Detailed Explanation of Plastic Greenhouse Cultivation Techniques for Lion's Mane Mushroom

Lion's mane mushroom is a medium-to-high-grade edible fungus with a distinctive flavor and high nutritional and health value. As people's living standards improve, the @#@136@#@ market for fresh lion's mane mushrooms is gradually expanding. Popularizing lion's mane mushroom cultivation can both meet people's consumption needs and help mushroom farmers become wealthier. The techniques are introduced as follows:

1. Plastic greenhouse construction

Choose a flat site close to a water source and in a clean environment to build the greenhouse. Greenhouse specifications: about 45 m from east to west (determined by the scale of cultivation), 8 m from north to south, north wall height (including excavation depth) 2.8 m, south wall height 1.6 m, with a partition wall every 15 m from north to south. The walls are brick structures; the north wall is a double-layer hollow wall to help with insulation; the south wall has two windows every 3 m for ventilation. The ground inside the greenhouse is dug down 50 cm, and the roof surface is covered with anti-drip film for insulation. Mushroom farmers with the means can also use winter-warm vegetable greenhouses for lion's mane mushroom cultivation.

2. Cultivation season

According to the temperature requirements for the growth and development of lion's mane mushroom, when using plastic greenhouse cultivation in Shandong, cultivation bags should generally be made in mid-October, and after about one month of culture, fruiting begins in mid-to-late November, with fruiting ending in early-to-mid March of the following year.

3. Preparation of cultivation bags

1. Substrate formulation. Formula ①: cottonseed hull 90%, wheat bran 8%, gypsum 1%, superphosphate 1%. Formula ②: cottonseed hull 58%, mixed sawdust 30%, wheat bran 10%, gypsum 1%, superphosphate 1%. Formula ③: cottonseed hull 50%, corncob powder 38%, wheat bran 10%, gypsum 1%, superphosphate 1%. Mix the raw materials of each formula well, add water at a material-to-water ratio of 1:1.2 to 1:1.4, and adjust to a moisture content of 65%.

2. Bag filling. Use 15 cm x 32 cm to 34 cm x 0.04 cm polypropylene plastic bags, with each bag holding about 0.4 kg to 0.45 kg of dry material. Press the material firmly to an appropriate degree, then tie the bag opening tightly with string.

4. Sterilization

1. Atmospheric sterilization. Place the substrate bags layer by layer in a sterilization pot, heat to 100°C, hold for 10 hours, stop the fire and let steam for 5 hours to 6 hours, then take out the bags to cool and inoculate.

2. High-pressure sterilization. Use a large-capacity high-pressure sterilization pot, also placing the bags layer by layer, maintain a pressure of 1.2 kg/sq cm for 2 hours, then allow natural cooling until the pressure reaches zero, open the pot lid and take out the bags to cool. When sterilizing in a large-capacity pot, if the pressure is raised to 1.5 kg/sq cm, bag melting and bag swelling are likely to occur, affecting the sterilization effect.

5. Inoculation and culture

When the substrate bags have cooled below 30°C, move them into an inoculation box for inoculation. The inoculation box is fumigated and sterilized with potassium permanganate and formaldehyde, and aseptic inoculation is carried out after 20 minutes. Inoculate from both ends of the substrate bags; generally each bottle of spawn can inoculate 25 bags. After inoculation, the bags can be moved directly into the greenhouse for culture and mycelial growth. Before moving them in, the greenhouse should be thoroughly disinfected: open the windows to lower the temperature inside, spray the ground and all four walls with limewater, then seal and fumigate with formaldehyde or sulfur for 24 hours. If a winter-warm vegetable greenhouse is used for lion's mane mushroom cultivation, the inoculated bags can first be placed separately in a culture room until the mycelium has grown about 2 cm deep into the substrate, then moved into the greenhouse to continue culturing. The bags are arranged in wall-style rows, stacked 6 layers per row, with a layer of bricks laid on the bottom and 60 cm between rows for easy management.

During the mycelial growth period, ventilation management should be strengthened, and straw curtains should be suitably added on the greenhouse roof for shading, controlling the temperature inside the greenhouse at no more than 27°C. After about 30 days, when the mycelium is nearly fully grown, turn the bags over for inspection, remove bags seriously contaminated by competing fungi, and bags with robust growth can then undergo fruiting management.

6. Fruiting management

Untie the string at both ends of the bags whose mycelium has fully grown, gently pull the bag opening and then immediately put it back, in order to improve the internal aeration conditions of the bags. Raise the humidity inside the greenhouse to above 85%, and keep the temperature inside the greenhouse at 10°C to 20°C. After late November, the warming effect of sunlight in northern regions noticeably weakens; during the day, straw curtains can be appropriately removed to increase sunlight and warming, and at night straw curtains are covered for insulation. If the light is strong and the temperature inside the greenhouse is somewhat high, straw curtains can be appropriately added during the day for shading. On clear and warm days, open the south windows slightly for moderate ventilation. Generally after 7 days to 10 days, primordia begin to appear, and after another 10 days to 15 days, when the spines of the lion's mane mushroom fruiting body are about 0.5 cm to 1 cm long, it should be harvested promptly. After harvesting, remove the mushroom base and continue culturing. In the severe winter season, if the greenhouse insulation is poor, fruiting management can be temporarily suspended, and management resumed after temperatures rise in early February. Generally 2 to 3 flushes of mushrooms can be harvested, and the biological efficiency can reach 100%. Because the greenhouse has good insulation performance, evaporation inside is low in winter, so the number of water sprays should be appropriately reduced during management, and spraying water onto the bag openings or mushroom primordia is strictly prohibited to avoid causing the primordia to rot.

For bags that have produced 2 to 3 flushes of mushrooms, the method of soil-covering bed cultivation can be used, and the biological efficiency can generally exceed 120%. The method is: dig a bed 1.2 m wide and 25 cm deep in the greenhouse, remove the plastic bags from the substrate bags, place 3 to 4 bags per bundle upright in the bed, cover with about 2 cm of fine loam soil, water thoroughly, and thereafter keep the bed in a moist state. After about 15 days, one flush of mushrooms can be produced, and the larger fruiting bodies can reach more than 25 cm in diameter. When the spines reach 0.5 cm in length, they can be carefully harvested; cut off with a knife the part of the stem with soil adhering to it, and they can then be sold or processed.

Using this method, the fruiting period can be extended to mid-to-late April. This method can also be used for cultivating lion's mane mushroom bags that have not yet fruited, and the yield-increasing effect is also very obvious.