A comparative study on substrate sterilization methods for cultivation of Pink Oyster mushroom [Pleurotus eous (Berk.) Sacc.]
Titel Megu1* and Tenya Rina2
1,2Department of Botany, Rajiv Gandhi University, Rono Hills, Doimukh-791112 (India) *Corresponding author (Email: titelmegu2017@gmail.com) (Email: tenyarina2017@gmail.com)
ABSTRACT
The experiment for the cultivation of Pink Oyster Mushroom Pleurotus eous was carried out to determine the effect of different substrate sterilization methods on the growth and yield of mushrooms through three methods of substrate sterilization: Chemical method, Hotwater method and Autoclave or steam sterilization. Paddy straw was used as the basal substrate for growing P. eous. Results showed that the time taken for the appearance of pinhead was the shortest with duration of 2.6 days on the substrate treated through autoclave or steam sterilization, and also gave the highest average mushroom yield of 258.8 g. Also, this substrate treatment method showed the highest biological efficiency (BE) of 85.34 % among all the treatments. However, the time taken for complete spawn running in both hot-water and steam sterilized substrate was recorded similar taking 17 days respectively. Among all the three substrate sterilization methods, the chemical treatment gave lowest yield of 176.93 g followed by hot-water of 242.2 g. However, the highest numbers of fruit bodies (37) and stipe length and diameter of quality fruit body with value of 0.96 cm and 1 cm respectively was recorded from the substrate treated by chemical method.