The key to a bountiful spring mushroom harvest lies in winter management of the mushroom bed

After the autumn mushroom harvest is over, if no warming measures are taken and winter mushroom production continues, then the mushroom bed will enter the winter management stage. How well the winter management of the mushroom bed is done has a huge impact on the spring mushroom harvest of the following year. Therefore, the winter management work of the mushroom bed must be done well. The main measures are:

Do a good job of insulation and ventilation of the mushroom house. In winter, the room temperature of the mushroom house is best kept above 3°C, so that the room does not freeze, to prevent the mycelium from being damaged by frost. In order to maintain this temperature in the mushroom house, before winter arrives, the leaky spots on the four walls of the mushroom house should be checked one by one and blocked, and curtains should be hung on the doors and windows to prevent cold wind from entering. At the same time, on warm days, attention should be paid to ventilation. Ventilation methods: open the south windows of the mushroom house at noon for two to three hours; if the weather is warm and there is no wind, and the outdoor temperature is above 8°C, the south and north windows can both be opened to let the air circulate; if the outdoor temperature at noon is below 5°C, ventilation should be suspended.

Do a good job of watering and topdressing the mushroom bed. The number of times the winter mushroom bed is watered depends on the degree of dryness and wetness of the soil particles; generally, keeping it moist is enough. Prevent watering too frequently and too much, which would cause the sprouted mycelium to suffer frost damage. Topdressing the mushroom bed can be done together with watering. The manure water used for topdressing is best filtered through gauze, with a concentration of about 20%. Unfiltered manure residue must not be applied to the bed surface.

Do a good job of loosening the soil on the bed surface and removing old roots, which should be determined according to the conditions of the mushroom house and the growth of the mycelium in the soil layer. If the mushroom house conditions are good and the mycelium in the soil layer is growing vigorously, the fine soil of the mushroom bed can be scraped open and the coarse soil loosened, and the loosened area can be somewhat larger; if the mushroom house conditions and the mycelium growth in the soil layer are average, there is no need to scrape open the fine soil on the bed, and simply loosening the coarse soil is enough; if the mushroom house conditions and the mycelium growth in the soil layer are poor, the soil need not be loosened in winter, and before spring fruiting in March to April of the following year, the coarse and fine soil should be gently loosened once. However, when loosening the coarse and fine soil, a large amount of white mycelium must not be stripped away, and special attention should be paid to the mycelium wrapped around the coarse soil. When clearing old roots and dead mushrooms from the mushroom bed, the coarse and fine soil should be spread flat and properly again. About a week after the last soil loosening, when the mycelium has already sprouted, a new layer of fine soil, 2 to 3 cm thick, should be spread over the mushroom bed. Before covering with soil, water combined with topdressing should be applied two to three times, so that the coarse soil gets water and nutrients, to promote the sprouting and growth of the mycelium.