Optimizing Brown Oyster Mushroom Yield with Various Liming Materials
Mushroom industry is still burgeoning in the Philippines and has high demand both in local and world markets. However, there are yet to be studied on the matter of cultivation substrates which production is at stake. To cultivate mushrooms, the raw materials mainly are agricultural by-products which, at times are unavailable in certain areas particularly the liming material needed. Different by-products were evaluated as potential alternative liming material for brown oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) cultivation in fruiting bags. The Complete Random Design (CRD) was used to lay out the experiment with five treatments (T1–no liming material, T2 – with filter cake), T3 – with rice hull ash), T4 – with agricultural lime), and T5 – with wood ash). These potential liming materials assessed on their influence on mycelia growth, yield, number of stipes (stem), and pileus (cap) diameter. The research revealed significant differences in mycelia growth, pileus (cap) diameter and yield and found no significance on the number of stipes (stem). Significant difference was observed in mycelia growth from Treatment 2 when compared to T1, T3, T4, and T5 respectively. The treatment using agricultural lime (T4) yield was found highly significant to T3, T2, T5 and T1 with a mean yield of 1,307.00 g, 1,291.00 g, 1,037.10 g and 770.04 g respectively. Moreover, T3, T2, T5 are not par with each other. Analysis of variance on pileus (cap) diameter showed significant differences among Treatment means where T4 is significantly different with T2, T3, and T5 but showed no significance on T3, T4, and T5. For the number of stipes (stem), the experiment revealed no significance among treatment means. Of and among the treatments, the treatment using agricultural lime still performs best as the package of technology on oyster mushroom cultivation standardized it so. Nevertheless, this research output claims the utilization of the liming material alternatives especially when the agricultural lime is unavailable.
Earthy, tasty and healthy mushrooms have been eating for thousands of years and have driven vitamin rich mushrooms and topped to different menus. With the advent of the Organic Agriculture Act also known as RA 10068, mushroom, a genuinely grown free from fertilizer and pesticides, Filipino has learned to cultivate over the years. Mushroom industry is still burgeoning in the Philippines and has high demand in both domestic and world market.
The Brown oyster mushroom (Pleurotus cystidiosus) is just one of the about 1,400 mushroom species that is being introduced in the Philippines to culture. Recently, production is site specific, which growers are to look into alternatives such as fruiting bag or log substrates, grain substrates, as well as liming materials or agents. One such problematic in availability is the liming material because it is being used in building construction, various processing planta, and more on several agricultural activities like fish growing in ponds, applying agricultural to acidic soils, and the like. It is vital to learn the alternatives such that wherever part of the country, availability of materials would not be a hindrance among Filipinos to grow mushrooms.
To produce abundant mushroom, according to Khan et al. (2013) as cited by Martinez et al. (2019), potential Hydrogen (pH) is a pertinent factor for CaCO3 is an important constituent in mushroom cultivation. There are several possible liming agents to be used in various mushroom species grown in fruiting bags namely, filter cake, wood ash, and rice hull ash. Nevertheless, agricultural lime is still being used.
Filter cake is one of the wastes from the sugar industry after processes like extraction, clarification and filtration. One of the sugar plants in the Philippines is located in Piat, Cagayan. Filter cake is therefore abundant and of free to collect. Wood ash is also readily available among households because Filipinos are fond of using wood to cook food; just make sure that plastic wastes are not being burned together with the wood. Rice hull ashes (RHA) are combusted rice hulls. Cagayan is known as a producer of rice, so rice hulls are available everywhere.
This study aims to determine liming material/s that will provide the fastest mycelia growth. This indicator manifests the ability of the potential hydrogen to put the oyster mushroom substrates in neutral condition thereby allowing mycelia growth to ramify and proliferate persistently. It also aims to determine good oyster mushroom yield which results would emanate from the inputs in the cultivation.
The results of this study will be utilized by several mushroom growers in various communities which will provide information on the alternative liming agents to be used for neutralization of sawdust substrates for oyster mushroom production. It will also contribute to the existing literature on the management of growing oyster mushroom.
Source : Yield performance of Brown Oyster Mushroom (Pleurotus cystidiosus) using different liming materials
