Mushroom Cultivation Technology

Suspension

• Growers in China have taken the science of mushroom cultivation technology to new heights by hanging colonized substrate from ropes suspended in sugar cane fields in full sun. The carbon dioxide produced by fruiting bodies benefits the sugar cane. Plastic sheeting is used to maintain high humidity levels.

Caves

• The most ancient cultivation technique is the use of a cool, dark cave where temps are 60 to 66 degrees Fahrenheit most of the year. Humidity levels are kept high by piping in water from an outside source.

Bales

• In modern times the use of straw bales mixed with grain nutrients wrapped in plastic have been a lightweight and portable method of producing oyster mushrooms, which produce up to four flushes.

Logs

• Mushrooms are found in the wild growing on decaying logs. Shiitake mushroom growers have adopted the use of logs and innoculate them with spores on wooden dowels. Logs can bear mushrooms for up to three years.