Q.Match the following about mushroom cultivation.

Matching mushroom-cultivation parameters: straw size 2-4 inch, block spacing 20 cm, harvest cap size 10-12 cm, relative humidity 75-85%.

Successful mushroom (oyster/milky mushroom) cultivation depends on controlling several practical parameters at each stage. The paddy-straw substrate is chopped into pieces of about 2-4 inches so that it packs into the growing bags with enough surface area for the spawn (mycelium) to colonise quickly and uniformly, without collapsing into an airless, waterlogged mass. Once the spawned bags/blocks are placed in the cropping room -- on racks or hung from ropes -- they are kept roughly 20 cm apart from one another; this spacing allows adequate air circulation around each block, prevents the fruiting bodies of adjacent blocks from crowding or damaging each other as they emerge, and reduces the local build-up of humidity and carbon dioxide that favours contaminants. The cropping room itself is maintained at a relative humidity of about 75-85%, since the substrate and developing pinheads/fruiting bodies need consistently moist air to grow, while excess humidity encourages bacterial and mould contamination. Finally, mushrooms ar …

(a) Agaricus bisporus — the common white button mushroom, the most widely cultivated edible mushroom worldwide.

Agaricus bisporus is the white button mushroom.

Among the options, Agaricus bisporus is the temperate, white-capped mushroom grown extensively on composted substrate as 'button mushroom' — the most commonly cultivated edible mushroom in the world. Pleurotus florida is the oyster mushroom (fan-shaped, greyish), Volvariella …

Amanita phalloides (the death cap mushroom) is an example of a highly poisonous, non-edible mushroom.

Amanita phalloides is a well-known toxic mushroom that must not be consumed.

While many mushrooms such as Agaricus (button mushroom) and Pleurotus (oyster mushroom) are edible and cultivated for food, some fungi belonging to the genus Amanita, such as Amanita phalloides (death cap) and Amanita muscaria (fly agaric), are highly poisonous. These mushrooms contain potent toxins (such as amatoxins) that can cause severe liver and kidney damage o …