The "mushroom king" leads more than 8000 farmers on the road to prosperity.

In Lijin, when the name of Wang Zhongchun is mentioned, everyone knows that he is the famous "mushroom king". He has been obsessed with developing the mushroom industry for more than 30 years. Under his leadership, the edible mushroom industry in Lijin County has grown from scratch. Now in 25 specialized edible mushroom villages, more than 8000 farmers have become rich by planting mushrooms, and a large number of mushroom processed foods have also stepped onto the dining table of ordinary people.

A small arch shed is set up on the head of the Kang.

Mushrooms grow in cans

Wang Zhongchun was born in Beiling, Lijin, an ordinary peasant family with many sisters, but when he graduated from high school, he was not willing to grow land for the rest of his life. In 1982, when he was less than 20 years old, he saw an advertisement for a training course on edible fungi in Shandong Province. Wang Zhongchun felt that it was a good opportunity to change his fate.

"at that time, the training fee of 10 yuan was cheated out, and my parents did not support it," Wang Zhongchun took the bedding and got on the bus to Jinan. The month-long training gave Wang Zhongchun a preliminary understanding of the technology of edible fungi, but when he excitedly brought the strain home to experiment, he was ridiculed by the villagers. "mushrooms are struck by thunder, but can they still be planted?" With such objections, he chose to return to the cabin and silently took the first step towards edible fungi.

Wang Zhongchun finally cultivated the first generation of bacteria, but the problem arises: the growth of edible fungi needs a suitable temperature, and there was no temperature control condition at that time. Depending on the waste heat on the Kang, the quilt is covered and the temperature is artificially adjusted. "the suitable temperature for the growth of edible fungus hyphae at about 25 degrees is estimated," says Wang Zhongchun.

So, before and after the Spring Festival, Wang Zhongchun put up a small arch shed on the Kang, lifted the quilt when the temperature was high, and covered it when the temperature was low. It is by such an artificial way of temperature control that a few handfuls of mushrooms grow out of the cans of cardboard boxes.

After his initial success, in the following year, he borrowed 30 or 40 yuan, opened up a third of the land in his yard and produced 1000 jin of mushrooms. "it was difficult to sell mushrooms at that time." before the local Pleurotus ostreatus was artificially cultivated, people did not know what it was. In order to promote, while planting, he took his mushrooms to restaurants and oil field construction teams to sell them door to door. Wang Zhongchun's mushrooms were quickly recognized because of their delicious taste and rich nutrition.

In the summer of 1983, he began to want to grow Pleurotus ostreatus on a large scale, but encountered the first setback of his life. "after the whole two seats were planted, green mold appeared. According to the information, the appearance of green mold is absolutely useless." Wang Zhongchun himself concluded that there is still no technology and little practice. He came to Gudao town, continued to do strain and cultivation, successfully explored the method of strain cultivation, returned home with the strain, resumed the artificial cultivation of Pleurotus ostreatus, and harvested his first batch of products.

"sometimes it's very contented to sell it for four or five yuan a day, so it's 120 yuan a month, and you can earn thousands of yuan a year!" Wang Zhongchun said, "at that time, the village was developing a thousand-yuan household, and sometimes when I walked on the road on a bike after selling mushrooms, I thought that it was not far away from this thousand-yuan household."

Hand-in-hand teaching techniques

Drive more than 8000 farmers from 25 villages to enter the market together.

Over the years, Wang Zhongchun became famous for growing mushrooms, and then he came up with a new idea to mobilize farmers to provide their own strains and materials to drive everyone to get rich.

At first, Wang Zhongchun temporarily charged half the fee for selling bacteria to help farmers cultivate and manage. in order to facilitate door-to-door teaching villagers to mix materials and fill bags, Wang Zhongchun bought a motorcycle. with the development of growers, he became even busier.

Since she got married in 1985, his wife Cui Kui has taken up the important task of taking care of the children and housework alone, and has also learned to take care of his own mushroom shed with her husband and be the woman behind the successful man who pays silently. In 1994, more than 2000 farmers have developed the cultivation of edible fungi, and pollution-free edible fungi, a new food, is becoming more and more popular.

