A stable indoor artificial cultivation method for the high-grade mushroom 'morels' is established for the first time in the world.

Morels , which are distributed as high-class foodstuffs in Europe and the United States, are being worked on to establish artificial cultivation methods all over the world, and cases of successful outdoor artificial cultivation in Gifu and Iwate prefectures have been reported in Japan as well. I am. Meanwhile, the Danish morel artificial cultivation project team ' The Danish Morel Project ' announced that it has established an indoor artificial cultivation method for morels throughout the year.

The Morel Project --The Danish Morel Project
https://thedanishmorelproject.com/the-morel-project/

The Danish Morel Project is a project team of biologists Jacob Kirk and Kirsten Kirk, who have been working with research institutes such as the Royal University of Veterinary Agriculture and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark since the 1980s to create an indoor man-made of Amigasatake. I was doing research on cultivation methods.

The initial purpose of the research was to reproduce the artificial cultivation based on the patent on the indoor artificial cultivation method of morels registered in the United States in 1986. However, the method described in the patent could not reproduce the artificial cultivation, and it was impossible to reproduce even if the physical, scientific, and biological conditions not described in the patent were tried and errored. The Danish Morel Project concludes that 'American patents are only valid for specific strains of morels,' and decided to independently explore the conditions under which sclerotia form fruiting bodies.

Then, in 1998, we found the appropriate conditions for forming fruiting bodies, and in the spring of 2004, we succeeded in cultivating morels outdoors with an average yield of 1108 g per square meter. Furthermore, in the fall of 2005, we succeeded in cultivating morels indoors with an average yield of 349 g per square meter.

The Danish Morel Project, which succeeded in cultivating morels indoors, continued research to establish a method for stable cultivation of morels throughout the year. In the process of research, soil with a composition suitable for cultivation of morels, optimum temperature conditions, genetic variants suitable for indoor cultivation, etc. were identified, and stable cultivation gradually became possible. And on June 30, 2021, about 4.2 kg of morels were harvested per square meter. The Danish Morel Project said, 'We are very pleased to announce that we have finally completed a year-round method of growing morels indoors as a result of continued optimization of the cultivation method.' 'This method is very well developed. We conclude that we can start commercial production after properly automating the cultivation process, 'he said, proclaiming the establishment of a stable indoor artificial cultivation method.

With established cultivation methods, morels with an average weight of about 25 g can be harvested over a total cultivation period of 22 weeks, with an annual yield of about 10 kg. In addition, wild morels vary in quality depending on the growing conditions and their value decreases when the quality is poor, but established methods can produce morels of stable quality indoors, and the price is 1500 Danish krone per kg. It is estimated to be (about 26,000 yen). In addition, since wild morels contain impurities, the return water of dried morels tends to be discarded, but morels produced indoors have the advantage of being able to safely make sauces using the return water. ..

The Danish Morel Project will work on commercializing morel indoor artificial cultivation. It is also said to promote the search for better mutants and improve the cultivation process.