Studies on the production of mushrooms by the edible fungus, Pleurotus ostreatus: A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the subject plant pathology in the degree of Bachelor of Agricultural Science

Many fungi are edible and several different genera and species are considered delicacies in various parts of the world. People sometimes have difficulty in distinguishing between edible and poisonous varieties that are growing wild but mushrooms from a commercial establishment are quite safe and an extremely valuable nutritive food. After the second world war, there were problems of steadily decreasing supplies of horse manure that had previously been used in the cultivation of the common meadow mushroom (Block et al., 1962). Therefore there was a need to find alternative substrates to cultivate the mushrooms economically. Woody tissue is readily available in such forms as wood, sawdust, bark, bagasse, rice hulls and straw. Wood is probably the most plentiful source of carbohydrate in the world. It contains about 50% cellulose, 20% hemicellulose and 25% lignin, the rest being resin, turpentine, tannin and ash. The latter hinders rotting 2nd does not occur in straw and most other vegetable, waste used in synthetic composts. Sawdust has the advantage over other compost materials in not requiring grinding , being uniform, easy to mix and handle, (Block et al, 1962; Rempe , 1953). Among the species of wild, wood-rotting mushrooms, Pleurotus ostreatus was found to grow more vigorously and produce fruiting bodies more readily than other species. This sawdust inhabiting fungus may help to prevent the dearth of cultivated edible mushrooms. The aim of this project was to examine the effect of added nutrients on the growth of mycelium and the development of sporophores by the edible fungus, Pleurotus ostreatus on sawdust medium