How are edible mushrooms cultivated? A detailed guide to rice straw and wheat straw cultivation techniques
Scope of application: the main varieties include oyster mushroom, Xiuzhen mushroom, button mushroom, shaggy ink cap mushroom, Hypsizygus marmoreus, straw mushroom, Agaricus blazei, etc.
Preparation before cultivation
For cultivating edible mushrooms with long straw, the long straw must be sun-dried, fresh, and free of mold and rot.
Indoor site selection: there are now many people in rural areas who go out to work, leaving a large number of empty and idle houses. These can all be used as mushroom houses for cultivating edible mushrooms, but they must be cleaned thoroughly, be ventilated, be able to retain heat and moisture, and have light.
Outdoor greenhouse construction: choose level terrain with a water source, good drainage, and far from pollution sources such as toilets, pigsties, and garbage dumps. The greenhouse should face south with its back to the north; its length is unlimited, its width is 4 m, and its height is 2 m. It can be covered with small bamboo and plastic film, and shade grass should be added on top of the greenhouse. Note: the greenhouse materials must be good and sturdy, able to withstand the pressure of wind and rain.
Treatment of cultivation material (rice and wheat straw) for oyster mushroom, Xiuzhen mushroom, Hypsizygus marmoreus, and shaggy ink cap mushroom
Water pool: dig a pool beside the greenhouse that is 2 m long, 1 m deep, and 1.4 m wide for soaking rice straw.
Soaking: choose fresh straw free of mold and rot, add 1 jin of lime per 100 jin of water, put the straw into the pool, then press it down with heavy objects. Generally pre-wet for about 20 minutes; wheat straw and corn cobs need a longer pre-wetting time. Then take it out, remove excess water, and pile the straw to a length that is unlimited, a width of 1 m, and a height of about 1.5 m for fermentation. Ferment for about 3 to 4 days (depending on temperature). When the material temperature reaches 40°C to 50°C, turn the pile once. The fermented material is not smelly, not black, not sour, and not rotten; when the moisture is 65%, it can be used for cultivation.
Preparation before cultivation
The cultivation site must be clean. Lime should be sprinkled inside the greenhouse once for disinfection. The tools, plastic film, mushroom spawn, etc. used for cultivation should be washed with edible mushroom disinfectant and set aside for use. Making the mold: generally, the mold used for cultivating edible mushrooms is 110 cm long, 20 cm wide, and 20 cm high.
Making plastic film wraps: buy plastic film and make it into pieces 1 cm wide and 150 cm long. At the same time, prepare binding ropes, with a rope length of 110 cm, several pieces.
Packing: transport the piled and fermented straw into the cultivation site, spread it out and cool it to below 30°C, then it can be packed for cultivation. Place the mold on flat ground, put the binding rope on the mold, place the prepared wrap pieces on it, and begin loading material, with one layer of material and one layer of mushroom spawn, for a total of three layers. The first layer of straw material is 1 cun thick; after placing it, sow the mushroom spawn, then add the second layer of straw material, then sow mushroom spawn again, and finally add the third layer of straw. The amount of spawn sown on the top layer should account for 2/3 of the total spawn amount. After the top layer of spawn is sown, cover one side of the film over the spawn surface, then cover the other side of the plastic film over it, press tightly by hand, and then tie it tightly with plastic rope. After tying, it is called a spawn bag. Then, on top of the spawn bag, use a wooden board studded with 1.5-cun-long iron nails to punch a row of holes. Take the spawn bag out of the mold and put it into the cultivation material.
Cultivation of spawn bags
Spawn bag cultivation is the most critical part of cultivation. If it is not managed well, losses will be severe. The most critical part of management is controlling temperature well. If the temperature is controlled well, management becomes simple. During spawn running, mycelium grows best when the temperature is generally kept at 22°C to 26°C. If the temperature reaches 28°C, pay close attention to the spawn bag temperature every day at noon, and use a thermometer to test the internal temperature of the spawn bag. If the temperature exceeds 30°C, open the plastic film on the spawn bag to cool it down and prevent burning the spawn. Generally, after sowing, the spawn bag temperature basically stabilizes after seven days. Within seven days, close attention must be paid to temperature changes. As long as the temperature is controlled well, success is more than halfway achieved.
