Breeding and Promotion of the High-Temperature Mushroom 'Xiagu 93'

In December 2002, the provincial key science and technology project "Breeding and Promotion of the High-Temperature Mushroom 'Xiagu 93'", led by the Institute of Horticulture of the Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, passed the achievement appraisal organized by the Provincial Department of Science and Technology. Summer is the off-season for the cultivation and production of various edible fungi in China, and the supply of fresh mushrooms on the market is interrupted. Therefore, carrying out the breeding of high-temperature mushrooms and establishing a complete set of supporting comprehensive cultivation techniques so that mushrooms can be grown for more than two seasons a year in China is of great significance for enriching China's mushroom varieties, improving mushroom quality, and meeting market demand for mushrooms. Through more than ten years of painstaking research, the researchers successfully bred the high-temperature-type mushroom 'Xiagu 93', which is suitable for summer cultivation, clarified the biological characteristics of this variety, proposed a complete set of high-yield supporting cultivation techniques suited to China's conditions, including strain preservation, spawn production, and pest and disease control, and put forward two key techniques for solving the difficulties of mycelial soil climbing and the harm caused by competitive contaminant fungi during high-temperature periods. 'Xiagu 93' is the first newly reported Agaricus bitorquis variety in China bred by systematic selection and suitable for summer cultivation. The mycelial growth temperature range of this variety is 18°C-38°C, with an optimum growth temperature of 27°C-28°C; the fruiting temperature range is 25°C-34°C, with an optimum fruiting temperature of 27°C-32°C; the fruiting bodies can continue to grow at 38°C, making it suitable for cultivation during the high-temperature summer period. This variety has stable varietal characteristics and high yield; the highest single yield in small-scale trials can reach 20Kg/m2, the general yield in production is 7.5Kg/m2, and the highest yield is 11-12Kg/m2. It has good mushroom quality, is resistant to storage and transportation, and has a long shelf life, making it a dual-purpose variety suitable for both fresh sale and processing.

This variety was certified by the Zhejiang Provincial Crop Variety Approval Committee in April 2000, filling the gap in China for summer mushroom cultivation varieties under natural conditions. This project uses existing mushroom houses during their idle summer period to cultivate high-temperature mushrooms, improving the utilization rate of mushroom houses and reducing the cost of mushroom cultivation; it extends the fresh mushroom supply period, enriches the summer off-season edible fungi varieties, meets market demand, and has broad prospects for promotion and application.

From 1998 to 2002, this research achievement was demonstrated and promoted in more than 20 provinces and cities including Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Fujian, and Guangdong, with a cumulative promotion area of 3.2 million sq m, providing 23,000 tons of fresh mushrooms for the summer off-season of edible fungi, with a cumulative increase in social output value of 196 million yuan and newly added economic benefits of 108 million yuan. The social, economic, and ecological benefits are very significant. This achievement has reached the leading level of similar research in China.