UTILIZATION OF WEEDS FOR OYSTER MUSHROOM CULTIVATION

Transcription

1 Chapter 10 UTILIZATION OF WEEDS FOR OYSTER MUSHROOM CULTIVATION To Quote Carlyle - Nature alone is antique and the oldest art a mushroom INTRODUCTION: The mushroom is a form of plant-life known as a fungus. Fungi have been at work since life began on earth. There are different views in regard to the origin of the term mushroom. In Latin, Fungo means to flourish. It was a term, which was used to refer to mushroom and to excrescences from the ground or from trees. In Greek, the term mushroom was derived from the word Sphoggos which meant Sponge and referred to the sponge like structure of some of the species. Other versions are muscheron and mouscheron and from these it is easy to understand how the country name mushroom originated. Mushrooms are reproductive structures of edible fungi that belongs to Basidiomycotina. These may be epigeal or hypogeal. Like any other fungus, the vegetative part of mushroom consists of thread like thin mycelia, which under suitable conditions form fruit bodies (Sporocarps). They comprise a large heterogeneous group with different shapes, sizes, colour and edibility. Mushrooms occur under various ecological circumstances from desert to forest. These are fleshy fungi, growing in nature on the trunks of trees, stumps or logs or decaying organic matter, on the forest floor or in the grass in yards, lawns, field and pasture or along the roadsides only in autumn and spring (Passecker, 1959; Luthard, 1969). Mushrooms have been used as a delicacy for more than two thousand years. Domestication of edible fungi dates back centuries ago, but the most important development has taken place in the last 6o years. The cultivation originated in the 1

2 middle of 17 th century in France (Bhavani Devi, 1982). The method of cultivation of temperate mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) was first developed by a French gardener and subsequently the technique spread all over the world, at first to England and then to America. The cultivation of mushrooms in the U.S.A. was first introduced in the later part of the 19 th century. In India, the cultivation of paddy straw mushroom (Volvariella sp.) was first undertaken by Madras Agriculture Department during probably under the impact of food shortage Edible mushrooms in India - The commercial cultivation is extended to the three mushroom spp. namely button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus), paddy straw mushroom (Volvariella sp.) and oyster mushroom (Pleurotus sp.). At present, white button mushroom contributes about 85 % of the total mushroom production followed by oyster and paddy straw mushrooms. Oyster mushrooms are becoming more popular in South India and Tamil Nadu alone is producing about 3500 MT per annum (Pathak et al., 1998). Because of poor and unpredictable yields, paddy straw mushroom has not picked up very well Food value of mushrooms - The use of mushrooms as human food is probably as old as man himself and mankind has regarded it as a valuable food for flavour and nutrition (Bahl, 1988). The nutritional value of mushroom as a food lies between meat and vegetables. Mushrooms provide an excellent substitute for meat as a good source of proteins, carbohydrates, valuable salts and vitamins in vegetarian diet. Besides, they are rich in vitamins B, C, D and minerals (Fasidi and Kadiri, 1990; Sivrikaya et al., 2002) and amino acids, which prevent many diseases (Genders, 1974; Oei, 1991). Also, it is a unique food for diabetic patients and for those who wish to loose their weight. Investigations by Lintzel (1941, 1943) indicate that 100 to 200 g of mushrooms (dry weight) is required to maintain nutritional balance in a normal human being weighing 70 kg Cultivation of Pleurotus sp. - Mushrooms hold a unique place in the world of today. Human population expands by 2.1 percent, representing a rise of about 75 million people per year or two lakhs per day. Thus, food production has to keep pace with population increase. Therefore, there is good possibility of using edible mushrooms for alleviating worldwide shortage of food. Besides helping to supplement production of food 2

