Cultivating shiitake mushrooms on leaves is also possible, with low costs and worth a try

Stock culture cultivation is an important step in shiitake mushroom cultivation. The traditional method uses various materials such as sawdust and grain as the culture medium, and the preparation method is complex and needs to be carried out in a dedicated culture room, resulting in relatively high costs. Using fallen leaves from autumn as the main material makes the culture medium composition simpler and cheaper, and it can be carried out in an ordinary room, which is conducive to promotion among ordinary farmers.

First, mix sycamore (also known as London plane) leaves (95%), gypsum powder (2.5%), sugar (1%), compound fertilizer (0.6%), urea (0.6%) and carbendazim (0.3%) uniformly according to the ratio in parentheses

to make the stock culture medium. Put the culture material into a plastic bag, add water, and it is best if the culture material feels moist when squeezed by hand but no water droplets run down. After sealing the plastic bag, place it in a 30°C environment and let it ferment for 7-9 days. Put the fermented culture material into a 17 cm × 30 cm high-temperature-resistant polypropylene plastic bag. When the material reaches a height of 5 cm, insert a wooden stick or glass rod vertically, with a diameter of about 2 cm. Continue filling with material to 20 cm, press firmly, and pull out the wooden stick. Put a plastic ring over the bag opening and seal it with cotton (or newspaper). Sterilize the culture medium with high pressure at 0.1-0.12 mpa for 20 minutes. After cooling to room temperature, inoculate under an alcohol lamp. (Pressure must not be released too quickly, to avoid bursting the plastic bag.) When inoculating, place small pieces of potato mother culture into the small hole left after removing the glass rod, one at the opening and one in the middle. After sealing, culture at 20°C. After 40 to 50 days of growth, the mycelium fills the entire bag, and it can be stored or used for cultivating spawn.

If sun-dried leaves are used as the culture material, the mycelium grows relatively slowly, and the time for the mycelium to fill the bag is on average 10 days later than with fresh leaves, while fresh leaves that have not been sun-dried make the shiitake stock culture mycelium grow faster. Therefore, ordinary farmers can directly use fresh fallen leaves without drying them, making the operation simple and convenient. However, if the leaves are to be stored for later use, they need to be sun-dried to prevent rotting. Farmers can make full use of the fallen leaves of sycamore, which is widely planted in central and northern China, as a reliable raw material for culture medium. It can be seen that using autumn fallen leaves as the raw material for shiitake stock culture medium is simple and cheap, and can be promoted among ordinary farmers.