Cultivation Of Mushroom Using Corn Cob, Sawdust And The Mixture Of Both Substrates

Introduction

Mushrooms are one kind of edible fungi belonging to class Basidiomycetes. Mushroom are edible having excellent flavour and taste. Most species of mushroom are popular and widely cultivated throughout the world owing to their simple and low cost production technology and higher biological efficiency(Mane,2007).Cultivation of mushroom has increased tremendously throughout the world because of their abilities to grow at a wide range of temperature and harvested throughout the year [Amin,2007].Mushroom cultivation techniques which use methods such as submerged culture to obtain mycelium have been described during the last 15 to 20 years while solid culture is used to obtain fruiting body or basidiocarp on several types of substrate and by monitoring important growth parameters including temperature, relative humidity and pH (Gurung et al., 2012; Erkel, 2009). The organic materials which can be digested by mushroom mycelia and support growth, development and fruiting of mushrooms are called substrate (Kadhila-Muandingi and Mubiana, 2013). Hence, without good substrates, satisfactory yields of mushrooms will not be obtained. According to Erkel (2009) most medicinal mushrooms of the basic substrate is hardwood sawdust (75 to 80%) from deciduous trees like maple and elm, supplemented with wheat bran, although rice bran, rice husks, coconut fiber, peanut hulls, corn, sorghum, sawdust, sugarcane bagasse and rice bran, ground corn and ground sorghum were found to be good supplements for substrate

The terms mushroom and toadstool go back centuries and were never precisely defined, nor was there consensus on application. The term “toadstool” was often, but not exclusively, applied to poisonous mushrooms or to those that have the classic umbrella-like cap-and-stem form. Between 1400 and 1600 AD, the terms tadstoles, frogstooles, frogge stoles, tadstooles, tode stoles, toodys hatte, paddockstool, puddockstool, paddocstol, toadstoole, and paddockstooles sometimes were used synonymously with mushrom, mushrum, muscheron, mousheroms, mussheron, or musserouns (Ramsbottom.,1954).

The word has apparent analogies in Dutch padde(n)stoel (toad-stool/chair, mushroom) and German Krötenschwamm (toad-fungus, alt. word for panther cap). In German folklore and old fairy tales, toads are often depicted sitting on toadstool mushrooms and catching, with their tongues, the flies that are said to be drawn to the Fliegenpilz, a German name for the toadstool, meaning “flies’ mushroom”. This is how the mushroom got another of its names, Krötenstuhl (a less-used German name for the mushroom), literally translating to “toad-stool”(David.,2008).

The term “mushroom” and its variations may have been derived from the French word mousseron in reference to moss (mousse). The toadstool’s connection to toads may be direct, in reference to some species of poisonous toad, or may just be a case of phonosemantic matching from the German word. However, delineation between edible and poisonous fungi is not clear-cut, so a “mushroom” may be edible, poisonous, or unpalatable. The term “toadstool” is nowadays used in storytelling when referring to poisonous or suspect mushrooms. The classic example of a toadstool is Amanitamuscaria.

According to David.,(2008) and Leschyn & Wade.,( 2012]. They described “fungus-hunter” as being contemptible and detailed the larger demographic’s attitude toward mushrooms as abnormal, worthless, or inexplicable Fungophobia spread to the United States and Australia, where it was inherited from England. The underlying cause of a cultural fungaphobia may also be related to the exaggerated importance placed on the few deadly and poisonous mushrooms found in the region of that culture (Hunter & Jessica.,2012). In these regions, mushrooms were also sometimes regarded as magic or satanic, their fruiting bodies appearing quickly overnight from underground. Most of the mushroom has being serving as source of food and medicine for years and this has led to the need of cultivation them in other to meet this need. Due to this reason the study will be examining the cultivation of mushroom on different substrates such as on corn cob, saw dust and the mixture of the two substrates.

This study is significant in that it will provide basic information on the types of substrate which are used in the cultivation of mushroom and the same time highlight the best substrate used in the cultivation of mushroom. It will also provide various techniques used in cultivating mushroom and the morphological, physiological, nutritional values and various uses of mushroom. This study is also significant since it will serve as a source of information for other fellow researcher who would want to research into the same topics add to the exist knowledge. The study will not only add to the exist knowledge but will also provide various reasons which makes mushroom a good source of food to be consumed by people(Hunter & Jessica.,2012).

The aim of this study is to find the most suitable substrate effective for the cultivation of mushroom. Other objectives are to ascertain the techniques employed in growing mushroom on suitable medium used for mushroom cultivation and to ascertain the morphology, physiology, environmental condition, nutritional values and uses of mushroom.