If you search “ 羊肚菌种植” （more cultivation) on the internet, you will find overwhelming advertisement of morel cultivation training. Morels are one of the most popular edible fungi recently, specially in China. During February and June in the latest two years, news like “successful morel cultivation in XXX!”,”High yields of morels were achieved in XXX!” were reported almost everyday on the internet and newspapers. Lots of farmers and investors were influenced by these exaggerated reports. As a result, a new business emerged: morel cultivation training. Every July to December, notifications such as “Professional morel cultivation technical training”, “Senior level morel cultivation training class”, “Disclose morel cultivation technology” will be announced by those “xx Biological Company” and “XXX Edible Fungi Association” in China. However, the fact is that apart from a very few formal organizations, most so-called “disclose technologies classes” are designed to allure customers and pave the way for selling spawn or other high profit training courses.
Picture: http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-3390928-1125911.html
Morels were considered unculturable before 1887. As we can see morels have been successfully artificially cultivated. Nevertheless, challenges to morel cultivations are complicated beyond the expectation of the researchers and farmers. The shocking truth is that during the growth year from 2017 to 2018 in China, nearly half of the cultivation area did not reach the 50% of the desirable yield! The most obvious and essential problems obstructing the development of morel cultivation industry are still: a. spawn degeneration; b. unstable fruiting and low yield; c. low profits.
The basic biology studies on Morchella species may be able to shed some light on the morel cultivation. I have selected four papers published in 2018 to update some new ideas or findings on Morchella species. I will summarize the key points of those papers in my later post.