Oyster mushroom

 

Oyster mushroom commonly called as Dhingri Mushroom is popular for its diverse ability to grow under a wide range of temperatures (20-35°C) and on various agricultural waste materials such as unfermented paddy straw, corn cobs, cotton waste, sugarcane bagasse, leaves, rice hulls and water hyacinths.

The advantages of growing this mushroom over other mushrooms are:
* Easy cultivation
* Short duration
* Less investment
* Grows well under normal room conditions
* Grows on wide range of agricultural wastes
* Less prone to diseases
* Most suitable for rural areas and can create self employment.

Cultivation
Oyster mushroom can be successfully grown on paddy straw, as it is available in abundance. The methodology adopted is as follows :
* Take fresh dry paddy straw, chop it into small pieces of 2-3 inches and rinse it in clean water for about 8-10. hours
* After soaking, drain out water completely and boil the paddy straw in a wide mouth container for about 30 minutes to kill harmful microbes. Drain out the water completely and spread the boiled straw on a clean wire mesh to remove excess water.
* Take polythene bag of 21″ x 18″ or 14n x 24″ size and make few holes at the bottom Fill up the prepared paddy straw to about 4″’ thick inside the polythene bag and press it slightly.
* Then spread half handful of spawn seeds uniformly all along the periphery of the filled paddy straw in the bag Repeat this procedure of filling the bag for 4 to 5 times with sterilised paddy straw and running the spawn. At this stage one can see the spawn seeds on the periphery of the bag. Straw filling should be moderate, not too loose or tight.
* One polythene bag of size 12″ x I8” can accommodate about 2.5 kg. of sterilized straw.
* One bottle of spawn seeds is sufficient to raise 2 polythene bags containing paddy straw of 2.5 kg. each.

* Once bag fitting and spawning is over, the bag must be tied and a label is fixed indicating the date. The bags are later shifted to spawn running room (semi dark clean room) where temperature of 250 ± 2°C is maintained. The bags are kept here for 18-20 days, during this lime the spawn seeds would start growing and appear as a white cottony growth inside the polythene bag.
* After 20 days of incubation, cue open and remove the polythene bag. At this stage one can see white cottony growth on the bundle of paddy straw. Keep die bundle in a cool clean and ventilated room, and spray cold water 2-3 times during the day time depending on the climatic conditions.
* Neddle shaped pin heads start appearing all round the paddy straw within 2-3 days of removing the polythene bag In another 2-3 days, these pin heads develop into regular size mushrooms When these mushrooms attain a size of 6-8 cm, they can be harvested. Harvesting can be done by twisting of the stub slightly at the base.
* Two to three harvests at an Interval of 6-7 days can be obtained from one crop and a total yield of 800-1200g can be harvested per bag in 2-3 harvests.
Preservation
Drying is the most common method For preservation of the oyster mushrooms. Mushrooms meant for drying have to be
harvested at fully matured stage with full stalk. After washing, they have to be blanched for 3-5 minutes in steam or boiling water. Blanching in sulphite (300 ppm S02) and chlorine (400 ppm Cl2) solutions may be done for better colour and lesser bacterial count.
Drying can be done under sun or in a drier. However, before packing, the sun dried product should be oven dried at 55-60DC for 6 hours. Cabinet dryers available in the market for drying fruits and vegetables could be used for drying mushrooms.
Note
1. It is advisable to treat the cropping room with 2% formalin solution as a disinfectant before placing the filled bag in the cropping room.
2. Cleanliness is one of the most important factor in getting good mushroom crop.