3 protein, mushroom cultivation also leads to recycling of agricultural wastes. Among the five most important cultivated mushrooms, Pleurotus spp. (Oyster mushroom) which are primary wood rot fungi are well known edible mushrooms in different parts of the world (Kues and Liu, 2000). Commonly it is known as Dhingri and used in the preparation of many delicious dishes. Mushrooms are known to thrive on a variety of ligno-cellulosic wastes generated in huge quantities through activities of agriculture, forest and agro-based industries (Pani and Das, 2001), which are nearly 25 MT per year (Jandaik, 1997). Several workers have made efforts to exploit the potential of various wastes for commercial production of mushrooms which include paddy straw, wheat straw and banana pseudostem (Jandaik and Kapoor, 1975; Sivaprakasam et al., 1979), wheat, ragi, cotton and sugarcane baggasse (Diwakar et al., 1989; Adhikari, 1990), wheat and paddy straw (Kumar and Biswas, 1992), mango and industry waste (Jwanny et al., 1995), soyabean straw (Upadhyay and Verma, 2000), bajra, mothbean, sorghum, munghbean and grasses (Vyas et al., 2003), gulmohar pods, banana leaves and sugarcane wastes (Srinivasan et al., 2005). For the cultivation of oyster mushroom, wheat and rice straw are generally used as substrates. Due to their value as cattle feed, it was thought worthwhile to evaluate suitability of weeds for the cultivation of oyster mushroom and to provide a replacement substrate. However, utilization of locally available weed plant materials for the productions of oyster mushrooms have not been evaluated so far. In this investigation, attempts were made to evaluate the effectiveness of locally available weed plant materials as substrates for the cultivation of Pleurotus sajor-caju MATERIALS AND METHODS: The experiment was conducted in Plant Pathology laboratory, Department of Botany, Government Institute of Science, Aurangabad during October to March, by following polypropylene bag method. The weeds like Aghada (Achyranthes aspera L.), Diwali (Crotalaria notonii Wt. and Arn.) and Unhali (Tephrosia hamiltoni Drumm.) were collected from different localities of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University Campus. Freshly collected weed plant materials were dried, shredded into small pieces (1-3 cm long) and transferred to gunny sacs. The weed substrates, used for the cultivation of the mushroom P. sajorcaju (Fr.) Singer, were used either individually or in combination (1:1:1) on dry 3

4 weight basis along with rice straw as a control. The spawn of P. sajour-caju was obtained from Marathwada Agricultural University, Parbhani. The procedure described by Bahl (1988) was adopted for the cultivation of P. sajor-caju. The substrates were soaked overnight (18 h) in fresh water. The excess water was allowed to drain off and then the materials were autoclaved at 121 o C (15 lb) for 20 min. The sterilized substrates were spread on previously cleaned and sterilized floor. After cooling, they were filled individually in polythene bags (45 x 60 cm) by alternate layering method. First layer of sterilized straw was filled in the bottom of polythene bag and pressed so that it assumed round shape with a height of 5 cm. Then the mushroom spawn was broadcasted. A second layer of substrate similar to the first layer was spread over the spawn layer and pressed gently. On this straw layer, again a layer of mushroom spawn was sown and likewise five layers of straw and four layers of spawn were made. The spawn of mushroom was used at a rate of 100 g kg -1 dry substrate. Each treatment was maintained by three replicates. The bags were tied with the help of string. Lastly, the bags were punctured at points on all the sides for aeration and then the bags were kept for incubation in a room with ambient temperature ranging from 22 to o C and observations were recorded RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The rice straw gave better yield of mushroom while the weed substrates showed only growth of the mushroom mycelium. The highest growth of mushroom spawn was observed on mixed substrate followed in order by C. notonii, T. hamiltoni and A. aspera. During the growth of mycelium, Neurospora sitophila (pink mold) was recorded as the contaminant, which could cover up all the weed substrates and simultaneously inhibited the mycelial growth significantly either by competition for food material or through production of toxic substances. Development of mushroom fruit primordia became erratic or completely blocked in the beds and caused a total loss in mushroom yield. Thus, the weed substrates were not found suitable for the cultivation of P. sajor-caju. In the earlier studies also, the beds of Pleurotus spp. were reported to be infected by Neurospora (Moreau-Froment, 1956) and many other weed fungi (Sharma and Jandaik, 1980; Mehta et al., 1985; Vijay and Sohi, 1987, Das and Suharban, 1991; Rai et al., 1993; Anandh et al., 1999 and Siddique et al., 2004). 4

5 10.4. CONCLUSION: Based on the results obtained during present study, it can be concluded that rice straw was found to be a good substrate for growing mushroom, while the weeds were not beneficial. However, with further investigations on other alternative procedures, it may be possible to grow mushrooms on weed plant materials at a greater cost or expenditure with high hygienic conditions. 5

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