Earticle

According to UPOV (International Union for Protection of New Varieties of Plants), mushroom spawn market have to be opened by the year 2009. Number of commercial strains distributed by the year 2005 were 179 of 24 species of edible and medicinal mushrooms. Only nine strains of oyster mushrooms were registered as protected variety, which is not compatible with those recorded in other advanced countries. Meaning of spawn in broad sense contains commercial strains. Development of commercial strains faces two main problems in Korea : One is the complicated genetic patterns and sexuality of mushroom species, and the other is expensive experimental equipments and fruiting body growing houses. Resolution of these problems leads to development of mushroom strains. This could be achieved as follows; genetic resources collection and assessment, molecular characterization of useful genetic characters, development of new commercial strains by hybridization using typical genetic resources, strengthening of breeding research using "Mushroom Breeding Group", management of spawn research company by consortium, foundation of mushroom general industry, promotion of consumption, and upgrade of competition ability for other countries. These points are under discussion.

Bottle cultivation was conducted to clarify varietal differences and physiological characteristics of oyster mushroom under different temperatures. Mushroom pinheading and yield in each temperature showed different results according to the strains. Specially, Weonhyeong3-ho could not sprout over 16.5℃ , but after pinheading at 13℃, its fruitbody was able to grow normally at all tested temperatures. Sambok, a high temperature strain, sprouted at 10℃ and then withered up. Fruitbody of this strain obtained at 13℃ could not grow normally at 10℃ and 25℃ conditions. Colour of fruitbodies turned close to white at high temperature. On the other hand, at low temperature, strains with gray fruitbody changed close to black and those with brown fruitbody turned to dark brown. With regards to fruiting trait, pinheading aspects were good even at low temperature. Those were, however, uneven and sprouted in patches and resulted in low quality and productivity as the temperature increased. When black fruitbody at 13℃ were moved to 23℃ and then to 13℃ again, colour of fruitbody turned to white and then recovered to blackish gray. These results confirmed that the colour of fruitbody responds to cultivation temperature.

Cauliflower mushroom(Sparassis crispa) contains much amount of β-glucan, which make lots of farmer want to cultivate the mushroom. Since a practical cultivation method is not provided yet, the mushroom is considered as a difficult crop to deal with. In this study, we tried to develope a simple method to cultivate the mushroom by use of coniferous sawdust-based medium with wheat flour and molasses. There was no significant differences between the sawdust spawn and the liquid spawn for the mycelial growth of the mushroom. The cold shock in 4℃ for a day was thought to be the best way to seduce primordium formation. The sawdust medium of Pseudotsuga menziesii mixed with wheat flour, corn chip, cottonseed meal and 10% molasses was showed the best yield with 41% followed by that of Larix leptolepis mixed with the same additives with 37% of yield. There was good relations between the fruit-body production and the weight loss of the sawdust substrate.