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Tropical Agricultural Research & Extension 10, 2007
*Corresponding author
INTRODUCTION
Mushrooms belong to class Basidiomycetes are fleshly saprophyte fungi which are found growing on damp rotten wood trunk of trees, decaying organic matter and damp soil rich in organic substances. Pleurotus ostreatus (Jacq.)Kumm. is a commercially important edible mushroom highly acclaimed for its gastronom-ical, nutritional and therapeutic properties (Ibekwe et al., 2008, Belewu and Belewu 2005, Yildiz and Yesil 2006).Unlike other mush-rooms Pleurotus species has the unique adap-tation to a wide range of lignocellulosic sub-strates (Bermudez et al., 2001) and the cultiva-tion of this mushroom has increased tremen-dously throughout the world during the last few decades ranking it as the second most im-portant edible mushroom variety in the world mushroom market (Larraya et al., 2000). How-ever in Sri Lanka it is the predominately culti-vated species (Gnaneswaran and Wijegunse-
The Potential of Using Cost-Effective Compost Mixtures for Oyster Mushroom (Pleurotus spp) Cultivation in Sri Lanka
*1J.C. Rajapakse, 2 P. Rubasingha and 3N.N. Dissanayake
1Agricultural Research Station, Department of Agriculture Telijjawila, Sri Lanka
2GLRDC, Angunakolapelessa, Sri Lanka
3Department of Agricultural Biology, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ruhuna, Mapalana,
Kamburupitiya, Sri Lanka
Accepted 28th August 2007
ABSTRACT
Edible mushroom cultivation is a profitable cottage industry, in which oyster mushroom occu-pies a prominent place in Sri Lanka. A good substrate is a key factor that determines the prof-itability of the mushroom cultivation. The Department of Agriculture recommends soya flour as a nitrogen supplement for mushroom substrate. Nonetheless production cost could be mini-mized if cheaper nitrogen sources could replace the traditional ingredients. Therefore the rela-tive efficacy of six compost mixtures, each amended with one of the following nitrogen sources (viz-gliricidia leaf powder, poultry litter and urea) were compared with the standard soya flour amended compost mixture to study their suitability as potential substitute/s. The addition of gliricidia leaf powder and urea were determined by the percentage nitrogen (%N) of each com-pound. Percentage N of well-decomposed poultry litter was calculated by using kjeldhal method (Available N =%N*6.25). The experiment was laid in Complete Randomized Design with seven treatments and fourteen replicates. The mycelia growth rate after spawning, mush-room yield, and the duration for the first frutification were used as indicators. The results re-vealed that the most suitable compost mixtures for higher mushroom yields were those con-taining 6.6% poultry litter.
Keywords: oyster mushroom, culture substrate, mycelial growth and frutification
kera, 1999). For a successful mushroom culti-vation three factors viz-reliable spawns, good substrate and conducive environment have to be satisfied. Moreover substrate preparation is known as the” heart of the process” thus a sub-strate that can provide adequate nutrients for the mycelial growth and fruitification plays a key role in determining the success of the culti-vation. Our efforts were focused to minimize the production costs and to improve the pro-duction efficiency. In Sri Lanka sawdust is used as the main ingredient amended with rice bran and a protein supplement as the growth substrate for the cultivation of oyster mush-rooms and Soya and green gram powder are the frequently included protein supplementa-tions in substrate preparation. However the cost of production can be minimized with the sub-stitution of cheaper nitrogen sources such as animal manure which can supply a substantial amount of major plant nutrients (Maraikar and Amarasiri, 1988), secondary n
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