Yield Of Edible Pleurotus Mushrooms Grown On Rice Straw With And Without Chicken Manure Supplementation In Morogoro, Tanzania

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to determine the performance of different species of edible Pleurotus mushrooms grown on rice straw substrate with and without chicken manure supplementation. The Pleurotus species /varieties tested were P. flabellatus of Tanzania, India and Thailand origin, and P. sajor caju from Tanzania. Rice straw with and without chicken manure were used as substrates. The results showed that the duration of time from spawning to pin formation and from pin formation to first harvest was not significantly different for both treatments (p=0.05). The yields of the Indian and Thai P. flabellatus varieties were significantly higher than yields of P. flabellatus and P. sajor caju from Tanzania (p=0.05). The yields of the substrate amended with manure and un-amended were not significantly different. These results suggest that yields of the studied varieties of Pleurotus mushrooms are not influenced by substrate amendments rather other factors like spawn quality. This implies that use of high quality spawn can be a good determinant of high yields. On the other hand local varieties had lower yields than exotic varieties under the same treatments showing that research and breeding to screen and select for good quality local edible varieties can adequately improve yields and utilization of local breeds/varieties.

Keywords: Pleurotus flabellatus - Pleuotus sajor caju – yield – amendmended, un-amended substrates

Tanzania Journal of Forestry and Nature Conservation Vol. 77 2008: pp. 46-53