How to improve the survival rate of mushroom spawn in summer cultivation

1. Do a good job of sterilizing the culture medium: Summer temperatures are high, so the prepared culture medium must be fresh and not moldy, and the mixed raw materials must be promptly filled into bottles or bags for sterilization. When making bottled spawn, minimize the dampening of cotton plugs and kraft paper. Each time you sterilize, use plastic bags to enclose a small amount of cotton and kraft paper and bring them in to be sterilized together. After sterilization, promptly replace the dampened sealing materials inside the inoculation box. When using bag-type spawn production, every production step must involve light loading, light handling, and light setting down. Any plastic bags that are punctured, crushed, or burst from swelling should be sealed with medical adhesive tape or double-bagged. The bag opening can be sealed and tied with rubber bands or tear strips instead of cotton plugs and rings. For bagged substrate, depending on the amount of material loaded, appropriately extend the sterilization time by 1-2 hours, and exhaust the air slowly.

2. Improve inoculation techniques: Because alcohol lamp flame inoculation is used inside the inoculation box, the temperature often rises to 40-50 degrees C, which can easily scorch or kill the spawn with heat. Therefore, inoculation should be scheduled in the early morning, evening, or nighttime when temperatures are slightly lower. During inoculation, the amount transferred per bottle should be appropriately reduced compared with conventional production, the inoculation amount should be relatively increased, and the aged mycelium on the upper part of the bottle mouth should be dug out completely.

3. Strengthen spawn culture management: The spawn culture site should be clean, free of toxins, free of insects, cool, and without sunlight exposure, with relative humidity below 60%. Newly inoculated spawn must wait until the outside of the bottles or bags and the sealing materials are dry before being stacked. The stacking height and the distance between stacks should follow the principles of not generating stack heat, being conducive to ventilation, and facilitating management. In summer, spawn contamination happens quickly, so generally an inspection should be carried out 3 days after inoculation, and contaminated spawn must be removed promptly once found.