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ABSTRACT Oyster mushrooms are fleshy edible fungi which have acquired huge importance due to their nutritional and medicinal properties. These mushrooms are cultivated upon various substrates which directly affect their yield and biological efficiency. So the present experiment was designed to study different weeds, agricultural wastes and their mixtures for understanding their efficacy in enhancing yield and biological efficiency of oyster mushrooms. The yield of mushrooms was calculated up to three flushes while biological efficiency was recorded upon dry weight basis. Our results illustrated that cotton waste showed better performance as substrate as it yielded maximum oyster mushrooms in all the three flushes followed by Chenopodium album and mixture of cotton waste + Chenopodium album. These substrates also provided better results regarding Biological efficiency of the mushrooms by recording 92.90%, 83.34% and 75.77%, respectively.
Hence, we conclude that Chenopodium album alone or mixture of particular weed and cotton waste can be utilized for efficient cultivation of mushrooms.
Key words: Agricultural waste, biological efficiency, oyster mushroom, substrates, weeds, yield.
INTRODUCTION Mushrooms are edible and fleshy fungi which are cultivated upon organic substrates (Ashraf et al., 2013). Due to their medicinal and nutritive properties, these have acquired a very important place in human food chain (Etich et al., 2013). There importance is continuously increasing day by day as they acquire valuable vitamins, proteins and minerals. All the edible mushrooms exhibit vitamin A, B1, B5, B6, C and D (Manzi et al., 2001; Syed et al., 2009). Stanley (2011) has reported that Pleurotus oestreatus (Oyster Mushroom) embeds 2-5% fats, 7-38%, 8-12% minerals, mycocellulose, 17-47% sugars and 25-50% proteins.
Various agricultural substrates such as paddy straw, vegetable residues, maize stalks and cotton waste are utilized for cultivation of Oyster mushroom (Hassan et al., 2011). The growth of the mushroom is considered to be dependent upon the performance of the substrates (Iqbal et al., 2005; Kimenju et al., 2009). But the substrates which have high levels of nitrogen and carbohydrate contents are categorized as ideal for mushroom growth (Khare et al., 2010). In developing countries recycling and management of the organic wastes has become a challenge but these can be efficiently utilized in cultivation of oyster mushroom which will ultimately reduce the malnutrition problems in these countries and will also...