A Complete Analysis of the Key Technical Points of Circular Production of Edible Fungi
Circular utilization of resources is the greatest feature of the edible fungi industry. Edible fungi can decompose and convert agricultural and forestry by-products such as crop straw and mulberry and fruit branches into healthy food - fungal protein - and are an important vehicle for developing an agricultural circular economy and regional circular systems. The circular production technology for edible fungi mainly includes two aspects. First, it serves as a vehicle for inter-industry circulation, converting by-product resources from planting and breeding industries - such as rice straw, cattle manure, and mulberry and fruit branches produced in the development of rice and wheat, livestock, fruit, and sericulture industries - into edible fungi products. Second, from the perspective of further multi-level comprehensive utilization of spent mushroom substrate or spent mushroom compost, after appropriate treatment it can be reused to produce edible fungi, and mushroom soil (the waste material after cultivating mushrooms) and spent mushroom substrate can also be returned to the fields as organic fertilizer to grow high-efficiency cash crops such as asparagus and Dendrobium officinale (ironweed dendrobium), thereby reducing agricultural non-point source pollution and increasing agricultural production benefits.
Food chain energy transfer models. These include (1) the dairy cow - mushroom - forage grass planting and breeding model. A circular ecological planting and breeding model in which cattle manure is used to cultivate mushrooms, the mushroom waste is used to grow forage grass, and the forage grass feeds dairy cows. (2) The rice straw - mushroom - asparagus model. After rice is planted, rice straw is produced; the rice straw is then used as a raw material to produce mushrooms, and the waste material after cultivating mushrooms (mushroom soil) is used as organic fertilizer to grow asparagus. (3) The sericulture - wood ear (or shiitake or oyster mushroom) model. Mulberry branches pruned after raising silkworms are crushed and used to cultivate edible fungi such as wood ear and oyster mushrooms, and the spent mushroom substrate is then returned to the fields. (4) The fruit branch (or grape branch) - wood ear (or oyster mushroom, shiitake) model. (5) Cottonseed hull - enoki mushroom.
Innovative models of spatiotemporal circular farming systems. (1) The mushroom-rice rotation model. Rice - shiitake/wood ear/mushroom. Mushroom-rice rotation is an ecological and high-efficiency new cultivation model, mainly including three models: rotation of shiitake, wood ear, or mushroom with rice. This new model of rotating edible fungi with rice both stabilizes grain production and improves planting benefits, and has become a high-efficiency production model in major edible fungi production areas. (2) The mushroom-vegetable intercropping and relay intercropping model. For example, the taro/soybean + bamboo fungus model. (3) The enoki mushroom - oyster mushroom rotation model. (4) The high-temperature mushroom/button mushroom model.
Resource multi-level utilization models. Spent mushroom substrate is the growing medium after cultivating edible fungi, and it is rich in protein, amino acids, and trace elements, giving it high utilization value in agricultural production. Spent mushroom substrate is widely used for secondary cultivation of edible fungi, as crop fertilizer, processed into feed for livestock (pigs, cattle) and poultry, for producing biogas, for raising insects (white grubs), and as fuel, achieving clean production and "zero emissions." (1) Enoki mushroom - golden oyster mushroom. A model of secondary cultivation of oyster mushrooms, golden oyster mushrooms, or wine-cap stropharia using spent mushroom substrate after factory-based enoki mushroom cultivation. (2) King oyster mushroom - shiitake. A model of secondary cultivation of shiitake using spent mushroom substrate after cultivating king oyster mushrooms. (3) Shiitake - shiitake. A model of secondary cultivation of shiitake using spent mushroom substrate plus new material after cultivating shiitake. (4) Enoki mushroom - cattle feed. (5) Using spent mushroom material as a culture substrate to cultivate Dendrobium officinale (ironweed dendrobium).