Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Oyster mushroom Cultivation


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Variety
Ananthan is a short duration variety released from the KAU with good cooking quality and consumer acceptability and can be grown in wheat, paddy and sorghum straw. On an average, it takes eight days from spawning to harvest. Yield potential is 800 g per kg straw.
Substrate and raw materials
Pleurotus can be successfully cultivated on a variety of agro-wastes like saw dust, vegetable and paper wastes, oil palm pericarp waste and straw. But the best suitable substrate is found to be paddy straw.Other raw materials required are polythene bags, antiseptic solution, sand and water.
Production house
A thatched shed or room, preferably with optimum relative humidity of 80 - 95 % and room temperature of 24ºC - 28ºC with diffused light and ventilation is required. Lower temperature adversely affects growth and production of oyster mushroom. Normally for small scale growing thatched sheds roofed with coconut leaves will be useful. Approximately two sheds with an area of 30 m2 each are required for growing 20 Kg of oyster mushrooms per day. The room should be kept cool by hanging gunny screens with periodical sprinkling water on the gunnies. Sand must be spread on the floor up to 2-3 cm and be kept moist. The room should be made rodent and insect proof.

Method of Cultivation

Sterilisation/pasteurisation
One kg of well dried, one-year-old paddy straw is cut into small bits of 5-8 cm in length and immersed in water for 18 hours. Then the soaked straw is taken out from water and kept inside the basket for 1-2 hours to drain away excess water. The soaked straw is kept under boiling water (100ºC) for 30-40 minutes for surface sterilization or to achieve pasteurization and then taken out and kept inside the basket to drain excess water and allowed to cool down. The pasteurized straw is ready for filling the bags.
Preparation of bed
Polythene bags or tubes of 30 x 60 cm size with 150-200 gauge are taken for filling the substrate. If the tubes are used, the free-end is tied with a string. Seven to eight holes of 0.5-1.0 cm diameter are made all over the bag for aeration. Now the perforated polythene bag is filled for about 5 cm height with the above processed straw and pressed with hand for making it even. Care should be taken to fill the bags as compactly as possible for the proper growth of mycelium. Instead of straw bits, small round straw bundles of 20 cm diameter are also used for filling the bags. This method is followed to save time and labour.
Spawn requirement and availability
Spawn is the propagating material of mushrooms. It is the productive mycelium of the fungus multiplied in a suitable substrate. One bottle containing 300 gm of spawn is required for two beds of straw. Quality spawn materials are available to the farmers from the Department of Plant-Pathology, College of Horticulture, Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur. Progressive farmers can also make spawns for themselves after proper training.
Production of mushroom spawn
Sorghum or wheat grains are used for spawn preparation. Half cooked grains, are mixed with calcium carbonate @ 20g per kg of grains(dry weight), thoroughly mixed and filled in polypropylene bags ( 15x30 cm size) provided with PVC rings as neck. The bags are tightly plugged with non-absorbent cotton and sterilized at 1.42-kg/cm2 pressure and 126ºC temperature for 1.5-2.0 hours in an autoclave. When the bags are cool, they are aseptically inoculated with fresh cultures of oyster mushroom fungus. The work should be done in a culture room or in a laminar flow chamber. After inoculation the spawn bags are stored in a clean room for 15-20 days before use. These bags with white mycelial growth serve as mother culture. Each mother spawn bag can be used for inoculating 30 bed spawn bags that can be prepared following the above procedure. It is advisable to have a thorough training in the Kerala Agricultural University, before starting spawn production unit.
Inoculation/ spawning
Spawn is taken out from packets and kept inside a clean container or paper. From this, one tablespoon full of spawn is sprinkled over the filled straw around the peripheral region. A second layer of processed straw is filled and spawned as above. Repeat the process as above until the soaked straw is finished. Every time before spawning, press the straw with hand for making it compact. If bundles are used for filling the bags care should be taken to keep the bundles inside the bag as compact as possible without leaving any space in between the bundle. Finally the bag is closed tightly with a string and the beds are kept for spawn running.

Spawn running

The prepared beds are kept undisturbed for spawn running for about 15-20 days inside the production room. The best temperature and humidity for spawn running ranges from 28-30ºC and 80-85%, respectively. The beds can be arranged over a platform or in shelves. The spawn running can be judged from the whitish growth covering the straw completely. Periodically observe the beds and discard the contaminated ones. After 15 days when the spawn running is complete, remove the polythene bag by cutting it with blade and keep the bed for sporocarp formation. The opened beds are kept in well-ventilated rooms. Relative humidity of the room should be 80-85%. If temperature inside the room rises above 30ºC, the room should be sprinkled with water to lower the temperature. Diffused light is essential for normal fruiting. Pinhead formation starts on 20th day and 2-3 days are required for the maturation of the fruiting body.

Pest

Mushroom fly/ Phorid fly (Megaselia halterata)
The phorids cause damage to mushroom by feeding on mycelium. For controlling phorid flies, fix nylon net of 35 or more mesh size in the mushroom house to prevent the entry of flies. Regularly remove the waste materials. Install sticky trap to attract the phorid flies.

Harvest and yield

Matured and fully opened sporocarps are harvested by placing the thumb and forefinger near the base of the fruiting body and twisted in clockwise direction to get detached from the mycelium. First harvest will be ready on 15 - 21 days. After first harvest spray water for keeping moisture at 60 - 65% in beds. Second harvest may develop after one week. Totally four harvest can be taken from one bed within 35 - 45 days period. An average yield of 500-700 g can be harvested from 1 kg of straw. The spent straw can be used as enriched cattle feed.
Factors responsible for sustainable yield of oyster mushroom
Though the production technology for mushrooms is relative simple, utmost care has to be taken to maintain hygiene in the growing place, since the contamination can ruin mushroom. Care should be taken to use only good quality spawn and paddy straw for mushroom production. Paddy straw should be treated properly before bed preparation. Also, maintain good hygiene in the cropping rooms and bed preparation yard.

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