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[ Dr\u00a0Nitin\u00a0Kumar\u00a0Pandey ]<\/strong><\/p>\n ITANAGAR, Aug 31:<\/strong> \u00a0The oyster mushroom is one of the most suitable fungal\u00a0organism\u00a0for producing protein rich food from various agro wastes without composting. The mushroom is cultivated in about 25 countries of Far- East Asia, Europe and America. It is the third largest cultivated mushroom in the world. China alone contributed 88\u00a0per cent\u00a0of the total world production. The other major oyster producing countries are Japan, Italy, Thailand, Taiwan, South Korea and Philippines. In India, it is popularly grown in the states\u00a0of Orissa, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and\u00a0the\u00a0North- Eastern states. \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [ Dr\u00a0Nitin\u00a0Kumar\u00a0Pandey ] ITANAGAR, Aug 31: \u00a0The oyster mushroom is one of the most suitable fungal\u00a0organism\u00a0for producing protein rich food from various agro wastes without composting. The mushroom is cultivated in about 25 countries of Far- East Asia, Europe and America. It is the third largest cultivated mushroom in the world. China alone contributed 88\u00a0per […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-state-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nNutritional and medicinal value of oyster mushroom:\u00a0This mushroom is 100\u00a0per centvegetarian and the nutritive value of oyster mushroom is a good as other edible mushrooms, like white button mushroom, shitake or paddy straw mushroom. They are rich in vitamin C and B complex. Protein content varies between 1.6 to 2.5 on fresh weight basis. It has most of the mineral salts required by the human body,\u00a0such as potassium, sodium, phosphorus, iron and calcium. The niacin content is about ten times higher than any other vegetables. A\u00a0polycyclic aromatic compound\u00a0pleurotin\u00a0has been isolated from P.griseus, which possess antibiotic properties.
\nVarieties:\u00a0All the varieties of oyster are dibble expect P.nidiformis and P.olearius, which are reported to be poisonous. In recent years,\u00a025 species are commercially cultivated in different parts of the world, which are:\u00a0P. florida, P. flabellatus, P.ostreatus, P. sajor-caju, P. sapidusetc.
\nCultivation:\u00a0The procedure for oyster mushroom of spawn. Cultivation can be divided into following four steps.
\nPreparation or procurement:\u00a0Substrate preparation; spawning: Crop management; preparation or procurement: The spawn preparation technique for oyster mushroom is a similar to white button mushroom.
\nOne should have a pure culture of\u00a0pleurotusspp\u00a0for inoculation on sterilized wheat grains. It takes 10\u00a0to\u00a015 days for mycelia growth on grains. It has been reported that\u00a0jowar\u00a0and\u00a0bajragrains are superior over wheat grains. The mycelium of oyster mushroom grows very fast on wheat grains and 25\u00a0to\u00a030 days old spawn starts forming fruit bodies in the bottle itself.
\nSubstrate preparation: Different type of agricultural, forest and agro-industrial by- products, are useful for growing oyster mushroom. These by products or wastes are rich in cellulose, lignin and hemicellulose. However, yield of oyster mushroom largely depends upon the nutrition and nature of the substrate.
\nMethod of the substrate preparation:\u00a0The mycelium of\u00a0pleurotus\u00a0is saprophytic in nature and it does not require selective substrate for\u00a0its growth.\u00a0The popular methods of substrate preparation are as follows:
\nSteam pasteurization:\u00a0In this method prewetted straw is packed in wooden trays or boxes and then kept in a pasteurization room at 58-62 0C for four hours. Temperature of the pasteurization room is manipulated with the help of steam through a boiler. Substrate after cooling at a room temperature is seeded with spawn. The entire process takes around 3-5 days. This method is adopted on a commercial scale.
\nHot Water treatment:\u00a0The substrate (wheat straw) after chopping around 5-10 cm is soaked in hot water (65-700C) for one to two hour or in case of paddy straw at 85 0C for 45-55 minutes. After draining excess water and cooling, spawn is added. Hot water treatment makes the hard substrate like maize cobs, stems, etc soft so that the growth of\u00a0mycelial\u00a0takes place easily. This method is not suitable for commercial cultivation.
\nChemical Treatment: Different species of trichoderma, Penicillium, Aspergillus and Gliocladium are the common competitor fungi on the straw during oyster mushroom cultivation. Ninety litres of waters is taken in a rust proof drum or G.I. tub of 200 litre capacity. Ten to twelve Kg of wheat straw is slowly steeped in water. In other plastic bucket,\u00a0Bavistin\u00a07.5 g and 125 ml formaldehyde is dissolved and slowly poured on the already soaked straw. Straw is pressed and covered with a polythene sheet. After 15-18 hour the straw taken\u00a0out and excess water drained.
\nSpawning:\u00a0The spawning should be done in a pre-fumigated room with 2% formaldehyde for 48 hour. 20 30 days old spawn is best for\u00a0spawning. The spawn should be mixed @ 2 to 3 % of the wet weight of the substrate.\u00a010 to\u00a012 kg of wet substrate or 2.7 to 3 kg of dry substrate is sufficient for 300 g spawn. Spawn can be mixed thoroughly or mixed in layers. Spawn substrate is filled in polythene bags (60×45 cm) of\u00a0125 to\u00a0150 gauze thickness. \u00a010 to\u00a014 small holes (0.5-1.0 cm diameter) should be made on all sides especially in the bottom for leaching of excess water.\u00a0Perforated bags higher and early crop (5-6 days) than non-perforated bags because of accumulation of high CO2, which inhibits fruiting.\u00a0One can also use empty fruit packing cartoon or wooden boxes for filling substrate. The polythene sheet is folded from all the four sides to make a compact rectangular box. It is tightly pressed and tied with a nylon rope. The block is incubated as such and after mycelial growth polythene sheet is removed.
\nCrop Management:\u00a0The spawn bags or blocks are kept in incubation room for\u00a0mycelialgrowth. Spawned bags can be kept on a raised platform or can be hanged in cropping room for mycelial colonization of the substrate. Mycelium can grow between 10-30 0C but optimum temperature lies between 22\u00a0to 26\u00b0C. The temperature more than 30\u00b0\u00a0C in the cropping room will inhibit the growth and kill the mycelium. During mycelia growth the bag are not to be opened and no vitalization is needed. Moreover, there is no needed for any high relative humidity, so no water should be spread. All the\u00a0plutorius\u00a0species require high relative humidity (75-85%) during fruiting. To maintain relative humidity, water spraying is to be done in cropping rooms. During hot and dry weather conditions daily 2-3 spray are recommended while in hot and humid conditions one light spray will be sufficient.
\nPost-Harvest Management:\u00a0Mushroom should always be harvested before water spray. The right stage of picking can be identified by the shape and size of fruit body. In, young mushrooms, the edge of the cap is thick and cap margin is enrolled while the cap of mature mushroom is flat and inward curling starts. It is advisable to harvest all the mushrooms at one time from a bag so that a next crop of mushroom starts early. After harvesting lower portion of the stalk, adhering debris should be cut with a knife. Fresh mushrooms should be packed in perforated polythene bags for marketing. The can also be sun dried by spreading on a cotton cloth in bright sun light or diffused light. The dried produced with 2-4% moisture can be stored for 3 to 4 months after proper sealing.(The writer is Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Tawang, SMS Agri Extension)<\/p>\n