Monographic studies on edible species of pleurotus and standardisation of the techniques for large scale cultivation
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Date
1987
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Department of Plant Pathology, College of Agriculture, Vellayani
Abstract
Mushrooms have long been recognized as a food because of their nutritive value and flavour and hence are grown on commercial scale on many parts of the world. In recent years cultivation of Pleurotus species are becoming popular in many of the tropical areas. No effort has been made in the past to collect, identify, describe and catalogue the Pleurotus mushroom flora of Kerala and standardise the techniques for their large scale cultivation. The present study was therefore initiated to achieve the above objectives. Collection, identification and description of the Pleurotus flora naturally occurred in and around the College of Agriculture and parts of Trivandrum district were carried out with the help of a data sheet. Twenty species of Pleurotus properly identified were further subjected to detailed study. A key was constituted to enable easy identification of gill the twenty described species. Out of the twenty species described, eight species are new records for India.
Among the common cultivable species of Pleurotus. P .sajor-caju was found to be the most suitable mushrooms for the warm humid climatic condition of Kerala. The optimum temperature for maximum growth of this mushroom was found to be between 15 to 50 *C.
Comparative efficacy of various containers and substrates used for spawn production revealed that Maize and empty wine bottle were the best substrate and container respectively for spawn production.
Trials on cultivation of P. sajor-caiu on logs of common trees revealed Mango tree log to be the best in getting higher yield. Polythene bag was found to be the best container in supporting maximum sporocarp formation. Straw of local varieties of rice were better than high yielding varieties of rice in supporting sporocarp, formation.
Comparative efficacy of straw made into bits and small twists with six species of Pleurotus revealed higher yield of 775 g per kg of substrate with spawn of Pleurotus- sajor-caju establishing its superiority for cultivation in Kerala.
Cultivation of P .saior-caju in different seasons of the year revealed that this mushroom can be successfully cultivated in Kerala all through the year on paddy straw.
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PG
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