Ran Mengguo built his fortune growing edible mushrooms through hard work

Walking into Group 6 of Zhenxi Village, Nanmen Town, one can see from afar 7 vegetable greenhouses covered with shade netting, occupying more than 1,300 sq m. According to the villagers, this is the mushroom and enoki mushroom (Flammulina velutipes) growing base of Ran Mengguo, a 61-year-old villager of this group. Inside the greenhouse, Ran Mengguo was busy picking mushrooms.

Inside the greenhouse, mushroom beds covered with edible fungi were piled up neatly, filling one with delight. Row after row of "mushroom walls" covered with mushrooms and enoki mushrooms could not help but catch the eye.

According to Ran Mengguo, this year's income could reach 100,000 yuan. But more than ten years ago, Ran Mengguo ran into setbacks everywhere and everything went wrong.

Nothing he did made money, but a change of thinking brought a turn for the better

After collective land was contracted to households in 1982, Ran Mengguo began pouring concrete locally. After several years, he had saved no money. So he borrowed money from relatives to learn the citrus transport and marketing business, shipping citrus to the Northeast for sale. In the end the citrus froze and spoiled, and instead of making money he lost more than 8,000 yuan. In 1985 he went to Shenzhen to work for several years, doing jobs such as security guard, workshop laborer and construction work, earning more than 500 yuan a month. After expenses, it was hard to save any money in a year. In 2002, he rented 6 mu of land to grow lotus root, with gross income of more than 30,000 yuan, but after rent, transport, fertilizer and labor costs, the income was very small. He kept wondering: what can you do in the countryside to make money? At a chance gathering with friends, they talked at the dinner table about healthy eating. Edible fungi have rich nutritional value and fetch a high price. Why not grow edible fungi? Ran Mengguo turned it over in his mind. After that, he began to pay attention to reports about edible fungi. Through learning more, he found that market demand for edible fungi was very large. Not only households needed them, but restaurants in particular needed them even more, and the price was high and relatively stable. Moreover, growing edible fungi required little investment, showed results quickly and had high returns, making it an efficient industry. Once his mind was made up, he went to his wife's younger brother's home to learn how to grow mushrooms. While doing the work and learning as he went, he conceived the idea of growing edible fungi himself.

Studying hard on his own and daring to endure hardship  he carved out a road to prosperity

"To succeed, you first have to choose the right direction." Talking about his entrepreneurial experience, Ran Mengguo was rather emotional.

Ran Mengguo made his breakthrough with oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) cultivation, which was relatively simple in technique and fairly quick to yield returns. In October 2004, he borrowed more than 7,000 yuan from relatives and friends and built a mushroom growing site of more than 100 sq m. In 2005 he invested more than 6,000 yuan, rented someone else's empty house of 250 sq m for cultivation, built 1 greenhouse, and that year earned 16,000 yuan. After that he expanded the scale year by year, successively buying bagging machines, crushers, chaff cutters and other equipment.

Apart from eating and sleeping, Ran Mengguo spent almost all his time in the mushroom greenhouse every day. From preparing materials, sterilization, fermentation, bagging and inoculation to steaming, setting up the greenhouse and putting things on shelves, he was extremely careful. Especially after the mushrooms emerged, a series of continuous and meticulous tasks, including watering, picking, trimming, pressing and sun-drying, required nearly four months of fighting on day and night. Because of this, he and his wife were so exhausted that their limbs felt weak and their whole bodies ached. But Ran Mengguo had a fighting spirit, and once he set his mind on a path, he would walk it firmly. Especially during the 30 days and nights of mycelial growth, he stayed in the greenhouse almost 24 hours a day, afraid that even a trace of negligence would cause the mushroom crop to fail. When he saw mushrooms sprouting one after another on the mushroom walls, all his fatigue and worry were swept away.

No pain, no gain. Because of their good quality, Ran Mengguo's oyster mushrooms sold at a good price and became the household's highest-income item. He used the income from selling mushrooms to pay off his debts to relatives and friends. Growing mushrooms let him taste sweet success and strengthened his determination to grow edible fungi.

A first taste of success, then expanding production

Later, Ran Mengguo set his sights on enoki mushrooms (Flammulina velutipes), which had better economic returns and higher edible value. He bought some books, studied seriously on his own, worked hard at research, kept paying attention to information and collected technical materials in relevant fields. Over several years, Ran Mengguo accumulated richer experience and found ways to learn growing techniques. In edible fungus cultivation, the production cycle and cultivation method of each fungus variety differ somewhat. "This enoki mushroom is just too delicate; it must be watched over all the time." In Ran Mengguo's eyes, the most important thing was still doing every step well, especially the sterilization process. Ran Mengguo said what he feared most were natural disasters, especially high temperatures and scorching sun. To grow enoki mushrooms well, Ran Mengguo worked from dawn to dusk, getting up in the early morning every day and not resting until seven or eight o'clock in the evening. At the hardest times, he could sleep only three hours a day.

"Because of his strong technique, the enoki mushrooms he grows have good color, uniform size and proper flavor, and sell very well. Not only the vegetable markets in our district, but even the wholesale markets in Kaixian scramble to buy them." Mr. Ma, a wholesaler from Wanzhou, told the reporter.