Shortening of the incubation period by adding dried soybean curd residue (okara) in Auricularia polytricha cultivation

Abstract

Domestic production of <i>Auricularia polytricha</i> (aragekikurage in Japanese) has increased sharply in recent years. Although agronomic research is progressing, more efforts to strengthen domestic productivity are still expected. The authors have shown in previous studies that the incubation period, which is generally 60 days or more, can be shortened to 40 － 50 days by adding an appropriate amount of shell fossil containing calcium carbonate as the main component to the culture medium of A. polytricha. In this study, a hyphal elongation test and cultivation test were conducted using dried soybean curd residue as a substitute for each nutrient material. The addition of the dried soybean curd residue, mainly as a substitute for rice bran, improved hyphal elongation and the yield, and shortened the incubation period from around 60 days to 30 days.