A demand for new mushrooms in the market has given impetus to explore new sources of edible mushrooms. Lepista nuda has an international reputation as an excellent edible species. The combination of its lilac color, solid fleshy structure, good shelf life, and delicious flavor makes it attractive to the market. Therefore the development of commercial cultivation techniques for L. nuda is highly desirable. This study was carried out to develop commercial cultivation techniques of L. nuda for the wild mushroom industry. For commercial cultivation of L. nuda it is required to research into environmental and physical parameters and to develop the new varieties with good productivity and short cultivation period. Twelve of L. nuda were provided from National Agrobiodiversity Center, Korea in 2012. They were investigated mycelia1 growth and formation of fruiting bodies on Agaricus compost. Only five among twelve, KACC51942, KACC52012, KACC52212, KACC52227, and KACC52139, succeeded in initiation and development of fruiting bodies. Spore collection and isolation of monokaryons were obtained from four except KACC52012. We selected four of L. nuda, KACC51942, KACC52212, KACC52227, and KACC52139, as crossing parents to develop the new varieties to shorten cultivation period. They showed different mycelial growth on agar and specific shape and color of fruiting body on button mushroom bed.

At present, oak sawdust and rice bran are mainly used as the medium materials for bag cultivation of Lentinula edodes. This experiment was conducted to develop the optimum medium of ‘Nongjingo’, a new variety of Lentinula edodes. We investigated oak sawdust, oak fermented sawdust, poplar sawdust, and douglas fir sawdust as main materials, and rice bran and wheat bran as nutrient resources, respectively. The medium composition was consisted of main material 80%+nutrient 20% based on the volume ratio. Eight treatments of medium composition were tested. The period of mycelial incubation in ‘oak sawdust 40%+douglas fir sawdust 40%+rice bran 20% was 86 days (39 days in dark incubation and 47 days in browning) shortened up to 18 days compared to the control. The 1st yield of commercial fruiting bodies in this treatment was 48.1 g/bag which was 44.8% higher than that in control. We expect that the cultivation period of ‘Nongjingo’ will be shortened, and the yield increased in the medium replaced half of oak sawdust by douglas fir sawdust.