Abstract
The study was designed to determine the effect of oyster mushroom strains on growth performance: Implication for commercial mushroom enterprise in Nigeria. The study was done at the Teaching and Research Farm of the Department of Agricultural Education, Federal College of Education (Technical) Omoku, Rivers State. The experimental design adopted was Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with two (2) treatments (oyster and oyster king) mushroom strains each replicated three (3) times and the duration of the experiment was 150 days. The substrate used was saw dust blocks in a building (indoor cultivation method), the saw dust was treated with heat before storing in thirty (30) cm long and seven (7) cm diameter polythene bags. The spawn preparation was done for two strains in a dark room and stored in air tight bottles for cultivation. Measurements were taken on rate of colonization, rate of sprouting, rate of fruiting and fresh harvested mushroom weight yield. Data were analysized using mean and hypotheses were tested using t-test analysis. It was observed that the two strains of Pleurotus differ in rate of colonization, oyster strain took less than 21days to completely colonize the block, and rate of sprouting was 100% at 90 days and rate of fruiting was 92% at the end of the experiment. The results showed that there was significant difference in the rate of colonization, sprouting rate, rate of fruiting and fresh harvested mushroom weight yield (p=0.05). It was concluded that with saw dust block as substrate oyster strain performs better than oyster king. It was recommended that oyster strain should be used for commercial mushroom production in Nigeria.
Keywords: oyster, mushroom, enterprise, colonization, fruiting
Publication Date: 2023-12-09