Why oyster mushroom mycelium fails to fruit for a long time after fully colonizing the substrate, and how to fix it

In oyster mushroom cultivation, you sometimes run into bags or blocks whose mycelium grows very well but, after fully colonizing the substrate, produce no mushrooms for a long time. The main causes and remedies are as follows:

1. The oyster mushroom variety does not match the season. The temperature type of the spawn differs too greatly from the air temperature at cultivation time, which is to say the sowing time was chosen poorly. For example, if a medium-to-low-temperature oyster mushroom spawn is sown at the turn of spring and summer, the mycelium fully colonizes just as the hot season arrives, making fruiting very difficult. Remedy: dig a trench in a shady spot, arrange the bags in it and cover them with soil to oversummer; when the autumn cool arrives and conditions are suitable, dig away the soil cover and carry out fruiting management to reduce losses.

2. Too much nitrogen-rich material (wheat bran, rice bran, urea, etc.) is added to the substrate, leaving relatively insufficient carbon. The mycelium then grows excessively, forming a very thick mycelial mat that blocks reproductive growth, delays fruiting and seriously reduces yield. Remedy: lightly scratch the mycelial mat with an iron rod or similar tool, just enough to break it (the same as the scratching treatment in golden oyster mushroom cultivation management), then increase ventilation and spray a 0.5% glucose solution or a 1 ppm triacontanol solution and other carbon-containing substances to adjust the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio, then supplement with a temperature difference shock, moderate ventilation and light transmission to promote pinhead formation and fruiting.

3. When the mycelium has just fully colonized, some spawn blocks grow scattered small mushrooms. Mistaking this for normal fruiting, the grower opens the bags and removes the film too early; combined with relatively high ambient temperature and low humidity, a dry, hard mycelial film forms on the bag mouth or the block surface, so the mycelium cannot twist together into primordia and cannot form pinheads or fruit. Remedy: replenish water as appropriate, then use a clean bamboo skewer to score the mycelial skin film on the substrate surface in a crisscross pattern, then supplement with proper aeration, a moderate amount of light and a temperature difference shock to prompt the mycelium to knot and fruit.