In 2003, Lijin County made great efforts to develop the cultivation of edible fungi, Wang Zhongchun ushered in the spring of career development. In 2004, he established Shandong Luye Biotechnology Park Co., Ltd., and recruited 40 mu of land in Beiling Township Private Park to do the production, marketing and technical guidance of bacteria.

With the development of his career, Wang Zhongchun, who was not satisfied with the status quo, set his sights on the research and development of new varieties. "Pleurotus ostreatus and Pleurotus ostreatus are already out of date, so we have to start experimenting with other alternative materials." Wang Zhongchun said that for example, cotton stalks are all burned locally, which not only pollutes the air and wastes resources, but also burns some beneficial microorganisms in the soil in the process of burning. In his view, using cotton stalks as raw materials to cultivate edible fungi is a promising way.

"at that time, many experiments were carried out and a lot of money was spent," Cui Kui told the reporter. In order to develop cotton stalk cultivation techniques, her husband went to Jinan experts for advice countless times. Wang Zhongchun said that some problems inevitably appeared in the small-scale test, so he adopted the method of small-scale test, pilot-scale test and then large-scale promotion. For example, direct inoculation after cotton stalk sterilization will appear the phenomenon that the mycelium does not germinate and the mycelium does not eat food, but through many experiments, the wax in the cotton stalk is removed in the process of fermentation, and the growth is relatively normal after inoculation. In this way, the first cotton stalk cultivation technology of Auricularia auricula was successful, and applied for a national technical patent.

In 2006, the Municipal Agriculture Bureau built the Dongying Edible Mushroom Research and Development Center in the Lvye Mushroom Industry, and then Wang Zhongchun set up a professional cooperative for Tianlu Edible Mushroom Farmers to provide technical training and guidance to bacterial farmers free of charge. Guide the masses to carry out intensive production and large-scale operation, and pick up groups to enter the market. "after all, the cultivation of each household is relatively scattered, and some ordinary people mix bran to make the fake phenomenon more serious in order to get a small bargain. In order to better drive farmers, but also for food safety issues, I began to recycle farmers' products, so that they have been guaranteed, product quality has also been standardized. " Wang Zhongchun said.

Led by Wang Zhongchun, there are currently 25 specialized villages for the development of edible fungi in Lijin County, and more than 8000 farmers have embarked on the road to prosperity by planting mushrooms.

Fungus deep processing products are sold all over the country.

Exploring the factory planting of wild rare fungi

Wang Zhongchun was not satisfied. He successively developed new cultivation methods for more than 30 famous and high-quality varieties of edible fungi, such as bisporus mushroom, Flammulina velutipes, Lentinus edodes, hericium Erinaceus, fungus, and Ganoderma lucidum, innovated ten technological processes, and popularized them on a large scale.

With the continuous improvement of the output of edible fungi, Wang Zhongchun turned his attention to the deep processing of edible fungi. In 2009, he began experimenting with Flammulina velutipes in bags and bottles. Nowadays, a series of deep-processed products such as "Zhongchun" brand spicy Flammulina velutipes sell well all over the country and become a famous local specialty in the Yellow River Delta.

With the economic development and the improvement of people's living standards, the demand for edible fungi is increasing day by day, and the original one-household planting model has been far from being able to meet the demand. In 2011, Wang Zhongchun set up an edible mushroom factory production project. "it is characterized by a much higher degree of mechanization, a more regular mushroom production, a tight sales chain and high efficiency."

At present, the brand-new annual, three-dimensional and intelligent planting project of edible fungi has been put into production, and the project has seven functional areas, such as scientific research office area, raw material storage area, strain production and ingredient area, and intensive processing area. while industrial production of Pleurotus eryngii, Cordyceps sinensis and other rare fungi, but also mass production of mushroom sticks, bacterial residue organic fertilizer, forming an edible mushroom cycle industrial chain. A factory edible fungus production base integrating R & D, production, planting, processing and cold storage is rising rapidly in Lijin.