Detailed Explanation of Artificial Cultivation Techniques for the Tea Tree Mushroom

In nature, animals, plants, and fungi stand as three pillars, complementing one another. If plants are nature's producers, animals are nature's consumers, and fungi are nature's decomposers. It is precisely the coordination among these three that maintains the ecological balance of nature. Among these three, our understanding of animals and plants has reached over 80%, while our understanding of fungi has only reached 5%, which shows that our knowledge of fungi has only just begun.

Experts predict that edible fungi, as a future supplementary food, are a way to solve the world's food shortage and also a white revolution in agricultural development. In recent years, the tea tree mushroom, which has been included in the compendium of edible fungi, is a little-known macrofungus. With its rich nutrition and its edible value of delicious flavor, crisp stalk, and rich aroma, as well as its special effects such as benefiting qi and tonifying the kidneys, it stands out as a leader in the kingdom of fungi.

For the tea tree mushroom, it is currently a relatively good fungus for artificial cultivation. It contains polysaccharides, and its polysaccharide accumulation is about 11 times higher than that of shiitake mushrooms. It contains 16 amino acids, 8 of which are essential amino acids for the human body. The so-called tea tree mushroom is commonly known as the tea tree mushroom. Wild tea tree mushrooms are a type of fungus that grows under oil tea trees that are over a hundred years old in forests, and they have very high medicinal value.

Tea tree mushrooms grow only twice a year, and to grow again one must wait more than 10 years. Therefore, wild tea tree mushrooms are extremely precious and rare. In order to achieve artificial cultivation and large-scale production of wild tea tree mushrooms, as early as the 1930s, Japanese experts began research. Starting in the 1950s, edible fungus experts in our country also carried out long-term domestication, rejuvenation, cultivation, and experimentation, but all achieved little. The main reason is that the fungus strain of the tea tree mushroom has extremely poor ability to decompose lignin and cannot associate or live symbiotically. Just as people with different blood types produce rejection reactions when receiving blood transfusions, microorganisms of different classes, orders, species, and genera also have this characteristic. In addition, the tea tree mushroom strain is easily infected from inoculation to the cultivation period, the survival rate is low, and the cost is high, so it is very difficult to achieve large-scale production.

Xie Yongtai, a director of the China Edible Fungi Association, together with scientific researchers, after more than 10 years of exploration, finally successfully isolated strains that specifically decompose lignin, No. AB6-2 and Guang A-1. This strain, which can associate with the tea tree mushroom fungus, has a high survival rate, and the rate of premium-quality mushrooms can reach 98%. It has strong disease resistance; even with a small amount of infection, it can still produce mushrooms. It adapts to a wide temperature range and can be cultivated from 12°C to 32°C. The production cycle is short; it takes only 45 to 55 days from inoculation to mushroom production. Moreover, the yield is high, and the biological efficiency can reach 90%-120%. For this reason, this achievement was listed as a key project of Asia-Pacific International Investment in the mainland and a key project of scientific and technological development of the State Science and Technology Commission.

Scientific researchers continued their efforts. Through research and practice, inspired by cultivating plant flowers and fruits with nutrient solution, they successfully developed a new technology for cultivating tea tree mushrooms with nutrient solution. This invention adopted a special formula to cultivate and grow fruiting bodies in a static oxygen-free supply environment, solving the problem that static oxygen-free conditions cannot decompose and absorb the culture medium. This created a new path for the cultivation and production of all edible fungi. The nutrient solution for cultivating edible fungi uses potatoes, soybeans, glucose, protein extract, and other materials as the main raw materials. It does not contain any chemical ingredients or hormones. During cultivation, no plastic film bags are needed, so it will not cause white pollution. It can also save wood and protect forest resources. It is a truly green food. The 21st century will be a century of great development for fungi. Edible fungi, like other green foods, will certainly become an indispensable new food resource for humanity.