Technological principles for the introduction of winter mushroom (Flammulina velutipes (Curtis) Singer) into the industrial culture

Flammulina velutipes - enokitake or shortly - "enoki", is one of the most widely cultivated mushrooms on the planet. The value of the fruit bodies of the “gold mushroom” is determined by their high functional properties, in particular, the presence of bio-active proteins FIP-fve (fungal immunomodulatory protein), and special polysaccharides. Consumers like its delicate texture and bright rich aroma. In Ukraine, this mushroom is successfully grown in small-scale production, but the technological foundations for introducing it into industrial culture have not been developed until current time. The aim of the work was to determine the effective technical operations of the Flammulina industrial production using local agricultural wastes. The substrate formula (sawdust 400 g; straw 400 g; wheat bran 180g; chalk (CaCO3) 20g; water 1850 g) after sterilization (under 121°C for 120 minutes) was used for the cultivation. Ten strains from the IBK mushroom culture collection were checked, and three strains: 2038 (white race), 2039 and 2337 (yellow race), were selected. These strains have shown the best technological characteristics – short harvesting time (38 days for 2039 and 2037, 45 days for 2038) and the high level of biological efficiency (2037 -52,6%, 2039-51,3%, 2038-45,4%) in comparison with strain 1994 (white race) with the worse indexes (62 days of fruiting and 25,7% of biological efficiency) in the screening experiment. In addition, any bacterial diseases did not detect during cultivation process, except strain 1880. In the second part of the experiment selected strains have been grown in industrial conditions and their main technical characteristics were studied: biological efficiency and the time of first flush harvesting on 8 substrate compositions from local agricultural wastes. Pellets from sunflower husks as a substrate ingredient has had some technical advantages: the time of substrate preparation was shorter because it was soaked in a few minutes and the necessary density was reached. The statistical analyses data show significant differences in the parameters of vegetative growth time as for one strain on the different substrate composition as between strains. The best overall rate of vegetative development rate (U-test) was obtained in strain 2337. The transition to the generative stage was the shortest when the substrate of formula 8 was used (2337 and 2039 with a term of 27 and 28 days, respectively). The lowest time was recorded in treatment 2 (39-42 days for these strains). The most biological efficiency index (81,2%) was noted on substrate composition 8, and the lowest (35,4%) on formula 2 in strain 2039. The selected substrate formula 8 (sunflower husk 400 g, pellets of sunflower husk 300 g, corn bran 200 g, rapeseed 90 g, chalk 10 g, water 1800 g) was used for the estimation of effect weight of substrate bag to the biological efficiency of strain 2039. As a result, the biological efficiency of 2039 strain was in 1,6 times more in case of using smaller bags with 1500 g weight in comparison with treatment of bigger bag with weight 3000 g, 121,2±17,3% and 75,8±9,4% respectively. However, statistical analyses did not reveal the effect of weight for first harvesting time of 2039 strain (no statistical differences between 39±3 and 44±2 days for 1500 g and 3000 g bag weight respectively). F. velutipes strains 2037, 2039 (yellow race) and 2038 (white race) can be recommended for cultivation, but according to our research, the further studies of local agro wastes using, the influence of micro-climate on the growing process, morphological characteristics and biochemical content are importantly necessary for the development of successful industrial production.