The Japanese name for ashwagandha is maiko. Because of its unique shape and flavor, ashwagandha is very popular among Japanese consumers and is often given as a gift. Market demand has led to the development of factory cultivation of ashwagandha, and some air-conditioned cultivation rooms are located near vegetable markets, so that consumers can hand-pick two large fresh ashwagandha flowers in a small, simple bamboo basket covered with plastic wrap, and each basket generally weighs about 1 kg, and the gray and black varieties are sold at about 2,300 yen/basket, and the white varieties are sold at about 2,700 yen/basket. Such high prices are usually for gift mushrooms, and the usual edible ashwagandha is much cheaper and of poorer quality. Factory production so that the Japanese ashwagandha production increased rapidly, annual production of more than 10,000 tons still can not meet the needs of the market, Japan's annual consumption of about 20,000 tons.
The author visited Japan Gunma County, an air-conditioned ashwagandha cultivation plant, the owner of the site in less than 1,000 meters 2 invested quite 20 million yuan of equipment, employing 5 Nepalese workers to operate, an average of 2,000 bags of mushrooms every day, 1 bag of 2.5 kg of wet material, 1 time to pick fresh mushrooms 500 grams of fresh mushrooms about the amount of daily output of 1 ton. The daily output of fresh mushrooms is 1 ton. With the market price in Japan converted to RMB 100/kg, the daily output value is about 100,000 yuan, and the annual mushroom harvesting is about 200 days, with the annual sales amounting to more than 20 million yuan, and the investment can be recovered in 2 years of operation. It can be said that Japan's ashwagandha factory annual cultivation is a high-input, high-output business model.
(A) cultivation of raw materials and formulations Most of the wood chips used in Japan is a mixture of broadleaf wood chips. Coniferous wood chips are generally not suitable for cultivation of ashwagandha, but adding 20% to 30% of coniferous wood chips to broadleaf wood chips has little effect on yield. Substitutes such as grain hulls can also be added to broadleaf wood chips up to 30%. In addition, the addition of 20% of mountain soil to the culture material can promote the occurrence of substrate. Ashwagandha culture requires more air, and the particle size of wood chips has an effect on mycelial growth and yield. Therefore, adding 30% to 40% coarse wood shavings (crushing the sticks into pea-sized wood shavings chunks by machine) in the culture material can get a good harvest.
Cultivation auxiliaries are best suited to cornmeal, followed by bran, because bran alone yields less than cornmeal, so it is better to use bran and cornmeal together, with a ratio of bran to cornmeal of 1:2. Willow wood chips alone are used as bagging material, and the yield of Ashwagandha is lower, but if they are mixed with the wood chips of Mizoribori (beech), the yield of Ashwagandha is equal to the yield of Mizoribori (beech) wood chips alone (Table 4-2). yield (Table 4-2). In addition, mixing 20% to 30% of the old fungus chaff that had produced ashwagandha in the new culture material, and then cultivating ashwagandha had a 5% to 10% increase in yield, which may be due to the fact that the old fungus chaff contains factors that promote the increase in ashwagandha's yield.
The wood chips and auxiliary nutrients according to the volume ratio of 10:1 ~ 10:2.5, dry material according to the weight ratio of 10:2 ~ 10:3.5 ratio, mix well. Generally speaking, wood chips with fine particles, auxiliary nutrients should be added sparingly, and auxiliary nutrients should be added more when coniferous wood chips are mixed in the wood chips. For the germination of ashwagandha, the water content of the medium is 50% to 55%, and it is generally appropriate to hold the medium tightly in the hand, and the water droplets ooze out from between the fingers without falling down. For the development of fruiting bodies, the water content of the medium is most suitable at 64%.
Table 4-2 Cultivation effect of different wood chips mixing
(B) Cultivation bag (bottle) preparation
1. Filling Japan uses square polypropylene bags for cultivation, the specifications of the bag are shown in Fig. 4-3, 20 cm wide, 12 cm thick, and 45 cm high, and there is a deoderization filtering membrane for ventilation on the upper part of the bag. It is worth mentioning that this cultivation bag in Japan is a patented design.
Figure 4-3 Square cultivation bags used in Japan
With the loading machine loaded with 2.5 kg of wet material, the material block height of 15 to 18 cm, while playing six holes with a diameter of 15 to 20 millimeters, the top of the material is located just below the filter membrane of 3 to 4 centimeters. Do not puncture the bag during operation. In winter, because the bag is hardened and easily ruptured, it is better to pre-position the plastic bag in the incubation room to keep it warm. Wood chips and auxiliaries with fine particles should be packed loosely, and on the contrary should be packed tighter. The production cycle of bag planting is 60 to 70 days.
