Mushroom Cultivation

Mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of edible fungi and rank among the most highly priced vegetable commodities, valued both for their nutrition and for their distinctive aroma and flavour — they are informally called the 'white vegetable'. Because protein-and-nutrient deficiency malnutrition remains a major health problem in developing countries, mushrooms, being protein-rich, are presented here as a food that can realistically become part of everyday diets, and mushroom cultivation itself as an activity with real scope to support local economies, since selling mushrooms in a local market is a genuine source of extra family income. The recommended cultivation steps are specific and practical: the straw used for composting should be ripe, golden-yellow, cut into 2-4 inch pieces and properly sterilised; the culture space must be kept clean, with ventilators and windows screened with fine wire mesh to keep out flies and birds; the space is sprayed with 0.1% Nuvan and 5% formalin two days before spawning; the spawn itself must be free of contamination, and growing bags are filled with 8 kg of wet straw each; temperature during spawn running should be kept between 20-30°C and relative humidity between 75-85%; watering must be careful — no dry …