Mushroom Cultivation

SUMAN SHAW

What Is Mushroom?

Fungus: any of a diverse group of eukaryotic single celled or multinucleate organisms that live by decomposing and absorbing the organic material in which they grow.

Plural is Fungi

EXAMPLES OF FUNGI

Mushrooms Molds Mildews Smuts Rusts Yeasts

Mushrooms have no chlorophyll (a green pigment in plants), so they don't need sunshine to grow and thrive. Some of the earliest commercial mushroom farms were actually set up in caves in France during the reign of King Louis XIV (1638-1715).

Nutritional Values

Mushrooms are an excellent source of copper, a mineral that the body needs to produce red blood cells and for other functions. Mushrooms have significant amounts of B-complex vitaminsMushrooms have significant amounts of B-complex vitamins

Some Edible Mushroom1)Hericium erinaceus2)Grifola frondosa3)Pleurotus ostreatus4) Coprinus comatus5) Pleurotus sajor -caju

Cultivation Methodology

Selection of substrate

Collection of substrate

Sterilization of substrate

Bag filling and inoculation

Incubation

Harvesting

Selection of substrate

Pleurotus can be grown on various agricultural wastes like rice straw, wheat straw, corn cobs, saw dust and various leaves , cotton waste sugarcane bugasses and leaves. Rice straw is common substrate in context of Nepal. Following substrate was used in our experiment

After collection green leaves were removed. Straw was cut to a length of 5cm and soaked in water overnight.Excess water was drained off from straw, leaves and saw dust and made ready for sterilization. Sterilization was done with the help of metallic drum.

Sterilization of substrate

Bag filling and inoculationCultivation of mushroom was carried out in transparent polythene bags of size 14*22 inches. Then bags were filled with substrate. Spawn was spread in every layer of substrate of 6-8 cm height and pressed the substrate to make bag compact. Spawn was shown on upper side of last layer and covered it with thin layer of substrate. A mixed substrate bag was also made.

IncubationIt is the processing of providing suitable environment to run the mycelium well in substrate. The packed bags were incubated in well ventilated room where uniform temperature was maintained. During spawning there was nearly 85-88% relative humidity. For three weeks bags were placed in dark room where no light intensity is available. At the 18th days after spawning, plastic bags were removed. Plastic was removed when the substrate was covered with white mycelium growth. The pin head was started appearing after one week of plastic cutting.IrrigationWithin 20 days the mycelium grows in size and polythene had cut carefully. Spraying water by hand every day so that there would be about 85% humidity.

HarvestingMushroom was harvested when the cap had diameter of 8-10 cm. First picking was done 10 days after cutting. Picking was done by holding the pinhead with finger tips and twisting gently and pulling simultaneously so that it was pulled out without leaving any stub and also nearby fruiting bodies had not disturbed. Four harvesting was done.

Morphology of pleurotus sajor caju

PileusThe young sporephore was small, white and button like. the mature sporephore is fan like and expanded .Stipe The stipe was inconspicuous. The stipe was short ,lateral and grey or white in color.GillsOn the lower side of the cap, there are numerous gills running from the stipe of the margin of the pileus. The gills were three types namely long gills medium gills and short gills.They are arranged alternatively. Each of the gills bears numerous haploid basidospore.

Precautions

Good quality substrate should be used.

The substrate used should be well sterilized.

Excess water from substrate should be removed.

Substrate should be cooled before spawning.

Packing should be done with sterilized hands.

Thank You