Abstract
The effect of light on the fruit-body production of Pleurotus ostreatus, strain (MH00608) was examined. 1) Light exposure at 50 lux during the spawn running stage ("Baiyou" process), produced primordia in almost all bottles tested, while no primordia formed in the dark. Under the dark condition, the yield of fruit-bodies at harvest was much higher than that of the cultures exposed to light during spawn running. 2) When fruit-body initiation ("Medashi" process) was conducted in the dark, primordia did not appear, but aerial hyphae proliferated on the surface of the solid substrate. The 2 lux light intensity was optimal for increasing both the number of primordia and the yield of fruit-bodies at harvest. 3)When the fruit-body development stage ("Seiiku" process) was conducted in the dark, the stipes bulged and pileus developed only slightly. The optimal light intensity was estimated to.be 30 lux for stipe elongation, while that for the yield of fruit-bodies was 200-500 lux. The largest pileus diameter was observed in cultivation under 200 lux. The color of fruit-bodies was bluish-brown at 2-100 lux, whereas it became grayish-brown at intensities above 500 lux.
