Interesting Enoki Mushroom Facts
According to research by natural experts, Enoki mushrooms are thought to have grown in the wild since 800 BC, mainly in East Asia and North America. It usually grows in clusters on tree trunks, such as Chinese hackberry, persimmon, and mulberry trees. Meanwhile, Japan was the first to cultivate enoki mushrooms which are now becoming popular in various countries.
Enokitake mushroom (enoki) is a food mushroom with fruiting bodies that are cultivated in the form of long white like bean sprouts. Also known as bean sprouts, winter mushrooms, or golden needle mushrooms.
Important Benefits of Enoki Mushrooms For Health
» Prevents cell damage caused by free radicals.
» Enoki mushrooms contain high antioxidants that can prevent the bad effects of free radicals.
» Lowers blood cholesterol levels.
» Maintain heart health.
» Inhibits the development of cancer cells.
Enoki Mushroom Cultivation Process
1. Prepare Tools and Materials
The first step in cultivating enoki mushrooms is to prepare the tools and materials needed. The equipment needed is fairly easy, but make sure you pay attention to the sterility of the equipment and the place. Here's a list of equipment and materials you'll need:
- mushroom growing room)
- Rack for mushroom seeds
- Mushroom growing media (sawdust, dolomite lime, rice bran, urea fertilizer, and straw)
- F2 enoki mushroom seeds
- Sterilization equipment
- pH paper
- 70% alcohol
- Tweezers
- Spirit lamp
2 Planting Media Making
Enoki mushroom cultivation requires a planting medium that is suitable for growing conditions.
There are several growing conditions that must be met, namely a room temperature of 15 degrees, a humidity of 70% of the growing media, the pH of the growing media is normal, and the wind blows freely into the mushroom growing room.
If you understand the growing conditions, here's how to make the growing media:
1. Soak the straw in clean water for 3-4 days, then discard the soaking water and dry the straw
2. Cut the straw into smaller shapes
3. Prepare 50 kg of straw, 50 kg of sawdust, four kg of dolomite lime, 10 kg of rice bran, and two kg of urea fertilizer (the composition can be adjusted depending on the scale of cultivation)
4. Mix evenly the entire composition of the ingredients with the provisions of 70-80 percent humidity
5. Check the humidity by clenching it with your hands, if the dough is lumpy, it means there is enough moisture
6. Measure the pH level of the growing media using pH paper, the ideal pH level for enoki mushrooms is 6.5
7. If the pH is still not enough, add dolomite lime
8. If the pH exceeds the limit, add rice bran
9. When the dough is ready, put it in a glass bottle until it is solid
10. Sterilize the growing media using an autoclave or drum sterilizer
11. Place the growing media in the mushroom growing room for 3-4 days to select the contaminated media
12. Dispose of contaminated media and use sterile media
3. Inoculation
After the planting medium is ready, it's time to move to the stage of planting mushroom seeds or known as inoculation.
Check out the following steps:
- Clean the body and spray 70% alcohol before entering the mushroom growing room
- Heat the tweezers using a spirit lamp
- Open the plastic wrapping of the planting media, then burn the mouth of the bottle
- Take the seeds and put them in the planting medium and make sure they spread evenly
- Cover the media using cotton
- Rearrange the planting media in the rack
- Cover the mushroom growing room and make sure no sunlight enters
- Do not water for 3 days
4 Maintenance and Care
Meanwhile, the maintenance and care of enoki mushrooms is quite easy.
Here are the steps:
*Maintenance
After three days from the inoculation process and the mycelium has grown, do watering once every day (morning or evening).
*Move to kumbung mushroom
When the mycelium has grown by bottle, transfer it to the mushroom kumbung. Open the cotton cover and water regularly.
Keep the humidity of the mushroom kumbung in the range of 80-85 percent and the ideal temperature between 20-30 Celsius
5 Harvest Time
Enoki mushrooms can be harvested after 20-30 days or 14 days after the planting process.
Harvest mushrooms only in the afternoon to maintain freshness.
To harvest it, you only need to remove the mushrooms from the planting medium.
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