Analysis of Environment and Production of Tricholoma matsutake in Matsutake-infected Pine Trees

Kang-Hyeon Ka1,*   Hee-Su Kim2   Tae-Chul Hur3   Hyun Park4   Sung-Min Jeon5   Rhim Ryoo1   Yeongseon Jang1   

1Division of Wood Chemistry and Microbiology, National Institute of Forest Science
2Independent Researcher, Hongcheon-gun
3Korea Forest Conservation Association
4Division of Global Forestry, National Institute of Forest Science
5Independent Researcher, Incheon

Abstract

Tricholoma matsutake (Pine mushroom) is expensive, and its artificial cultivation has been tried in several countries. Until date, the only successful cultivation of artificial pine mushroom in pine forests uses matsutake-infected pine trees. The National Institute of Forest Science in Korea has been restudying this method since 2000. Success in fruit production and reproduction was achieved in 2010 and 2017, respectively, in the same locale. The successes proved that pine mushrooms could be cultivated artificially in the field using matsutake-infected pine trees. The fruiting of pine mushroom in October 2010 occurred 6 years, 6 months after the transplantation of matsutake-infected pine trees. Five pine mushrooms reoccurred in September 2017, 13 years, 5 months and 15 years, 5 months after the transplantation of the respective matsutake-infected pine trees. The distance between the matsutake-infected pine tree and the pine mushrooms was 12 cm at 6.6 years, 90~115 cm at 13.5 years, and 95 cm at 15.5 years. Fruiting bodies occurred 13~16 days after the underground temperature declined to below 19°C. In conclusion, the use of matsutake-infected pine trees remains the only way to artificially cultivate pine mushrooms. More knowledge of the environmental factors affecting matsutake fruiting would be beneficial.

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by grants (FP 0801-2013-01) from the National Institute of Forest Science, Republic of Korea.

Figures & Tables

Fig. 1. Forest landscape of Hongcheon experimental site. Green color shown in the picture indicates natural Pinus densiflora stand and brown color indicates planted Larix kaempferi stand. A, An area where the pine tree was infected by Tricholoma matsutake mycelium (blue rectangle outline); B, Transplant area of matsutake-infected pine tree (yellow rectangle outline). Fruiting bodies of T. matsutake were formed in B area (dotted red circle).