Effects of Electrical Shock and Blue LED Treatments on the Growth, Yield and Quality of Grey Oyster Mushrooms (Pleurotus sajor-caju)

Abstract

Grey oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus sajor-caju) is an edible mushroom cultivated in Malaysia mainly due to its high nutritional and medicinal value. The demand of Pleurotus sajor-caju in local and foreign market rises continuously. In this study, the effect of electrical shock treatment and exposure to blue color LED on the growth, yield and quality of Pleurotus sajor-caju was investigated. There were 6 sets of electrical shock and blue LED treatments applied during spawning and production phase. Mushroom bags which did not receive any treatment were served as Control. The effect of electrical shock and blue LED treatments were observed in the aspects of mycelium growth rate, number of days taken for mycelium to fill-up the bag, pinhead emergence and fruiting body formation. There were significant enhancement in the yield for grey oyster mushroom for the bag treated with Electric and Blue LED, in the total fresh weight of fruiting bodies, number of fruiting bodies, percentages of biological efficiency and substrate utilized for every 100 g mushrooms produced. Therefore, the mushroom bags which were treated with electrical shock and blue LED is the best compared to the other treatments due to significant higher rate of mycelium growth, relatively higher yield and good quality of mushroom.