CULTIVATION OF MUSHROOM USING CORN COB, SAWDUST AND THE MIXTURE OF BOTH SUBSTRATES

CULTIVATION OF MUSHROOM USING CORN COB, SAWDUST AND THE MIXTURE OF BOTH SUBSTRATES

ABSTRACT

Mushrooms are edible fungi belonging to class Basidiomycetes.  Most species of mushroom are popular and widely cultivated throughout the world owing to their simple and low cost production technology and higher biological efficiency. This study on cultivation of mushroom using different substrates adopted a culture method in which the mushroom was cultured on sawdust, corn cob and the mixture of both substrates. The parameter measured were subjected to one way analysis of variance and the experimental result was found to be significant at P<0.05% level of significance. Result gotten showed that all the substrates used supports the growth of Ganodermalucidum(mushroom), but sawdust  was found to perform better in supporting the growth  of the fungi. Hence, it is concluded from the study that mushroom grows better in sawdust and it’s a good substrate for the cultivation of mushroom especiallyGanodermalucidum. It is recommended in this study that sawdust substrate should be used for the cultivation of mushroom in order to obtain adequate growth especially forGanodermalucidum.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Mushrooms are one kind of edible fungi belonging to class Basidiomycetes. Mushroom are edible having excellent flavour and taste. Most species of mushroom are popular and widely cultivated throughout the world owing to their simple and low cost production technology and higher biological efficiency(Mane,2007).Cultivation of mushroom has increased tremendously throughout the world because of their abilities to grow at a wide range of temperature and harvested throughout the year [Amin,2007].Mushroom cultivation techniques which use methods such as submerged culture to obtain mycelium have been described during the last 15 to 20 years while solid culture is used to obtain fruiting body or basidiocarp on several types of substrate and by monitoring important growth parameters including temperature, relative humidity and pH (Gurung et al., 2012; Erkel, 2009). The organic materials which can be digested by mushroom mycelia and support growth, development and fruiting of mushrooms are