Physical, Chemical and Biological Properties of Casing Soil Used for Milky Mushroom (Calocybe indica P&C) Production

Abstract

Experiments were conducted to find out the effect of different casing soils viz., peat, clay loam soil, sandy soil, biogas slurry, FYM, cocopeat on the yield and yield attributing parameters of milky mushroom (Calocybe indica var.APK2). Among the different casing media, clay loam soil has given the maximum yield (390 g / bed containing 250 g of paddy straw substrate on dry weight basis recording 156% bio-efficiency) and more number of buttons (8.1 /bed) than other casing media. Analysis of physical, chemical and biological properties of clay loam soil revealed that it contained high pH 8.40. Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) was high in clay loam (28.20 milliequivalents / 100 g of soil). Bulk density and particle density were comparatively higher in sand (1.67 g/cc) and clay loam soils (1.33 g/cc). The maximum pore space was recorded in clay loam soil (55.01 per cent) followed by peat (39.57 per cent) and sand (20.46 per cent). The WHC revelaed high per cent in peat soil (46.27) followed by clay loam soil (39.04). Hence, peat and clay loam soils required less water to maintain surface moisture and a delay in spraying did not lead to the total drying of bed surface. In addition, the population of Pseudomonas spp were found to be high in clay loam soil (34.0 cfu/ g of soil).