Effect of local substrates on the growth and yield of Pleurotus ostreatus K. in the North West Region, Cameroon

Abstract

Food security to the ever growing world population is a major challenge of the 21 st century. Scientists all over the world are seriously exploring ways and means to bring more food on the table. Cultivation of highly nutritional and medicinal mushrooms on local substrates is one of such effort. In an attempt to bring in our own contribution, locally available substrates for the cultivation of Pleurotus ostreatus was investigated at the Mbeng-Adio mushroom cultivation center Banjah Bamenda, Cameroon from March to September 2015. Pleurotus ostreatus was cultivated on different supplemented substrates such as Corn cobs on corn flour T1, Corn cobs on rice bran T2, Iroko on corn flour T3, Iroko on rice bran T4, Eucalyptus on corn flour T5 and Eucalyptus on rice bran T6; supplemented with 1% CaCO3. The experiment was laid in a completely randomized design. The effects of various substrates on comparative growth and yield performance of oyster mushroom were then analyzed. The highest degree of colonization after inoculation (95%) and lowest time from primordia initiation to harvest (3.25days) were obtained in T6. The highest biological yield (0.47 kg/packet), economic yield (0.43 kg/packet) and 75% contamination were obtained with T1. Highest fresh weight (0.47 kg/packet), highest dry weight(0.09 kg/packet), highest average number of primordia/packet(226.3), highest average number of fruiting body/packet(43.25), the highest average weight of individual fruiting body(0.02 kg), highest mean thickness of stipe (12.08) and the highest average number of effective fruiting body/packet(26.25) were obtained in T5. Among many aspects, T5 was found as the best substrate with biological yield (0.47 kg/packet) and economic yield (0.43 kg/packet) followed by T1, T6, T4, and T3, with T2 rejected due to 100% contamination for the production of the oyster mushroom.