Key Technical Points for Imitation-Wild High-Quality Cultivation of Oyster Mushrooms in Winter and Early Spring

Oyster mushrooms produced using imitation-wild cultivation techniques not only taste as fresh and delicious as wild ones, but also truly achieve ecological, high-quality, and high-yield production. Even in the cold winter and low-temperature early spring seasons, high-quality oyster mushrooms that are thick, fleshy, fresh, and tender can be produced in a relatively enclosed shade shed by making full use of ground temperature. This method increases yield by more than 60% compared with conventional cultivation methods, and by more than 40% compared with cultivation methods such as mushroom walls, with a biological conversion rate of more than 220%.

1. Mycelium culture. Use high-pressure or atmospheric-pressure sterilization, inoculate conventionally, and culture until physiologically mature mycelium is obtained. Fermented material obtained by treating raw materials with high temperature and strong alkalinity can also be used to culture mycelium. Specific method: when mixing ingredients, add 4% quicklime, added to the material in the form of limewater, and mix thoroughly. Then make heaps of 1000 kg each and ferment in piles. When the material temperature reaches above 60°C, maintain it for 24 hours, turn the pile, and repeat 2-3 times. When the raw material feels moist and elastic in the hand, is tea-brown in color, has no off odor, has a pH of 7.5, and a moisture content of 65%, spread it out to cool, bag it for spawn running (or press it into blocks for spawn running), and culture it into contamination-free fully colonized bags. Whether using sterilized material, fermented material, or raw material fully colonized bags, the raw materials used can be cottonseed hulls, corncobs, or other substitute materials. The spawn used should be high-quality spawn that has been tested and shows good overall traits in the local area.

2. Shade shed construction. Choose a vegetable garden, courtyard, or high-quality sandy loam soil site to build the shed. Inside the shed, dig beds 20 m long, 1.3 m wide, and 0.22 m deep, with two beds forming one shed. Leave a walkway in the middle between the beds, and firm the surroundings. When building the arch, use moso bamboo with a diameter of more than 4 cm, folded in half into arches, then reinforce with horizontal bamboo, cover with plastic film, and cover with straw mats (various shade materials woven from straw can also be used).

3. Arranging the mushroom bags. Remove the plastic film from 30 cm long bags (long bags can be cut open), and arrange the mushroom bags at a 75-degree tilt until the bed is full. When arranging the bags, carefully check whether the bags are infected with contaminating microorganisms. If so, remove them with a sharp tool to prevent spread.

4. Casing soil treatment. Loam is best for the casing soil material. In late autumn, winter, and early spring, treat with 1% lime powder; in late spring, early autumn, and summer, treat with 3% lime powder: mix the lime powder evenly into the soil, striving for no large particles. The treated soil can be used to cover the arranged mushroom bags, with a soil thickness of 1.5 cm on top of the bags as appropriate, and sweep it level with a broom.

5. Watering requirements. Use a water pump to draw groundwater or other clean water sources, and flood-irrigate from one end of the bed until the bed is fully penetrated, and let the water remain in the bed for 12 hours (if the bags have already produced mushrooms, they tend to float up, so after the water penetrates, press them flat again). Through this flood irrigation, part of the overlying soil may sink. After the water in the bed has completely penetrated, spread another layer of soil and sweep it level, then sprinkle nutrient water (composed of 2% urea, 0.2% magnesium sulfate, zinc, and trace amounts of Enfei, Gaomeishi, or other growth promoters, or high-efficiency liquid compound fertilizer), so that the newly spread soil is wet but not sunken, and can stick up when the surface is slightly dry.

6. High-yield principle. In conventional oyster mushroom production, the main factors limiting high yield are that after the first flush of mushrooms is produced, the lost water and nutrients are difficult to replenish, the mycelium easily ages, and it is difficult to produce good second and third flushes. With this technique, nutrient water can be irrigated once after each mushroom harvest, so that the mycelium remains relatively sufficient in nutrients and water, which can extend mycelial life and the mushroom-producing period. One week after casing soil and irrigation, new mycelium connects the entire bed of mushroom bags into one integrated whole. During mushroom formation and growth, the soil continuously supplies nutrients and water to the mycelium, so when producing the second and third flushes, the mushrooms are still plump, fresh, and tender, with strong staying power. Because the humidity in the shed is suitable and shading is good, from the formation of small mushroom primordia to mature harvest, the mushroom-growing environment is just like a moist forest shade area, overcoming the disadvantages of conventional cultivation, such as difficulty in controlling spatial humidity and difficulty in replenishing nutrients and water to the mushroom bags; in addition, trace fertilizers, hormones, and growth promoters can seep into the soil with irrigation water, making it easy for the mycelium to absorb and utilize them, so stable and high yield, high quality, and high efficiency can be obtained.