Impact of Substrate Types and Nutritional Supplements on Oyster Mushroom (Pleurotus sp.) Growth and Yield Optimization

Oyster mushrooms belong to the species Pleurotus, which naturally occur in temperate or tropical forests on dead and decaying wood logs, or occasionally on the outer bark of living trees. The fruit bodies of these mushrooms have a distinct shell-like or oyster-shaped appearance, and their color varies depending on the species, ranging from white, cream, grey, yellow, pink to light brown. Wheat straw is commonly used as a substrate for cultivating these mushrooms. The process requires softening the wheat straw and eliminating competitive microorganisms to allow the spawn to effectively colonize the substrate, which is essential for achieving optimal growth of the mushroom's fruiting bodies. Several methods have been employed by different researchers, and various treatments of wheat straw, adjusted to suit environmental conditions, have been tested, with their results reported here.  A trial was conducted to study the relative efficacy of different substrates viz, wheat straw (Triticum aestivum l.), paddy straw (Oryza sativa l.), corn stalk (Zea mays l.) and Typha leaves (Typha angustifolia) and different supplements similar as wheat bran, rice bran, neem cake and fenugreek bran on growth behaviour and yield potentiality of oyster mushroom (pleurotus eryngii). In these studies, advanced mushroom yield with biological efficiency (BE) of 85.6 percent was obtained from wheat straw followed by paddy straw 63 percent biological efficiency. Wheat straw was utilized as a substrate to observe the effects of various supplements. Wheat bran was recorded significantly superior supplement than other supplements and its biological efficiency was 95 per cent. In the wheat bran supplemented substrate, spawn running, primordia initiation, and harvesting of the first flush occurred earlier, completing in 14, 17, and 21 days respectively.