techniques.
1. Preparing the Mushroom House
When growing mushrooms, you need to prepare and build a mushroom house, and the most common type of mushroom house nowadays is a greenhouse structure. The mushroom house is generally built on higher ground, but the site overall should be fairly flat, with a relatively open surroundings and good ventilation. The greenhouse should be made of a material that diffuses light, and the floor needs to be finished with cement so it is easy to wash. Mushroom beds should be set up inside the mushroom house, and they can be made of wood, iron, or brick. Finally, windows or roll-up blinds should be left in place to improve ventilation.
2. Composting the Growing Material
Preparing the growing material for mushroom cultivation is also a very important step. The main ingredients of the growing material are livestock manure, wheat straw, bran, rice straw, corn stalks, and so on, and composting of the growing material generally begins around July. We need to dry the manure in the sun, cut the other materials into pieces, then mix in an appropriate amount of gypsum, soak it through with water or urine, and then pile it up in alternating layers of straw and manure to ferment. Generally, the pile needs to be turned once every three or four days, and after about half a month it is more or less ready.
3. Disinfection and Sterilization
After the growing material has finished composting, we first need to thoroughly disinfect and sterilize the mushroom house, then move the growing material into the mushroom house and spread it evenly on the mushroom beds. Then close the doors and windows of the mushroom house and raise the indoor temperature to around 60°C; after three hours, lower the temperature to around 50°C and maintain this temperature for one week so the growing material ferments completely. Moreover, during this fermentation process, the growing material is also disinfected and sterilized, so that only beneficial microorganisms remain in the growing material, which is greatly beneficial to the growth of the mushrooms.
4. Inoculation and Casing Soil
When the temperature of the growing material drops to around 25°C, the mushrooms can be inoculated. We need to level the growing material on the mushroom beds, with the thickness of the growing material on each bed reaching about 15 cm. Then inoculate using the hole-planting method, with a spacing of about 10 cm between each spot. If you want to increase the speed of mycelial growth, you can sow as densely as possible. After inoculation, the humidity of the growing material must be maintained, and the ventilation of the mushroom house should be increased. Finally, evenly cover the growing material with fine fertile soil, and then you can wait for the mycelium to grow.
5. Fruiting Management
Fruiting management is the most critical step in mushroom cultivation, as it affects the fruiting of the mushrooms, that is, the yield and quality of the mushrooms. The most important parts are water management and temperature management. We need to maintain the humidity of the growing material; in the early fruiting stage the humidity is generally around 70%, and later it can gradually return to around 80% to 90%. When watering, we should follow the principle of watering little but often. The temperature of the fruiting house during the mycelial growth period is best kept at around 10°C to 18°C, and during the fruiting period the temperature should be raised to around 20°C to 28°C, which can speed up fruiting. Once the mushrooms have grown to a certain size, they can be harvested.
Mushroom cultivation techniques are becoming more and more refined now, and many rare mushrooms on the market are gradually able to meet more people's needs, which in fact would not be possible without the efforts of growers. The above is all the content the editor wants to share with you today. If you still have other questions, remember to leave the editor a message.