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Effects of Various Substrates on Growth and Yield of Oyster Mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus)
並列摘要
Mushrooms are increasingly becoming an important component of diets worldwide and it is of paramount importance to choose appropriate substrates in a given place to grow them. The experiment was conducted at the University of Swaziland, Faculty of Agriculture, in the Crop Production Department Mushroom Laboratory. The objective was to determine the effects of some of the locally available substrate materials on the growth and yield of oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus Jacq. Et Fr). Banana leaves, sugarcane tops, common thatch grass (Hyparrhenia hirta) and cattle manure were milled, bagged and autoclaved for 5 h at 120ºC, cooled and then inoculated with actively growing mushroom culture on sorghum grain. The bags were incubated until mycelium had fully colonized the substrate and then taken to the cropping house. Sugarcane tops had significantly (p＜0.05) lower number of contaminated bags and in increasing order of contamination followed by banana leaves, thatch grass and lastly kraal manure. Kraal manure in all bags was contaminated and was subsequently discarded. There were significant (p＜0.05) differences in total mushroom yield, marketable yield, mushroom stalk length and mushroom cap diameter. Sugarcane tops produced the highest total mushroom yield, marketable yield and mushroom cap diameter, followed in decreasing order by banana leaves and thatch grass. However thatch grass produced the longest mushroom stalks followed in decreasing order by banana leaves and lastly sugarcane tops. The experiment showed that, in decreasing order, sugarcane tops, banana leaves and thatch grass can be used as one of the best locally available substrate for mushroom production in Swaziland, for the growth and yield parameters measured.