Mushrooms are widely known for their great taste and amazing health benefits. Packed with a ton of essential vitamins and minerals, they make for an excellent addition to your diet, adding flavor to many different recipes.
OYSTER MUSHROOM
Oyster mushroom commonly called Dingri Mushroom , is popular for its diverse ability to grow under a wide range of temperature (20 -30 degree celsius) and on various agricultural wate such unfermented paddy straw , corn , , cobs , cotton waste , sugarcane bagasse, leaves , rice hulls and water hyacinths .
Important commercial varieties ans strains of oyster mushroom suitable for growing in India are Pieurotus florida (white). Hyperizygus ulmarius (Hu-blue), Arka OM -1(Pink) and etc.
THE ADVANTAGES OF GROWING THIS MUSHROOM OVER OTHER MUSHROOM
*Easy Cultivation
*Short duration
*Less investment
*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 6 hours.
- After soaking , drain out water completely and boil the paddy straw in a wide mouth container for about 1 hour to kill harmfulmicrobes. Drain out the water completely and spread the boiled straw on a clean wire mesh to remove excess water .
- Take polythene bag of 12×18 or 14×24 size and make few holes at the bottom .Fill the prepared paddy straw to about 4 thick inside the polythene bag ,press it slightly .
- Spread half the handful of spawn / seeds uniformly all along the periphery of the filled paddy stew in the bag.
- Repeat this procedure of filling the bag for 4 to 5 times with sterilized 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 12×18 can accommodate about 2 kg of sterilized straw.
- One packed of spawn/seeds is sufficient to raise2 polytheneb bags containing paddy straw of about 2kg each .
- Once bag filling and spawning is over ,the bag must be tied and label is fixed indicating the date .The bags are latern shifted to spawn running room where temperature 25 ± 2 C is maintained . The bags are kept here for 18-20 days , during this time the spawn/seeds would start growing and appear as a white cottony growth inside the polythene bag.
- After 20 days of incubation ,cut open and remove the polythene bag / partial opening of the bag by making slits / holes . At this stage one can see white cottony grown on the bundle of paddy straw. Keep the bundle in a cool ,clean and ventilated room, and spray cold water 2-3 times during the day time depending on the climatic condition .
- Needle shaped pin heads start appearing allaround the Paddy straw within 2-3 days of removing the polythene bag . In another 2-3 days ,these pin heads develop into regular size mushroom . When these mushroom attain a size of 6-8 cm , theycan be harvested . Harvesting can be done by twisting of the stub slightly at the base .
- Two to three harvestings at an interval of 6-7 days can be obtained from one crop and a total yield of 500 – 600 g can be harvested per bag in 2-3 harvests .
PRESERVATION:
- Drying is the most common method of preservation for the oyster Mushroom 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 stream or boiling water for better color 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 55-600 C for 6 hours .
- Cabinet dryers available in the market for drying fruits and vegetable could be used for drying mushrooms .