Sterilization and Substrate Level Optimization for Improving Yield and Biological Efficiency of Paddy Straw Mushroom

A study was conducted to determine the impact of surface sterilization techniques and different quantity of bed substrate on yield and biological efficiency in paddy straw mushroom cultivation. Among the various combinations of sterilization methods i.e., Plain water, Plain water + Calcium oxide @ 2%, Plain water + Bavistin 75 ppm & Formalin 500 ppm and steam sterilization 55 for ½ hour respectively tried on paddy straw substrate, Maximum yield and biological efficiency (1966 g & 15.2%) was obtained. To evaluate the biological efficiency of different layers and quantity of straw in bed method of cultivation i.e., 5 layers (4.0 kg), 4 layers (3.2 kg), 3 layers (2.4 kg) and 2 layers (1.6 kg) were tested. on biological efficiency four layers bed proved its superiority among all the number of substrate layers experimented, and gave highest biological efficiency (17.6%) followed by three layers and five layers (15.2%) and (14.5%) respectively. Two layers of bed (1.6 kg) were found to be less suitable and gave 13.8% biological efficiency of paddy straw. Maximum average weight of sporophores (24.21 g) was observed from four layers of beds followed by three layers and five layers (20.88 g) and (19.98 g) respectively. Smaller size sporophores were noticed in two layers of beds (14.18 g).