Abstract
The “replacing wood by grass” project can partially resolve the conflict between mushroom production and balancing the ecosystem, while promoting agricultural economic sustainability. Pleurotus pulmonarius is an economically important edible and medicinal mushroom, which is traditionally produced using a substrate consisting of sawdust and cottonseed hulls, supplemented with wheat bran. A simplex lattice design was applied to systemically optimize the cultivation of P. pulmonarius using agro-residues as the main substrate to replace sawdust and cottonseed hulls. The effects of differing amounts of wheat straw, corn straw, and soybean straw on the variables of yield, mycelial growth rate, stipe length, pileus length, pileus width, and time to harvest were demonstrated. Results indicated that a mix of wheat straw, corn straw, and soybean straw may have significantly positive effects on each of these variables. The high yield comprehensive formula was then optimized to include 40.4% wheat straw, 20.3% corn straw, 18.3% soybean straw, combined with 20.0% wheat bran, and 1.0% light CaCO3 (C/N = 42.50). The biological efficiency was 15.2% greater than that of the control. Most encouraging was the indication that the high yield comprehensive formula may shorten the time to reach the reproductive stage by 6 days, compared with the control. Based on the results of this study, agro-residues may be used as a suitable substitution for sawdust and cottonseed hulls as the main cultivation substrates of P. pulmonarius. These results provide a theoretical basis for the “replacing wood by grass” project on edible mushroom cultivation.
Highlights
This study describes a comprehensive program to utilize herbaceous plants to grow edible and medicinal mushrooms, and produce fungi forage and fungi fertilizers with agricultural residues as substrates
Substrate preparation Various agro-residues, including wheat straw, rice straw, soybean straw, corn straw, corn cobs, peanut straw, rape straw, and supplements, including wheat bran and light CaCO3, for the cultivation of P. pulmonarius were purchased from the mushroom base of Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun, China
As seen in the regression model, the equation coefficients were K (X3) = 42.84 > K (X2) = 34.94 > K (X1) = 32.83. These results indicated that soybean straw had the greatest degree of contribution to the stipe length of P. pulmonarius
Summary
This study describes a comprehensive program to utilize herbaceous plants (mainly grasses) to grow edible and medicinal mushrooms, and produce fungi forage and fungi fertilizers with agricultural residues as substrates. Wu et al AMB Expr (2019) 9:184 of its highly desirable taste qualities and unique aroma (Oliveira et al 2002; Zhang et al 2013). It contains a large range of proteins, polysaccharides, essential amino acids, a high potassium to sodium ratio, and multivitamins, including niacin and riboflavin (Velázquez-Cedeño et al 2002; Stanley et al 2011). P. pulmonarius is widely marketable and sells well in southeast Asia, Japan, and several other countries It is more expensive than other mushrooms, such as Flammulina velutipes and P. ostreatus. Many studies have confirmed that P. pulmonarius has pharmacological properties, such as antioxidants, anti-cholinesterase, antitumor, antibacterial, immuno-modulating, anti-inflammatory, aids in resisting potential vascular complications, and may reduce blood sugar levels (Olufemi et al 2012; Smiderle et al 2012; Xu et al 2012; Wahab et al 2014; Ge 2015; Nguyen et al 2016; Ni 2016; Zhang et al 2016)
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