The cultivation of pleurotus sajor caju (Grey Oyster Mushroom) on agroindustrial waste / Mohd Izuwan Omar @ Ali

Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) was found to be the most suitable medium to establish a pure culture growth of Pleurotus sajor caju Average growth rate of its colony on PDA plate was 1.19 cm/day. The next suitable medium for pure culture growth of this fungus was found to be Natural Potato Dextrose Agar (NPDA) followed by Malt Extract Agar (MEA). Average rate of growth of colony on NPDA and MEA were 1.17 cm/day and 1.16 cm/day respectively. Three types of grains namely wheat, barley and soybean were found suitable used for spawn preparation of Pleurotus sajor caju. All the grains were suitable for spawn preparation of Pleurotus sajor caju grown in 50 mL conical flasks. The average time taken for the mycelia to grow and fully cover the wheat, barley and soybean grains in the flasks during spawning are 11.3, 14.0 and 21.3 days respectively. Thus, the most preferred grain for spawn preparation of Pleurotus sajor caju was wheat The basic substrates used for Pleurotus sajor caju cultivation were sawdust, cotton waste and palm oil waste fibre. Each bag of substrate used in the cultivation of this mushroom was prepared using 250 g of dry substrate material subsequently moistened with water. All the substrates were found to be suitable for the cultivation of Pleurotus sajor caju. The maximum total wet weight of the mushroom grown on sawdust harvested after three flushes was found to yield 303 g wet weight of the mushroom, with each flush yielding an average of about 101 g wet weight of mushroom per bag of substrate.