Fruiting management
Fruiting management is the most important part of the entire production process. This part is related to yield, benefits, and whether the goal can be achieved. Cultivate at room temperature between 22°C and 26°C for 20 days. When the mycelium fills the bag, there will be signs of fruiting. Build walls for fruiting: move the spawn bags to the fruiting site and make them into mushroom walls. The method is as follows: untie the ropes binding the spawn bags, remove the plastic film, place two spawn bags in parallel with a 10 cm gap in the middle, and the length is unlimited. Generally, a mushroom wall is two spawn bags long, with a bottom width of 60 cm and a top width of 50 cm. After placing one layer, fill fine soil in the gaps between the spawn bags and on top of the spawn bags. The soil thickness is 0.5 cm. The covering soil should be moist, and its water content should not be too high; use the standard that it forms a ball when squeezed by hand. It does not need to be pressed too tightly. The soil is required to be granular. Fill some coarse soil at the ends between the two bundles to block the fine soil and prevent it from flowing out. Continue adding bags, with a spacing of about 8 cm between spawn bags, then cover with soil as above. Next, place the third layer of spawn bags with a spacing of 6 cm, and so on. For each additional layer stacked, the spacing is about 2 cm. How many spawn bags are placed in one mushroom wall depends on the temperature. At 10°C to 20°C, place 16 spawn bags in one mushroom wall; at 0°C to 10°C, place 20 spawn bags in one mushroom wall (the mushroom wall is five layers high). After the mushroom wall is built, to prevent collapse, drive one wooden stake on each side of the mushroom wall. After everything is done, spread a layer of wet mud over the entire top, with a thickness of 6 cm, and use mud to make a water trough. Fill and smooth the gaps between spawn bags with mud slurry, then cover the mushroom wall well with the spawn bag plastic film. It is best not to have it cling tightly to the mushroom wall, so as to ventilate, increase oxygen, and dissipate heat. The interval between mushroom walls is 50 cm, to facilitate mushroom harvesting management.
After primordia form, only sprinkle some water in the air above the walkways and on the ground to increase the relative humidity of the small-area space. At this time, control the space temperature at 80% to 90%. After mushroom buds form, remove the covering plastic film. Remove it only from the part where mushrooms have appeared; do not remove all the plastic film from the mushroom wall at once. Within 4 days after the mushroom buds appear, ventilate three times a day, in the morning, at noon, and in the evening, for 30 minutes each time. Ventilation should open the north-south convection windows. Ventilation should not be too strong, to avoid drying out the mushroom buds. After four days, the mushroom caps gradually expand. Spray three times a day. Do not spray water directly when the mushroom buds are within 1 cm. When the mushroom buds grow to more than 3 cm, water can be sprayed, but pay attention to the amount of water sprayed. The harvest specification can be based on market requirements. When the mushroom cap diameter is more than 3 cm, begin harvesting; at this time the taste is best. At the end of harvesting, clean up the mushroom wall, and remove dead mushrooms, rotten mushrooms, and dry mushrooms. If there are still a small number of small mushrooms, they should also be picked, to facilitate the management work for the second fruiting. Let it dry in the open air for two days, then sharpen one end of a bamboo strip and poke a small hole every 3 to 4 cun on the fruiting surface of the mushroom wall (only pierce the outer skin of the wall). Then pour a large amount of clear water on every corner of the mushroom wall, and at the same time fill the trough with water, allowing it to seep into the mushroom wall to increase the moisture in the material. Then cover the mushroom wall with plastic film to form a moist micro-environment. After cultivating the spawn for 5 to 7 days, the second flush of mushrooms will appear. Fruiting management is the same as for the first flush, for a total of four to five flushes.
Note: 1. After soaking the straw, it must not be dried out by wind.
2. It must be fully pre-wetted and softened.
3. Before loading material, it must be fully cooled, and contaminated spawn must not be selected.
4. The site must be far from livestock farms, and the tools for transporting straw and holding spawn must be cleaned with disinfectant before packing.