Detailed Explanation of Straw Mushroom Bag Cultivation Methods and Technical Key Points

1 Soaking rice straw: Select dry, mold-free rice straw and place it in a 5% lime water pool to soak for 10-12h. When soaking the straw, press it down firmly so that the lime water in the pool completely submerges the straw.

2 Cutting rice straw: Take out the soaked straw, drain off the remaining water, and cut it into straw segments about 20cm long with a straw cutter or chopper. Note that if too long, it is difficult to bag; if too short, it takes more labor and is also not conducive to mycelial knotting.

3 Culture medium formula: rice straw 50kg, rice bran 7.5-10kg, peanut cake 1-1.5kg, phosphate fertilizer 1kg, gypsum powder 1kg, monopotassium phosphate 0.15-0.25kg; rice straw 35kg, rice bran (wheat bran) 5kg, cornmeal 1.5kg, cottonseed hulls 15kg, gypsum powder 1.5kg, compound fertilizer 1kg; rice straw 50kg, rice flour 5kg, peanut cake 1.5kg, gypsum powder 1kg, phosphate fertilizer 1kg. All raw materials in the formula should be dry, mold-free, and free of impurities. Peanut cake should be crushed before use.

4 Mixing materials: First mix the other raw materials in the formula together evenly, then evenly sprinkle the mixed raw materials over the rice straw. After mixing several times, it can be bagged.

.5 Bagging: For bag cultivation of straw mushrooms, low-pressure polyethylene tube bag film is generally used, with bag specifications of 50cm x 24cm x 0.0035cm (or 0.004cm). To reduce production costs, bags of 56cm x 30cm x 0.005cm may also be used. When filling the material, it is required to be firm, to the extent that the bag will not be broken. After filling, tie both ends tightly with plastic packing straps using slip knots.

6 Disinfection and sterilization: Timely disinfect and sterilize the filled tube bags, keeping them at 100°C for 8-12h. It is also required that tube bags filled on the same day be sterilized on the same day to strictly prevent souring and spoilage.

7 Inoculation: After sterilization, the material bags can be inoculated once cooled below 40°C. During inoculation, open the material bags and carry out open inoculation, evenly sprinkling the spawn over both ends of the material bag. Generally, each bottle of spawn is suitable for inoculating 10-12 bags.

.8 Spawn running management: Arrange and stack the inoculated mushroom tubes, and frequently test the pile temperature, which must not exceed 40°C, to strictly prevent pile burning that causes total crop loss. Under normal conditions, the spawn can fully run in about 10d.

9 Fruiting management: For mushroom bags with fully run spawn, adopt bag removal for fruiting. The method is to empty out the bags and build them into a mushroom wall 4-5 layers high, cover with plastic film, ventilate several times every day, maintain the relative air humidity at about 90%, and reduce the temperature difference to below 5°C as much as possible.

10 Harvesting: Timely harvesting is an important measure to increase straw mushroom yield. The straw mushroom cap is egg-shaped, and it is best to harvest before the volva has broken through. When harvesting, press one hand on the culture material at the growing part of the mushroom body, hold the base of the mushroom body with the other hand, and gently twist it off in clusters, large and small together. Do not damage the immature young buds. For the harvested straw mushrooms, use a small knife to clean off the rotting straw and debris at the base, then grade or process them.