Production of stalk spawn of an edible mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) in liquid culture as a suitable substitute for stick spawn in mushroom cultivation

Abstract

Abstract Cultivation of mushrooms is an important and promising agribusiness with multifarious benefits for human, which has received increasing attention in the last several decades. Stick spawn has been emerging as a new type of mushroom cultivation inoculum with remarkable characteristics such as ease of inoculation and fast colonization, but its production requires large amount of wood from trees. In the present study, an abundant agricultural residue, corn stalk, was made into stick-shaped chips (12 cm length × 1 cm width × 2 mm thickness), and used for adsorption and growth of Pleurotus ostreatus in a liquid media. The mycelium-adsorbed chips were examined as stalk spawn in a fruiting test. Results indicated that the mycelium of P. ostreatus abundantly attached on the rough surface of stalk chips (tied in a clustered form) in the liquid culture. While using the mycelium-adsorbed chips as stalk spawn in bag cultivation, the spawn running was as short as 12.22 days, which is comparable to that of the stick spawn (11.79 days). The biological efficiency achieved was 69.47%, which was higher than that of stick spawn (67.29%). Furthermore, the main production parameters of the stalk spawn remained almost unchanged even after a 6-month storage period. The stalk spawn thus developed can be utilized as a low-cost substitute for stick spawn in mushroom cultivation, and holds great promise for industrial applications. The present study is the first report on the production and utilization of stalk spawn in mushroom cultivation.