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EDIBLE MUSHROOM RESEARCH AT CELOS
The research of the cultivation of edible mushrooms suitable
for the climate of Suriname,
started long ago, but with the building of an indoor
cultivation chamber in 2002 the
experiments took a more serious turn.
The experiments were done with two edible mushrooms, which
are:
- Volvariëlla volvacea;
this is also called the straw mushroom, because it is
mainly cultivated at rice straw
- Pleurotus sajor-caju;
this also called oyster mushroom. There are many
pleurotus spp. that are called oyster mushroom.
The research at Celos contained:
- The making of pure
cultures on different kind of media
- The making of mother and
planting spawn
- The cultivation of
volvariëlla and pleurotus on different kinds of
agricultural waste,
outdoor and indoor
Fig. 1: Pure
cultures of Volvariëlla
volvacea and Pleurotus sajor-caju |
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Ad A. With “pure cultures” is meant the cultivation
of the fungi of the edible
mushroom on sterile Petri dishes or culture tubes,
which contains a solid media of
agar plus a starch source. This starch source can
exist of potato starch, malt or even
maize starch. At Celos experiments were done Potato
Dextrose Agar, Malt Extract
Agar and Saboraoud media. The results of these
experiments were a success. |
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Ad B. The pure cultures were
used to make mother spawn. This is made of cooked paddy
grains which were put in bottles and then sterilized. After
sterilization the grains were inoculated with the pure
cultures of the fungi. The fungi grew on to the grains and
after 2 – 3 weeks the grains were fully covered with the
fungi. The substrate of the planting spawn was made of
dried, chopped and sterilized agricultural waste or
by-products. This substrate was inoculated with the grains
of he mother spawn. After 2 – 3 weeks the substrate was
fully colonized by thefungi. The problems which sometimes
occurred during the preparation of mother and planting spawn
were that other heat resistant fungi grew on the grains or
the substrate. This caused contamination and these had to be
excluded for further research.
Fig. 2: Mother spawn
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Ad C.
The cultivation of Volvariella and Pleurotus were
done on agricultural waste which are abundant in
Suriname. These are rice straw, banana leaves, saw
shavings and saw dust, leaves of corn cobs, and
soybean hulls. These waste products were first
soaked and then pasteurized. |
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Fig3: Soaking
of the substrate
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The cultivation took place in the indoor chambers,
but also outdoor which means under the natural
climate conditions.
The investments for the indoor cultivation were
costly and laborious, but the yields were higher
than the outdoor cultivation.
Pleurotus sajor-caju is far more easily to cultivate
than Volvariëlla volvacea, because:
• it is not dainty about the substrate it grows on
• it fructifies even if there is a contaminant
• it has a broad temperature range |
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Fig 3
a: Steam pasteurization of soakedSubstrate |
Volvariëlla volvacea has a very short cycle in which
it fructifies, but the fungus is not strong. It does
not survive if there are contaminants; for outdoor
cultivation it is season bounded, because it only
fructifies at 28-32 ˚C and its best substrate on
which it grows seems to be rice straw in our
experiments. On banana leaves it also fructified and
gave larger mushrooms, but the amount was less than
on rice straw. |
Fig. 4:
Outdoor cultivation |
Nowadays we are still doing research at Celos with
these mushrooms and we welcome all those who have
experience in cultivating mushrooms
in the tropics, so that we can broaden our
knowledge.
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Fig. 4a: Indoor cultivation |
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Vacancies:
Scientist
Forestry
