The Second of the Six-Part Series on Autumn Production of Edible Mushrooms

First, select good spawn. The main varieties used this autumn are: 1) Oyster mushroom: "8359" and "Nongke 12" -- suited to fruiting in spring and autumn; spawn-running temperature 5-36°C, optimum 24-28°C; fruiting temperature 5-25°C, best 18-20°C; clustered or imbricate overlapping growth, small thick caps, large clusters, cap grey to dark grey, stipe slender and short, gills white and fine, cluster shape compact, flesh firm, good market quality; these two strains have strong resistance to contaminants and diseases, and in general production they do not become infected with diseases such as yellow mushroom disease, with good yield performance and a general biological efficiency of over 150%; in trials the first flush reached a maximum of over 182%, making them one of the leading varieties for spring and early autumn cultivation. 2) Button mushroom: "2796" -- bred by the Fujian Institute of Light Industry, a leading variety in domestic production; years of research and practice tell us: before first-hand data have been obtained, this strain should be used for commercial cultivation, and strains should not be blindly changed. 3) Shiitake: "Nongxiang 66" -- a medium-wide temperature type, suited to autumn-spring fruiting or off-season summer cultivation; mycelial age about 60 days, cap reddish-brown, stipe slender, flesh relatively thick, good market characteristics, good mycelial resistance, strong resistance to infection, general biological efficiency around 100%. 4) Lion's mane mushroom: "H-08" and "H-99" -- fruiting in spring and autumn; medium to large size, moderate spines, strong resistance to contaminants, high market quality. 5) Shaggy ink cap mushroom: "Cc168" and "Cc833" -- respectively medium-large and pure white types, strong resistance to contaminants, high yield, good market quality, currently the leading strains for large-scale cultivation. 6) Willow bolete: "Luliu No. 1" -- a strain selected and bred after isolation and domestication from a wild mushroom; it clearly has production advantages such as good stress resistance, a high cultivation success rate, good mushroom appearance and high market value, and is currently the leading variety for commercial production. 7) Wood ear: "Au10" and "8 Hei 22" -- ear pieces on the small side and uniform, high rehydration rate, good taste, high market value. 8) Hairy wood ear: "Huangbei Wood Ear" and "Hybrid 22" -- ear pieces thick and large, high yield, good contaminant resistance, with particularly ideal market results for fresh sales. 9) Golden oyster mushroom: "Luxuan 72" -- a medium-high temperature strain, its yield can match that of oyster mushroom, with excellent resistance and strong adaptability; it can be inoculated in raw material, cooked material or fermented material, its only shortcoming being that the cap is wrinkled and slightly wavy, which is not conducive to transport. 10) King oyster mushroom: "XZ-1", a club-shaped strain, fast spawn running, high fruiting yield, one of the leading strains bred over many years.

Second, standardise transfer and expansion. Bringing in a good strain of spawn does not mean everything is fine; it still has to go through many processes before harvest, and the first issue is expansion and propagation, including substrate formulation, sterilisation, cooling, inoculation and so on; the concept of "sterility" must be stressed, and operating procedures strictly followed.

Third, strictly remove contaminants. Removing contaminants during the incubation of grade 1-3 spawn is work that is easily overlooked; grasp one principle: when problem spawn is found, resolutely discard and dispose of it -- whether fungal infection or bacterial infection, whether early-stage infection or late-stage infection, it must be discarded and disposed of.

Part Three: Mushroom shed disinfection, reinforcing the concept

1. The construction standard of the mushroom shed, emphasising the concept of "ventilation": the construction of the mushroom shed should be determined according to each person's production plan and production direction, and cannot be generalised; for example, growers planning year-round cultivation can raise the standard of the shed somewhat, preferably a winter-warm greenhouse; when focusing on off-season production, the walls should be thickened as much as possible and a "greenhouse water-temperature air conditioner" installed, which can both maximise heat preservation and achieve free temperature control, laying the foundation for off-season production; if only one batch of cultivation is to be carried out in autumn and winter, there is no need to build a high-standard mushroom shed -- a single-slope, flat-type greenhouse is enough, or it can even be built against a slope or wall, with simple facilities costing much less. However, whatever kind of mushroom shed it is, one principle must be grasped: on the basis of being able to achieve basic heat and moisture retention, the main purpose of ventilation must be stressed, especially the ventilation holes, which should be as close to the ground as possible. In the past, some "rustic mushroom sheds" had walls on all four sides and were completely airtight, so diseases ran rampant and caused too great losses to growers' production -- the lesson is indeed profound enough.

2. Disinfection treatment of the mushroom shed environment, reinforcing the concept of "environment": it is worth noting that our edible mushroom production environment is indeed deteriorating day by day; for example, contaminated spawn bags, diseased mushroom bodies and spent cultivation waste are discarded at random, turning them into new "disease source bases", causing frequent disease outbreaks and accompanying cross-infection, making continuous production more and more difficult; this phenomenon began to appear in the 1990s of the last century and has still not been effectively addressed. For base-type production, we have always stressed the improvement of this "environment"; where large-scale treatment cannot be achieved, disinfection and sterilisation measures can be strengthened within the base: clean up sanitation outside the cultivation sheds, including around the operating site; stables and latrines, rubbish and the like must be strictly cleaned up, and in particular contaminated spawn bags and spent mushroom substrate waste must be thoroughly cleared away, with high-concentration chemicals sprayed to sterilise and kill insects in the external environment; where the environment is poor, chemicals should be applied twice in succession.