Japan also has a bottle planting method, the use of polypropylene plastic bottles, each bottle volume of 1000 ml, generally filled with 600 grams of medium is appropriate (depending on the type of wood shavings and auxiliary materials and particles of coarse and fine). The medium should not be loaded too tightly, otherwise the substrate of the gray tree flower is prone to deformation. Plastic bottle cultivation takes 45 to 55 days.
2. Sterilization Sterilize at atmospheric pressure below 100℃ or autoclave at about 120℃. After sterilization, the medium is cooled to about 25℃ for inoculation.
3. Inoculation The inoculation room is purified by feeding in filtered sterile air, and positive pressure is maintained in the inoculation room at all times during the inoculation period, i.e., the airflow is from inside the room to the outside. Alcohol is sprayed for sterilization. When entering the inoculation room, change into clean clothes so that as little dust as possible is brought into the inoculation room. Also, the utensils used should be washed to remove any adherents and then disinfected with alcohol or flame sterilized. The inoculation amount of bag planting to each bottle of strain (600 grams) to receive 20 bags, bottle bag when receiving 40 to 50 bottles.
4. Germination In a cultivation room with automatic regulation of temperature, humidity and oxygen, the germination period usually takes about 40 days, and the production cycle from inoculation to finished mushrooms is about 80 days (Figure 4-4).
Figure 4-4 Changes in cultivated ashwagandha from inoculation to finished mushroom production
Fifteen to 20 days after inoculation, the temperature inside the bag will be 2 to 3°C higher than the room temperature due to heat production from the growth and metabolism of the ashwagandha mycelium, so the control temperature of the cultivation room should be on the low side, with 22 to 23°C as the appropriate temperature. At this time, if not ventilated to cool down, still at a higher temperature of 25 ℃ bacteria, mycelium due to excessive respiration and consumption of nutrients that have been stored, and thus mycelium weak lack of vitality, this is the "boring bacteria" phenomenon. In addition, if the relative humidity of the culture room is more than 70%, the fungus will be active, and the wall of the culture room is easy to mold. Therefore, the culture room should be ventilated often, and the concentration of carbon dioxide should not exceed 0.3%. In order to make good air circulation in the room, the bags should be arranged 3 to 4 centimeters apart.
Lighting is indispensable for the formation of the original base of the ashwagandha, but in the early to middle stage of cultivation, the light will cause the surface of the ashwagandha mycelium to turn brown, so don't lighten it during the 35 days of cultivation. If you don't give light to the fungus after the development of the fungus, the fungus film on the surface of the material will be thickened, and the formation of the protoplast will be very late or even no protoplast will be formed. Therefore, it is better to give light to promote the formation of the protoplast, and the light level should be 50 lux. Unlike the enoki mushroom, the ashwagi mushroom cannot be "scratched" before mushrooming.
When the mushroom is cultivated indoors at 22 to 23 degrees Celsius for 35 days in bottles and 40 to 50 days in bags, the mycelium on the surface of the material begins to gather and climb upward to form a raised mycelium film. At this time for light, about 7 days later, the bulge will change from gray-white to black ashwagandha protoplasts, of which a part of the bulge again into a block, and soon its surface appeared wrinkles (tissue differentiation).
Secreting yellow droplets, this is the right time to open the bag to produce mushrooms. When water droplets are formed on the original base, first mist-like droplets, then aggregated into large droplets, and then disappeared, it is the most suitable time for mushrooming management. The key to cultivating qualified mushrooms is the condition of the substrate when it is moved from the mushroom development room to the mushroom production room, which is more important than the conditions of the mushroom production room. It is more important than the conditions in the mushrooming room. The so-called foundation status does not only refer to the size of the foundation, but also to the stage of fertility. If a large foundation has been formed before entering the mushrooming room and the cap differentiation has already begun, it will be difficult to grow into a strong mushroom body later on. In any case, it is important that the protocorm has not yet begun to differentiate when it enters the mushroom room, and that its surface has just changed from a smooth state to a rough state (with the appearance of edges and corners).
The Ashwagandha has a tendency to form radicals, which are formed in large quantities around 40 days after inoculation, depleting nutrients and slowing the development of the mushroom. In order to achieve high yield, we must inhibit the early and excessive formation of protocorms, as much as possible, the mycelium to accumulate nutrients. The way is to use yellow light to inhibit the formation of ashwagandha foundation, this method can make the general formation of the foundation in 40 ~ 45 days of the bed, delayed to 60 ~ 65 days before the formation of the foundation, can be delayed by 20 days or so, the yield can be increased by 15% to 20%.
