Cultivation practice of Pleurotus spp

• Pleurotus spp. can be grown on paddy straw, wheat straw, banana leaves etc.

Requirements:

• Substrate for cultivation: paddy/wheat straw etc
• Spawn
• Pasteurization/sterilization unit
• Polythene bags
• Supplements (gram flour/saw dust etc.) (optional)
• Cultivation room (with proper temperature, light, moisture)

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

1. Selection of Substrate

• Selection of substrates for Pleurotus cultivation is most important aspect.
• Pleurotus can be cultivated on various substrates which are available.
• It can be cultivated on pure substrate or combination of different substrates.
• It can be grown on various agricultural waste materials.
• They grow well on a mixture of saw dust and other combination of tropical wastes such as corn cobs and leaves, cotton waste, sugarcane bagasse and leaves.
• Paddy straw was used as a substrate for the cultivation of oyster which is a common practice in Nepal.

2. Sterilization

• Before sterilization rice straw should be chopped to about 5 cm or smaller length.
• The chopped straw should be soaked in water overnight.
• A 4”×6” water in the drum where three or four bricks should be kept upright position.
• Then, the drum should be filled with moist straw.
• It should be steamed for half an hour to kill all insects and wild fungus.
• After steam sterilization it should be cooled either in drum itself or in big plastic bag.

3. Inoculation

• A bag of size -14” × 22” (in summer) or 16” × 26”(in winter) is used for inoculation.
• Spawn should be spread in every layer of straw of 6-8 cm height and pressed the straw slightly to make bag compact.
• After filling the bag with spawn and straw, mouth of the bag should be tied with thread.
• Small holes should be made for aeration and Inoculation should be done with clean hand.

4. Incubation:

• It is the process of providing suitable environmental conditions to run mycelium well in substratum.
• During incubation, light is not required, however, make sure the bags have plenty of fresh air.

5. Observation:

Mushroom, then should be observed thoroughly, following changes can be seen,

• 3rd day: no changes may be seen except some dew collected at the top of bag.
• 6th day: minute threads of mycelium spread around the spawned grain can be seen.
• 10th day: White mycelial thread can cover larger area.
• 15th day: mycelium may extent to larger areas but nearly same as in 10th day.
• 25th day: now the fungus cover most of the part and at that day the plastic covered can be removed and placed in another room for further production.

6. Harvesting:

• Proper ventilation should be provided so that fresh air can flow easily when the flush occurs.
• Light water spray is necessary two times per day.
• Harvesting is done when the cap has the diameter of 8-10 cm.
• Picking is done by twisting gently so that it is pulled out without leaving any stalk and also the nearby fruiting bodies are not disturbed.