Effect of Substrate Pre-treatment Methods on Oyster Mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) Production

Among the various cultivated mushrooms, oyster mushroom is easy to cultivate due to its strong enzymatic action towards the utilization of various kinds of organic substrates. However, pre-treatment of substrates is not an easy job for the cultivation of mushroom especially in the rural areas. The objective of this study was to devise an easy handy procedure for organic substrate pre-treatment in the production of oyster mushroom. Substrate pre-treatments by autoclaving at 121 degrees C, hot water dipping (pasteurisation) in steel drum at 60 degrees C for 2 h and hot water dipping (pasteurisation) in steel drum at 60 degrees C for 3 h were evaluated. The percent contamination was significantly higher in horse manure compost (70%) compared to sugarcane bagasse (12.5%). The oyster mushroom took significantly less time to colonise the autoclaved sugarcane bagasse (36 days) compared to sugar cane bagasse pasteurised for 2 h (64 days). Autoclaved horse compost manure was fully colonised in 42 days, while those pasteurised with hot water at 2 and 3 h failed to colonise due to heavy contamination by Trichoderma harzianum presumably due to insufficient sterilisation. Despite the shortest days to full colonisation, there was no significant difference in the yield (410.4 g) and bio-efficiency (82.10%) of autoclaved sugarcane bagasse compared to the yield (301.1 g) and bio-efficiency (60.22%) of sugarcane bagasse pasteurised in hot water for 3 h. Although, autoclaving was the best method for substrate pre-treatment, however hot water pasteurisation at 60 degrees C for 3 h of sugarcane bagasse proved to be a viable and promising method of substrate pre-treatment, which can be adopted to produce a good yield of oyster mushroom especially in rural areas, where autoclave sterilisation is not feasible. (C) 2012 Friends Science Publishers