Open field cultivation of oyster mushroom in bamboo plantations

Abstract

Two species of oyster mushrooms were collected during surveys. One pink oyster (Pleurotus eous) from Anaikatti areas of Coimbatore district and another white oyster (Pleurotus platypus) mushroom was collected from a bamboo plantation of Sathyamangalam area of Erode district. Both these strains were tested along with commercially available oyster mushroom species viz., P. sajor-caju, Pleurotus florida, P. platypus and Pleurotus djamor-roseus (A new species under test) at Department of Plant Pathology,TNAU, Coimbatore as well as in the open field cultivation in the bamboo plantations. The results showed that new strains of mushroom collected from bamboo plantations were found to grow faster as compared to other commercially available mushroom species in the thatched houses. The performance of the both the strains, P. eous and P. platypus were found to be better in bamboo leaves than in paddy straw and also found to perform better than other species. Under open field conditions P. florida was found to record maximum yield of 504 g, followed by P. djamor-roseus (495) and P. eous (462 g) and P. platypus (439 g) at Sathyamangalam centre.