Evaluation of Rice Straw, Corncob, and Soybean Straw as Substrates for the Cultivation of Lepista sordida

Abstract

Lepista sordida is a type of high-quality rare edible and medicinal mushroom, and its research boom is just beginning. More than 80 million tons of grain crop residues are produced each year in Heilongjiang Province. To realize the exploration and utilization of wild L. sordida mushrooms and also provide a theoretical support for the high-value utilization of these resources in Heilongjiang Province, we evaluated the cultivation of L. sordida mushrooms using rice straw, corncob, and soybean straw as substrates. L. sordida grew on all three substrates, and the biological efficiency and yield of the mushrooms grown on soybean straw and corncob were 32.33 ± 1.78% and 4.20 ± 0.23 kg m−2, and 30.15 ± 0.93% and 3.92 ± 0.12 kg m−2, respectively, which increased by 9.38% and 2.08% compared with that on the rice straw substrate with 3.84 ± 0.12 kg m−2 and 29.56 ± 0.89%. The time it took for the mycelia to colonize and initiate primordia on the soybean straw substrate was 22.33 ± 0.58 d and 19.67 ± 0.58 d, respectively, which was delayed by 2 d and 3 d compared with that on the rice straw substrate with 20.67 ± 2.08 d and 16.33 ± 0.58 d, respectively. The fruiting bodies grown on corncob and soybean straw substrates were relatively larger than those on the rice straw substrate. The highest amount of crude protein was 57.38 ± 0.08 g 100 g−1, and the lowest amount of crude polysaccharide was 6.03 ± 0.01 g 100 g−1. They were observed on mushrooms collected from the corncob substrate. The contents of the heavy metal mercury, lead, arsenic, and cadmium in the fruiting bodies grown on each substrate were within the national safety range.