Maintenance culture medium and inoculum based on peach palm leaves for Pleurotus spp. production

ABSTRACT: This study evaluated the use of immersion water from peach palm leaves (PPLDA) as a component of the culture medium for the maintenance of Pleurotus spp. and the use of agricultural waste, peach palm leaves, as inoculum support for the fungi. The performance of the inoculum based on peach palm leaves (PPL) for the production of Pleurotus spp. fruiting bodies was compared with that using wheat grains (WG) as inoculum support. PPLDA culture medium (immersion water of peach palm leaves, dextrose, and agar) showed a lower radial velocity of mycelial growth for both fungi than that obtained with the culture medium WDA (wheat extract, dextrose and agar), commonly used as maintenance medium for Pleurotus spp. However, the type of inoculum support does not significantly influence the linear velocity of P. ostreatus mycelial growth, reaching 6.71 mm/day on wheat grains and 6.18 mm/day on peach palm leaves. Thus, when the inoculum based on peach palm leaves is utilized, the immersion water used for preparing this support can be used for preparing the PPLDA maintenance culture medium, diminishing the production costs of Pleurotus mushrooms. Data also showed that when Pleurotus sajor-caju was cultivated on peach palm leaves, using PPL as inoculum support, the fruiting bodies production parameters (Y = 47%, BE = 3% and Pr = 0.2 g/day) did not differ from that obtained using WG