How to Achieve High Quality and High Yield in Continuous Oyster Mushroom Cultivation

In some old mushroom-growing areas where oyster mushrooms are cultivated continuously, devastating diseases such as oyster mushroom walnut disease and button disease often occur, reducing yields by 50% in mild cases and causing total crop failure in severe cases, bringing certain economic losses to mushroom farmers. Therefore, changing traditional cultivation techniques is very important.

1. Select disease-resistant varieties. Through experimental comparison, choose Keda Heiping and Xide 99, which are both disease-resistant and high-yielding; next are Jiangdu 5526 and Xinyi No. 1.

2. Prepare a high-yield substrate. The recommended formula is: cottonseed hulls 75%, corncob 15%, wheat bran 7%, quicklime 3%, diammonium phosphate 0.50%, 50% carbendazim wettable powder 0.10%, substrate-to-water ratio 1:1.70. Adding 15% crushed corncob (peanut-sized pieces) to the main ingredient cottonseed hulls not only reduces costs but also increases the substrate's air permeability and water absorption capacity, which is beneficial to vigorous mycelial growth. An appropriate amount of wheat bran supplements organic nitrogen sources and vitamins, increasing the stamina for fruiting. Appropriately increasing the substrate-to-water ratio ensures moisture within the substrate, prolongs the fruiting period, and increases the fruiting quantity.

3. Cultivate vigorous mycelia. Short polyethylene fruiting bags measuring 22 cm x 38 cm are preferable. The mycelium culture room should be fumigated and sterilized in advance, and the inoculation amount should preferably be 15%. After the mycelia cover the surface, use a blade to make cuts at both ends to increase oxygen. When the mycelia have grown to 1/2 of the substrate, use a pointed rod 2 cm in diameter to evenly pierce 2 ventilation and oxygen-increasing holes, piercing from one end to the other. This can greatly accelerate mycelial growth, and the bags can be fully colonized in 15-20 days.

4. Two-stage fruiting: bag fruiting and mud-wall fruiting

4.1 Bag fruiting. When some primordia appear on the fully colonized bags, they can be moved into the shed for fruiting. The bags do not need to be opened, nor is the plastic film rolled up; let the mushrooms grow naturally from the oxygen-increasing holes to avoid losing moisture inside the bags. When the fruiting bodies have grown to more than 3 cm, spray well water directly onto the mushroom surface once a day at around 10 a.m. Harvest when the fruiting bodies reach eight-tenths maturity. Practice has proved that as long as the moisture content of the substrate is appropriately increased when mixing, there is generally no need to inject nutrient water into the bags during the first and second flushes.

4.2 Mud-wall fruiting. Remove the bags from vigorous mushroom logs that have already produced 1 or 2 flushes. Choose fertile soil, take it out and sun-dry it, then mix in 0.05% urea, 0.50% phosphate fertilizer, and 1% quicklime, add water, and knead into nutrient mud. Build layer upon layer, one layer of mushroom logs and one layer of nutrient mud, to a height of about 1.20 m, with two rows of mushroom logs forming one mud wall. After filling the gaps between the bottom layers of the two rows of mushroom logs with fertile soil, build a water storage trough on top, and seal the seams on both sides of the wall with nutrient mud. Build the second mushroom-log wall in sequence, with 60 cm between the two walls. In this way, only relying on the slow seepage and moistening of the nutrient water in the trough can ensure the fruiting humidity of the mushroom logs (nutrient water formula: monopotassium phosphate 0.05%, magnesium sulfate 0.03%, glucose 0.50%, diammonium phosphate 0.30%). In principle, more water in the trough when there are many mushrooms, and less water when there are fewer. This method eliminates the cumbersome procedure of using water-supplementing devices to replenish water in bags, avoids waterlogging the mycelia and reducing their vitality, and with the protection of the sealing mud, the mushroom blocks rarely suffer from disease and insect damage.

4.3 Key points. After each flush is harvested, the substrate surface must be kept moist. If dryness is found, spray water to replenish moisture and then cover with plastic film. After primordia form, remove the film and maintain relative air humidity above 85%. After each flush is harvested, water once with nutrient water. If leaks appear in the water trough, fill them promptly with fertile soil. If cracks appear in the sealing mud on the wall surface, smooth them tightly in time. In addition, oyster mushrooms growing on the mushroom wall are large and thick-fleshed; when harvesting, they should be cut with a knife rather than pulled off by force, so as not to damage the mushroom wall.