EFFICACY OF DIFFERENT WEEDS AND AGRICULTURAL SUBSTRATES FOR CULTIVATION OF PLEUROTUS OSTREATUS (JACQ. FR.)
Waqar Islam*1, Asif Riaz2, Madiha Zaynab3 and Wu Zujian1
1College of Plant Protection, Fujian Agriculture & Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, China
2University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan
3College of Life Sciences, Fujian Agriculture & Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, China
ABSTRACT
Oyster mushrooms are fleshy edible fungi which acquire huge importance due to their nutritional and medicinal properties. These mushrooms are cultivated upon various substrates which directly affect the yield and time taken to reach the maturity. So the present experiment was designed to study different weeds, agricultural wastes and their mixtures for efficacy regarding time taken to achieve 100% mycelial growth and yield attributes. Our results illustrated that cotton waste showed better performance as substrate as it took minimum days i.e. 20.5 followed by Chenopodium album and mixture of cotton waste + Chenopodium album which relatively taken 24.5 days to reach maximum growth level. These substrates also provided better yield as compared to all other substrates by recording 650.36, 583.41 and 530.43 grams yield respectively. The performance of all other substrates was below power. Hence we conclude that Chenopodium album anonymously or mixture of particular weed and cotton waste can be utilized for efficient cultivation of mushrooms.
Keywords: Oyster mushroom, Yield, Maturity, Effectiveness, P1 white strain
