Essential Techniques for Greenhouse Mushroom Cultivation Management

Mushrooms need water, but they are also afraid of water, because too much water will damage the mycelium and cause a reduction in mushroom yield. As for watering methods, we have already discussed earlier that they differ at each growth stage. In addition to watering methods, greenhouse mushroom management also requires attention to the following points:

1. Disease and pest prevention

Diseases and pests pose a great threat to mushrooms; once they cause damage, the consequences are endless, and some cases even result in total crop failure. The key points of disease and pest prevention are: sterilizing against mites before the compost is brought into the growing room, emphasizing secondary fermentation, disinfecting and insect-proofing the mushroom house in advance, fumigating the spawn with aluminum phosphide, treating the casing soil with formaldehyde, lime, or Youbaojing or Kemeiling, and regularly spraying pesticides in the mushroom house.

2. Preventing free ammonia

Ammonia is toxic to the mycelium and causes the sown spawn to lose vitality. If the compost is found to have an ammonia smell, sowing should be stopped and formaldehyde should be used to eliminate the ammonia. The amount of formaldehyde used depends on the amount of compost and ammonia content; after fumigation, turn and level the compost. Generally, as long as the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio is noted when mixing materials during composting, nitrogen fertilizer is not used excessively, chemical fertilizers are properly controlled, and nitrogen fertilizer is applied all at once when building the pile, the production of free ammonia can be avoided. Of course, there are still other reasons why the spawn does not recover: incomplete secondary fermentation, "spawn burning" caused by temperature rise during the sowing period, prolonged fermentation during cultivation, over-mature compost producing acidification, and excessively wet compost can all cause the phenomenon of spawn not feeding.

3. Preventing mass death

During the fruiting stage of mushrooms, small mushrooms often shrink, turn yellow, and die. The main reasons are as follows:

1. Sustained high temperature. During the fruiting stage, if the temperature is above 23°C for more than 3 consecutive days, the growth of mushroom buds is inhibited by temperature, which favors the growth and development of the mycelium, causing nutrients to be transported in reverse, leading to the death of mushroom buds from lack of both nutrients and water. Therefore, after fruiting begins, preparations against high temperature are still needed, such as setting up a shade shed on the south side, spraying water on the mushroom house roof, using ice cubes to lower the temperature, and appropriately delaying composting to avoid high temperatures.

2. Insufficient nutrients. The compost does not provide enough nutrition, such as insufficient nitrogen sources in the compost, especially a lack of manure, an imbalanced carbon-to-nitrogen ratio, anaerobic fermentation of the piled compost, thin and insufficient compost, insufficient nutrients, or autumn mushrooms exhausting the nutrients and causing spring mushrooms to die prematurely. Therefore, high-quality compost, good fermentation, proper turning of the compost, and thick-layer cultivation are required to provide sufficient nutrients.

3. Poor ventilation in the mushroom house or mushroom shed. If the mushroom house is stuffy and poorly ventilated for a long time, especially during the fruiting stage when the fruiting bodies have vigorous metabolism, closing windows to regulate water can cause high temperature and high humidity and lead to the death of large numbers of fruiting bodies.

4. Improper water management. The fruiting bodies have different water requirements at different growth and development stages. Lack of water in the mycelial layer and insufficient water supply in the casing layer can also cause the death of young buds, and using unclean water or spraying overhead water for a long time can also cause death.

5. Too high osmotic pressure. Repeated use of salt water increases osmotic pressure, causing mushroom buds to lose water and die.

6. Pest infestation. When serious, pests will eat all the mycelium and cause mushroom buds to die in batches.

7. Abuse of pesticides. When pesticides are used during the fruiting period, they must be diluted correctly as required. Arbitrarily increasing the pesticide concentration will cause phytotoxicity. Pesticides containing petrochemical emulsifiers are prohibited.