Evaluation of Replacement of Sawdust by Different Crop Residues as Substrates for Oyster Mushroom Pleurotus ostreatus (PO₂) Production

Abstract

The prime objective of the study consisting of four experiments was to investigate the performance of different substrates of crop residue on growing of oyster mushroom Pleurotus ostreatus (PO₂). In all experiments, one oyster mushroom variety Pleurotus ostreatus (PO₂) was grown on various percentages of saw dust with either rice straw or sugarcane bagasse or grass pea husk or green gram husk at different percentages (100, 80, 60, 40, 20 and 0%). All experiments were done using six treatments with three replications. In Experiment-1, 80% rice straw + 20% saw dust (T₄) performed better regarding number of primordia, number of effective fruiting body, pileus diameter, stalk length, stalk diameter, biological yield, economic yield and harvest index except highest pileus thickness which was found higher at 100% rice straw (T₅). In Experiment-2, 100% sugarcane bagasse (T₅) showed better performance in case of all parameters mentioned in Experiment-1. In Experiment-3, similar to Experiment-2, 100% grass pea husk (T₅) showed better performance except number of primordia which was observed highest at T₄ treatment where 80% grass pea husk was mixed with 20% saw dust. In Experiment-4, 100% green gram husk (T₅) showed the best performance except number of primordia which was observed the highest in T₃ treatment where 60% green gram husk was mixed with 40% saw dust. From the study, it was evident that three substrates (sugarcane bagasse, grass pea husk and green gram husk) performed better as pure on growing Pleurotus ostreatus (PO₂). Among the four substrates, green gram husk gave the maximum yield but sugarcane bagasse gave the minimum maintenance cost.