Domestication of wild strain of Pleurotus giganteus.

Klomklung N., Karunarathna S. C., Chukeatirote E., Hyde K. D. (2012) Domestication of wild strain of Pleurotus giganteus.

Sydowia 64 (1): 39–53

Pleurotus giganteus has relatively large fruiting bodies and is a saprobe in heavily rotting underground wood in forests; it is collected and widely consumed in many tropical countries including Thailand. Alt-hough P. giganteus is a popular edible mushroom, it is not cultivated in Thailand or Sri Lanka as a commer-cial mushroom. Recently a method for the cultivation of P. giganteus at the experimental level using saw dust as a substrate has been developed. The strain was isolated from a fresh fruiting body of P. giganteus (MFLU10 0154) using a piece of cap tissue and cultivated on Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA). Spawn was grown in sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) seeds. The cultivation method involves two steps, inoculating on a saw dust substrate in polypropylene bags as the preliminary step and transferring to the soil as a second step, which is very important for fruiting. The developed method of growing P. giganteus is fully described with all necessary steps.

Keywords: mushroom, polypropylene bags, saw dust substrate, tropical countries, underground wood.