Home › Mushroom Cultivation › Article

High-Quality, High-Yield Techniques for Bag-Cultivated Oyster Mushrooms: Micro-Pore Spawn Running and Seepage Irrigation for Fruiting

Mushroom Cultivation 0 views
During the spawn-running stage of bag-cultivated oyster mushrooms, problems commonly arise such as inconsistent mycelial growth rates within the bags, an excessively long spawn-running period, a high contamination rate, the mushroom wall being somewhat too tall and prone to toppling during the fruiting stage, and severe water loss from the bags after the second flush making rehydration difficult, all of which seriously affect yield and quality. In recent years, new techniques of micro-pore spawn running and seepage irrigation for fruiting in oyster mushroom cultivation have been successfully developed in production, effectively solving the above problems. Micro-pore spawn running. The selection of the substrate, ingredient mixing, blending and fermentation are the same as conventional methods; the difference is that before bagging, a sewing machine is used to prick three rows of needle holes on the top of the substrate cylinder, serving as micro-pore channels to supply air during the mycelial growth period.

During the spawn-running stage of bag-cultivated oyster mushrooms, problems commonly arise such as inconsistent mycelial growth rates within the bags, an excessively long spawn-running period, a high contamination rate, the mushroom wall being somewhat too tall and prone to toppling during the fruiting stage, and severe water loss from the bags after the second flush making rehydration difficult, all of which seriously affect yield and quality. In recent years, new techniques of micro-pore spawn running and seepage irrigation for fruiting in oyster mushroom cultivation have been successfully developed in production, effectively solving the above problems.

Micro-pore spawn running. The selection of the substrate, ingredient mixing, blending and fermentation are the same as conventional methods; the difference is that before bagging, a sewing machine is used to prick three rows of needle holes on the top of the substrate cylinder, serving as micro-pore channels to supply air during the mycelial growth period. Alternatively, after conventional bagging, when the mycelium begins to germinate, a needle is used to prick holes at the spawn layer.

Seepage irrigation for fruiting. After the mycelium has fully colonised the bag, a knife is used to make three rectangular openings lengthwise, each opening 5-8 cm wide and 20-25 cm long; when making the openings, the knife must not damage the mycelium. Then move the fruiting bags with the openings to the fruiting site, stack the mushroom bags one layer of bags and one layer of mud, with a height limit of 1.5 m, the topmost layer of mud should be thicker, and water channels should be made. Before stacking the fruiting bags, first build a base with bricks to prevent mud, sand and other debris from splashing onto the mushrooms during fruiting. The principle of this method is to use the water-conducting and water-retaining properties of the mud as a "reservoir" to supply water to the bags that have lost water during fruiting, and to use the openings on the bags to seep-irrigate water from the mud into the mushroom bags. During fruiting, the water channels should be filled with water; after harvesting, irrigate 1-2 times daily; other management is the same as conventional methods.

Adopting the micro-pore spawn running and seepage irrigation fruiting method can advance the spawn-running period of oyster mushrooms by 10-15 days, reduce the contamination rate by 5-10 times, synchronise mycelial growth, unify the mycelial age, produce uniform fruiting, and make management easier. After the bags have produced two flushes of mushrooms, there is no need to soak them for rehydration, which prevents the loss of substrate nutrients caused by soaking, reduces labour intensity, and improves yield and quality.

Related Articles