GROWING GOURMET - Anto2ni.it

252 GROWTH PARAMETERS
Comments: A quality mushroom, Bunashimeji
is popular in Japan and is being
intensively cultivated in the Nagano Prefecture.
The only two mushrooms which come
close to this species in over-all quality are H.
ulniarius or Pleurotus eryngii.
In the same environment ideal for Shiitake
(i.e. normal light, CO2 less than 1000 ppm), my
strains of H. tessulatus produce a stem less than
2 inches tall and a cap many times broader than
the stem is long. When I reduce these light and
elevate carbon dioxide levels, the mushrooms
metamorphosize into the form preferred by the
Japanese. Here again, the Japanese have set the
standard for quality.
In the growing room, abbreviated caps and
stem elongation is encouraged so that forking
bouquets emerge from narrow mouthed
bottles. Modest light levels are maintained
(400 lux) with a higher than normal carbon dioxide
levels (>2000 ppm.) to promote this form
of product. From a cultivator's point of view, this cultivation strategy is well merited, although the
mushrooms look quite different from those found in nature. This cultivation strategy is probably the
primary reason for the confused identifications. When visiting Japan, American mycologists viewed
these abnormal forms of H. tessulatus, a mushroom they had previously seen only in the wild, and
suspected they belonged to Lyophyllum. (Lincoff (1993)).
Many of the strains of H. marmoreus
cultivated in Japan produce dark gray brown primordia with
speckled caps. These mushrooms lighten in color as the mushrooms mature, becoming tawny or pale
woody brown at maturity. All the strains I have obtained from cloning wild specimens ofH. tessulatus
from the Pacific Northwest of North America are creamy brown when young, fading to a light tan at
maturity, and have distinct water-markings on the caps. The differences I see may only be regional in
nature.
Although we now know that Hon-shimeji (i.e. true Shimeji) is not H. tessulatus, but is Lyophyllum
shimeji (Kwam.) Hongo, habits in identification are hard to break. Many Japanese, when referring to
cultivated Hon-shimeji, are in fact thinking of H. tessulatus.
This mushroom does not exude a yellowish metabolite from the mycelium typical of Pleurotus
species. However, Petersen (1993) has found that H. tessulatus produces a mycelium-bound toxin to
nematodes, similar to that present in the droplets of P ostreatus mycelium. This discovery may explain
why I have never experienced a nematode infestation in the course of Figure 223. Bag culture of Buna-shimeji on supplemented
alder sawdust and chips.
growing Hypsizygus
tessulatus.
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