High-yield cultivation method of cutting oyster mushroom blocks into pieces, standing them upright and covering with soil

Mushroom farmers in Dongkan Town, Binhai County, Jiangsu Province, through years of oyster mushroom cultivation practice, worked out the six-character high-yield formula for oyster mushrooms of "cutting into blocks, standing upright, covering with soil", which increased the oyster mushroom yield per mu by more than 2000 jin compared with the past, with an increase rate of about 30%, and at the same time, production costs dropped greatly. Their high-yield experience mainly consists of three steps: "cutting into blocks, standing upright, covering with soil".

The so-called "cutting into blocks" means that at the end of harvesting the second flush of mushrooms in furrow-bed cultivation, the dead mushrooms, stipes and the like remaining on the bed surface are cleaned up, and a sharp knife is used to cut the cultivation substrate into multiple fungus blocks of about 50 cm x 20 cm, then a shovel is inserted from below the culture substrate and swung a few times to lift the fungus blocks up. The requirement for cutting into blocks is that the sharp knife must cut vertically down through the cultivation substrate, and the four sides of the fungus blocks must be cut smooth and well formed. When lifting with the shovel, care must be taken not to break the fungus blocks.

The so-called "standing upright" means standing up the lifted fungus blocks one by one. The requirement for standing upright is to first sweep the bed surface or furrow surface clean and spread a layer of dry lime, then arrange the fungus blocks in rows. The row spacing is 30 cm, and the rows should face the ventilation opening. If there is old fungus skin on the bottom of the fungus blocks, it should be cut open with a sharp knife; any moldy or rotten parts should be dug out and dry lime spread on them; if individual fungus blocks are seriously moldy, the blocks can be moved elsewhere for isolated treatment; if some fungus blocks have lost water severely, the blocks can be soaked in water. After cutting into blocks and standing upright, the management method is the same as the general management of furrow-bed cultivation.

After the end of harvesting the third flush of mushrooms and cleaning the substrate surface, the above-mentioned 50 cm x 20 cm fungus blocks are again divided into 4 to 6 small fungus blocks in the same way, for the management of the fourth flush of mushrooms.

The so-called "covering with soil" means that after the end of harvesting the fourth flush of mushrooms and cleaning the substrate surface, the small fungus blocks are stood upright and buried in winter-fallow rice fields or vegetable plots or vacant land. The fungus blocks are 8 to 9 cm apart, and the soil used for covering is required to have a water content of 70 to 75% and a pH value of 7 to 7.5. The suitable soil covering thickness is 2 to 3 cm, and the soil on the surface should be loose. After covering with soil, management should be strengthened, keeping the soil surface moist, with supports used outside to form arches, covered with film, and shaded. One month later, after the mycelium has grown over the soil surface, the ventilation should be increased so as to ensure the fruiting bodies emerge smoothly from the soil. The management method is the same as that of furrow-bed cultivation. If managed well, 1 to 2 more flushes of mushrooms can still be harvested.

This method has many advantages. First, the fruiting area is large, the yield is high, and the quality is good. The effective fruiting area is 3 to 5 times higher than the original. Second, it has good disease resistance. When the seedling blocks are sprayed with water, no water accumulates and they do not rot. The upright fungus blocks have good air permeability between one another, so miscellaneous bacteria are not easy to grow. Third, covering with soil can preserve heat and moisture, add nutrients, and give good mushroom quality. Fourth, the input is small, or no additional input is needed at all, to increase the fruiting area and raise the yield. However, in practice it must be organically combined with nutrient supplementation.