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What are the precautions for harvesting edible fungi

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1. Master the best harvest time. Various mushrooms and fungi are basically at 70-80% maturity when their appearance is beautiful and their taste is good. Take shiitake mushrooms as an example: the sign of 70-80% maturity is that the veil has broken, the cap has not yet fully opened, and there is still a slight inward curl, forming a "copper gong edge"; when the gills have fully extended and changed from white to yellowish brown or dark brown, it is the most suitable harvest time for shiitake mushrooms. Shiitake mushrooms harvested at the right time have bright color, strong aroma, thick caps, and soft and chewy flesh. 2. Pay attention to picking techniques. When harvesting edible fungi, all stemmed mushrooms, such as shiitake mushrooms, button mushrooms, straw mushrooms, and Agaricus blazei

1. Master the best harvest time. Various mushrooms and fungi are basically at 70-80% maturity when their appearance is beautiful and their taste is good. Take shiitake mushrooms as an example: the sign of 70-80% maturity is that the veil has broken, the cap has not yet fully opened, and there is still a slight inward curl, forming a "copper gong edge"; when the gills have fully extended and changed from white to yellowish brown or dark brown, it is the most suitable harvest time for shiitake mushrooms. Shiitake mushrooms harvested at the right time have bright color, strong aroma, thick caps, and soft and chewy flesh.

2. Pay attention to picking techniques. When harvesting edible fungi, all stemmed mushrooms, such as shiitake mushrooms, button mushrooms, straw mushrooms, Agaricus blazei, and bamboo fungus, must be harvested according to the principle of picking the large ones and leaving the small ones. When picking mushrooms, pinch the base of the stem tightly with the thumb and index finger, first rotate left and right, then gently pull upward. Be careful not to bruise the small mushroom buds. For gelatinous fungi such as silver ear fungus, black wood ear fungus, woolly wood ear fungus, as well as clustered oyster mushrooms, Phoenix-tail mushrooms, and enoki mushrooms, cut the whole cluster off from the base with a sharp knife when harvesting, taking care to keep the cluster shape intact.

3. Choose suitable weather. Harvesting on sunny days is good for processing; rainy days have high water content, making drying difficult and affecting quality. However, if the mushrooms and fungi have matured, they should still be harvested in a timely manner on rainy days, but processing should be done promptly. For black wood ear fungus, silver ear fungus, and the like, you can stop spraying water, strengthen ventilation, and wait until the weather clears to harvest.

4. Use suitable containers. Freshly picked mushrooms should be placed in small baskets or small crates, and handled gently to keep the fruiting bodies intact and prevent damage from squeezing each other. In particular, containers such as burlap sacks, wooden buckets, and wooden boxes should not be used, so as to avoid appearance damage or mildew. Freshly picked mushrooms should be packed separately according to the size of the fruiting body and the quality of the cluster shape, so as to facilitate processing.

5. Stop watering and control humidity before harvest. If water is sprayed before harvest, the water content of the mushroom body is too high, and the gills turn brown during processing. If dehydrated and dried, the gills will turn black, and the product will not meet export requirements. If sold fresh, excessive moisture can also cause mildew. Therefore, watering should be stopped before harvest so that the mushroom body maintains normal moisture.

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