What are the precautions for cultivating lion's mane mushroom?
Lion's mane mushroom (Hericium erinaceus) is named for its resemblance to a monkey's head. It has extremely high nutritional value and excellent health benefits, is deeply loved by people, and sells very well on the market. However, as wild resources become increasingly scarce, many people have begun to cultivate it artificially, but there are many issues to pay attention to when cultivating it. Below, let's take a look at the precautions for cultivating lion's mane mushroom.
1. Cultivation materials
Lion's mane mushroom is a wood-rotting fungus. It has a very strong ability to decompose wood, and it can also make extensive use of nitrogen sources, carbon sources, mineral elements, vitamins, and so on. In artificial cultivation, the most suitable carbon source is sawdust. In addition, bagasse, cottonseed hulls, and so on are also ideal carbon sources, while the most suitable nitrogen sources are wheat bran and rice bran, which are economical and excellent. In addition, it can also use urea, peptone, ammonium salts, nitrates, and so on as nitrogen sources. In addition, during the growth of lion's mane mushroom, it also needs to absorb elements such as phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, and calcium.
2. Temperature
Lion's mane mushroom has different temperature requirements at different growth stages. The suitable temperature for its mycelium growth is 6-34 degrees, and the most suitable temperature is 25 degrees. If the temperature is below 6 degrees during mycelial development, its metabolism will stop. If it is above 30 degrees, the mycelium grows slowly and is prone to aging. Above 35 degrees, it will stop growing or even die. The suitable temperature for fruiting body growth is 12-24 degrees, and it grows fastest between 18-20 degrees.
3. Air
Lion's mane mushroom is an aerobic fungus and is extremely sensitive to carbon dioxide. Generally, when the carbon dioxide concentration in the air exceeds 0.%, it will continuously stimulate the differentiation of its stipe, making it very easy to form coral-like deformed mushrooms. Therefore, during cultivation, it is essential to ventilate frequently to reduce the carbon dioxide concentration in the mushroom shed, so as to prevent deformed growth of lion's mane mushroom and avoid affecting profits.
4. Light
Lion's mane mushroom does not need light in the early growth stage, that is, the mycelium growth stage, but it cannot do without light during the fruiting body formation and growth stage. If there is no light when the fruiting body is forming, its primordia cannot form. At this time, weak scattered light is needed to stimulate it so that it forms fruiting bodies. In addition, sufficient scattered light is also needed during fruiting body growth, as this can promote the fruiting bodies to grow plump and white. However, once the light is too strong, it will cause abnormal color of the mushroom body and affect yield and quality, so attention is needed.
5. Humidity
In addition to the above points, another thing to pay attention to is humidity. During cultivation, the water content of the substrate should preferably be 60%-70%, but if the water content is lower than 60 or higher than 80%, the number of differentiated primordia will decrease significantly, leading to late maturity of fruiting bodies and lower yield. During mycelial culture, the air humidity should be noted as 70%, but when the fruiting bodies form, it needs to reach 85%-90% to ensure that the fruiting bodies grow quickly and are white. If during the fruiting body formation stage the humidity is below 70%, its surface will dry, shrink, and turn yellow due to water loss, causing severe yield reduction; conversely, if it is above 95%, the spines will be long and thick, the mushroom body will have a small spherical center and become branched, forming deformed mushrooms.
The above is an introduction to the precautions for cultivating lion's mane mushroom. I hope it can help you. If you want to learn more related knowledge, please stay tuned to us.