(3) Mushrooming period management The mushrooming period of Ashwagandha generally takes 30-40 days, and the management points are as follows:
1. Temperature control Ashwagandha requires stable temperature during the fruiting period, and if the temperature changes drastically during this period, the development of protocorm will also stop. In the cultivation of slippery mushrooms and flat mushrooms, even if the fertility is suspended due to the low temperature in the room, the seed body can still grow smoothly after the temperature rises. In the case of the Ashwagandha, once the growth of the mushroom is stopped by low temperature (below 10℃), the mushroom will not be able to grow for a long time even if the temperature is adjusted to the right temperature. Therefore, the environmental requirements for this period are: fresh air, slightly higher humidity, and no radical change in temperature.
The suitable temperature for the differentiation of ashwagandha protoplast is 18～22℃, and the suitable temperature for the development of mushroom body is 18～20℃. Within 2 to 3 days after the formation of ashwagandha protocorm in the mushroom bag, use a knife to cut the plastic film above the ashwagandha protocorm in the shape of a cross. Remove the cover when bottle planting.
2. Ventilation Ventilation and cooling is a decisive factor in inducing the formation of the gray arborvitae protocorm. In order to induce the formation of the original base, the room temperature should be lowered to 18 ℃, while maximizing ventilation to reduce the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air, while increasing the content of oxygen, this environmental change will prompt the mycelium of the ashwagandha from nutrient growth to reproductive growth. In factory cultivation, ventilation is controlled at a carbon dioxide concentration of 0.1%. If the carbon dioxide concentration of more than 0.15%, the cap is small and thin; carbon dioxide concentration of more than 0.2% or more, gray tree flower mycelium cap is funnel-shaped or spherical.
During the whole process of mushrooming period, especially when there are many mushrooms growing on the mushroom bed, a lot of ventilation is necessary. Otherwise the respiratory gases in the mushroom clusters gradually accumulate, containing mainly carbon dioxide. The concentration of carbon dioxide was found to be as high as 0.4% or more when the gas was extracted from the mushroom clusters. In comparison, fresh air contains only 0.03 percent carbon dioxide, more than 10 times higher!
With the passage of time, the fan-shaped cap of the mushroom body continues to differentiate, forming an imbricate overlap, growing larger and larger, and the color of the cap surface changes from a dark gray-black to a light gray, and the white fruit layer under the cap gradually develops and forms, and fungus holes appear. The fan-shaped cap is upward when the mushroom is young, and gradually becomes flat when the mushroom grows bigger. When the mushroom is overly mature, the fan-shaped cap curves downward, and when the mushroom is mature, the spores scatter outward, and a layer of white spore powder can be seen, and the color of the cap becomes light white.
The ashwagandha generally takes about 20 days to grow from the appearance of brain-like folds to the mushroom's growth and maturity under suitable temperature and humidity conditions. When the temperature is low, the growth rate is slower, and sometimes it takes more than 20 days to grow. When the fan-shaped cap of the Ashwagandha has no white growing ends on the outer edge, the cap is spreading, the color is light gray-black, and the whole mushroom is shaped like a lotus in full bloom and emits a strong mushroom fragrance. Generally, the mushroom can be picked when it is eight minutes ripe, and it should be picked once it is ripe. For bag planting, a knife is used to cut off the base of the ashwagi flower, while for bottle planting, a spoon is inserted into the bottle from the inside of the mouth, scooping up the mushroom with the culture medium, and then cutting off the base of the ashwagi flower. The first tide of mushrooms can be harvested 400 to 500 grams per bag, with a conversion rate of 40% to 50%.
(4) residual material out of the mushroom In order to make full use of the factory space and equipment, Japanese factory cultivation of ashwagandha only a tide of mushrooms, the nutrients in the bed are not exhausted. Therefore, some people move the so-called "waste mushroom beds", which have already harvested mushrooms on the first tide, outdoors and bury them in the soil to produce mushrooms on the second tide. The soil-cultivated Ashwagandha is more fleshy than the indoor-cultivated mushrooms, and the cap is darker in color and has a strong aroma. Each bag can harvest another 250-300 grams of mushrooms.
Old mushroom beds cultivated with soil cover before May have a mushroom yield of about 70 percent, while those in July are below 10 percent. When the new beds were cultivated with soil before June, the mushroom production rate could reach 80%-100%, while it dropped about 30% in July. This shows that: using the natural environment to cultivate ashwagandha, the mushroom bed mulching should not be later than June at the latest. When burying the bag, cut off the upper part of the plastic bag along the surface of the material, and the sides and bottom of the bag should be scratched for water absorption. Soil for mulching is preferable to garden soil. Frequent water spray management, by September the temperature drops to 14 ~ 20 ℃, that is, the beginning of the mushroom.
You can also discharge the waste mushroom beds in the forest clearing without direct sunlight, good ventilation and drainage, in order to prevent the surface of the bag from drying out, the top with fallen leaves and rice straw, etc., to let it naturally produce mushrooms. In this way, the edible fungi with short stalks and many caps are not as good as those covered with soil, and each bag can collect 150-250 grams of mushrooms.