Growth, Infestation and Yield of Oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus (Jacq.) P Kumm on Local Substrates in the Cropping House in Kumba Municipality South West Region, Cameroon

Abstract

The farming of oyster mushroom is reported as an economically viable biotechnology process for conversion of different organic wastes. Due to insufficient knowledge on the use of different local substrate and combination for production of oyster mushroom, the main aim of this work is to contribute to knowledge on the effect of different substrate medium, on growth, infestation and yield of the oyster mushroom. This work was carried out at HTTTC Kumba, South West region of Cameroon. The species of mushroom used was the white oyster mushroom and was spawned on easily available substrates. The treatment combinations were: (Control (T0): corn husk, Treatment 1(T1):pig dung, Treatment 2(T2):cocoa pod husk, Treatment 3(T3):75% corn husk+25% cocoa pod husk, Treatment 4(T4):50% corn husk+50% cocoa pod husk, Treatment 5(T5):25% corn husk+75% cocoa pod husk, Treatment 6(T6):75% pig dung+25% corn husk ,Treatment 7(T7):50% pig dung+50% corn husk ,Treatment 8(T8):25% pig dung+75% corn husk ,Treatment 9(T9):10g corn husk+6g NPK Treatment 10(T10):10g corn husk+4g NPK and Treatment 11(T11):10g corn husk+2g NPK each of 1.5kg and replicated for 3 times. The experimental design used was Completely Randomized Design (CRD).All analyses were done at α = 0.05 using Minitab version 17 statistical package. Results illustrated that the control T0 (corn husk) was noticed with the shortest spawn run of 20 days and was closely followed by T9(10gcorn husk+6g NPK) resulted with the shortest spawn run period 21 days. The  shortest duration for pin head appearance wd(28 days), highest average number of fruiting bodies(34.67), highest diameter of fruiting bodies (9.32cm), average diameter of pileus (6.54cm), average width of stalk  (2.6cm), average length of stalk(2.9cm), highest total length of mushroom(6.93cm), lowest number of fungi affected by diseases (green mould, brown blotch and die back), the highest number of fresh (35.4g/day) and dry mass yield(11.3g/day). In term of the best organic substrate the best substrate combination was T4 (50% cocoa pod husk+50% corn husk).