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Abstract: Many delicious species of edible fungi grow in woods and meadows. We can collect them, enjoy to eat them but we are unable to cultivate them. This fact is a challenge. A greater variety of species of cultivated edible fungi would make our food richer and may lead to an increase of the share of fungi in it. For Central Europe the most interesting fungi to cultivate are the morels (Morchella spec.), the chanterelle (Cantharellus cibarius), and a number of Boletus species. We have been working on the cultivation of the morels but until today we didn't succeed. But there are also other tasty edible fungi worthwhile to cultivate and sufficiently different from Agaricus bisporus to be an alternative. The oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) is one of them. The oyster mushrooms which are cultivated today can be divided into two basic types. One we call white, summer or Florida type, the other gray or winter type. To distinguish between the two types we use the following main criteria: the white type forms sporophores at 20°C without any low temperature treatment, the gray one will not. The white one which fructifies at higher temperatures gives higher yields per time than the gray one. There are also differences in the properties of the fruit-body (beside the pigmentation). The caps of the white type sporophores are usually smaller in diameter and thinner. Another difference we found in the dry matter content of the caps (Kalberer and Kunsch, 1974). Gray and white type strains were cultivated on the same substrate in the same culture room with the same care. The caps of the white type contained more water and less dry matter than the caps of the gray one. But there are a number of properties gray and white type sporophores have in common. The nitrogen content based on sporophore dry weight is for both between 4.0 and 5.5%. The amino acid composition is very similar (Kalberer and Kunsch, 1974). The Pleurotus ostreatus proteins contain all essential amino acids and a comparison of the essential amino acids of the Pleurotus ostreatus sporophores with those of the hen's egg shows that Pleurotus fruit bodies are only low in sulfur containing amino acids. The experiments described in this paper were all done with a white type Pleurotus ostreatus. The main reasons for our interest in the white type are: 1) its high yield per time and 2) its independence of expensive cooling units for sporophore formation during the summer months.
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