Submerged culture of Hericium erinaceus

Hericium erinaceus is an excellent edible and medicinal mushroom. It can be produced efficiently for mycelium production in liquid culture in fermente r or in Erlenmeyer flasks in temperature controlled waterbath. The four mus hroom strains evaluated in this experiment performed differently in growth response. A constant pH value of 5,0 in the nutrient solution is recommende d. The best yield was at 25 degree water/ nutrient solution temperature and with 1 g inoculum per 50 cc substrate solution for shakers in waterbath or 20g inoculum in-weight for 1000 cc nutrient solution in fermenter cultivat ion. In the fermenter it was possible to obtain an average yield of 492 g p ellets per 1000 cc, while for the best strain A a yield of 170 g per liter in flask cultivation in the waterbath was obtainable within 14 days. The fe rmenter cultivation is a good alternative to the production in erlenmeyer f lasks with less labour but the risk of contamination has still to be reduce d.