[Studies on genus Pleurotus. VIII. Interaction between mycelial growth and yield]

This project studies the relationship between mycelial growth rate and production of basidiomata of 19 Pleurotus strains. Firstly, monosporic cultures were isolated of five strains from the following species: Pleurotus djamor (3), Pleurotus ostreatus (1) and Pleurotus pulmonarius (1). These were self-crossed in order to obtain 25 infraspecific dikaryons from which their mycelial growth rate was estimated. The parent strains and the 14 fastest growing crosses were cultivated in the pilot plant on barley straw with the following data recorded: days of incubation, primordia initiation, number of harvests, biological efficiency (BE), production rates (PR) and size of the basidiomes. The BE's fluctuated between 16.8 to 75.6% and the PR's between 0.34 to 1.68%. Most of the basidiomata presented a pileus diameter of 5-15 cm. With the exception of one cross with P. djamor, no increase was observed in the productivity and size of the carphophores of the crosses with respect to the parent strains, suggesting that the rapid mycelial growth rate of the strains was not reflected in the development of the fruiting bodies.