Background:

Pleurotus pulmonarius is one of the commercially important edible mushrooms in the world. In Mexico, the production of this species is supported on few commercial strains; thus, it is a priority to select highly productive and good quality germplasm, suitable for its propagation under regional environmental conditions.

Objective:

To obtain and select highly productive P. pulmonarius strains by the interspecimen breeding of commercial parentals.

Methods:

Monosporic cultures from three strains were isolated, selecting the fastest mycelial growth cultures to determine the mating types and carry out the interspecimen crossbreeding. The new dikaryons were cultivated on barley straw to quantify the earliness of primordia initiation, biological efficiency (BE), production rate (PR) and basidiomes size, comparatively with their parents.

Results and conclusions:

Forty-eight new dikaryons were evaluated. BE’s fluctuated between 7.3 to 147.5 % and PR’s from 0.14 to 2.59 %. Thirteen progeny strains overcome BE’s of 80 % and 16 strains reached PRs upper to 1.5 %. Mostly, fruiting bodies developed pileus of 5 to 15 cm Ø. Although the productivities of progeny strains were variable, some dikaryons presented acceptable characteristics for their commercial exploitation.