MUSHROOM CULTIVATION: Multiplying spawn on sorghum seeds

8. Transfer all prepared bottles to the sterilization chamber. Close chamber. Fire-up burner or stove to heat chamber. Make sure to release all air from the chamber before starting. Keep pressure in the chamber at 15 lb./sq.inch. or 121o Celsius for 30 minutes for small chambers and 45 minutes for medium chambers. Let bottles cool down.

9. Transfer bottles to a clean and cool place.

10. Bottles must be cleaned and well prepared. Prepare the well verified PDA bottles

11. Clean laminar flow chamber using alcohol.

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MUSHROOM CULTIVATION: Multiplying spawn on sorghum seeds

12. Transfer PDA, sorghum seed bottles, paper and rubber bands in laminar flow chamber. Light UV lamp for 10 15 minutes before starting. Place needle in alcohol. Turn off UV. Clean both hands with alcohol and insert hands into the chamber.

13. Using 2 fingers, take out needle, pass through fire as to burn alcohol, and disinfect needle. Make sure the needle turns red.

14. After the needle cooled down to normal state, use needle to cut small square (5mm x 5mm) of PDA with mycelium (white color).

15. Close bottle immediately. Remain near flame at all times.

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MUSHROOM CULTIVATION: Multiplying spawn on sorghum seeds

16. Using other hand flame around the mouth and shoulder of the sorghum seed bottle. Using other fingers, open spawn bottle near flame to avoid contamination.

17. Insert needle and inoculate sorghum seeds with PDA mycelium by placing small square piece in the middle of the bottle. Make sure the PDA mycelium does not touch anything before entering the sorghum seeds bottle. Note: The mouth of the bottle should be near the flame. The mouth should remain higher than the bottom part at all times. Do not touch mouth of bottle with piece of PDA.

18. Close bottle immediately.

19. Place square paper over cotton and tie with plastic neck or rubber band. .

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MUSHROOM CULTIVATION: Multiplying spawn on sorghum seeds

20. Label inoculated sorghum bottles writing: Date, Spawn no., ref., and inoculation time. Note: It takes about 10 15 days to get fullgrown sorghum grain mycelium, depending on the species.

21. Keep mature sorghum seeds in a cool place or in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator. Check for infection regularly.

22. Remove contaminated bottles.

Transfer contaminated bottles to cleaning site. Clean bottles as normal glassware.

23. Observe and collect data. Take notes to draw conclusions. Note: A loss of about 3% is to be expected.

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MUSHROOM CULTIVATION: Producing substrate bags

Step 5. PRODUCING SUBSTRATE BAGS

1. Prepare materials: Plastic bags (polypropylene 7 x 12.5) Plastic necks (about 4 cm diameter) Cotton plugs Cover filters (square piece of filter paper) Rubber bands Sawdust (cover top of substrate pile with rice sacks to maintain humidity) Rice bran Calcium sulfate Calcium carbonate Magnesium sulfate

Note: Substrate is the material used to grow mushrooms. This material or substrate is a mixture of all ingredients or food necessary for mushrooms to develop. Although sawdust is the most common and easy to use basic material for making mushroom substrate bags, other alternate and sometimes lower cost materials can be used. For example, in Asia, because of intense rice cultivation,, rice straw can be used since straw is readily available in most rural areas. Because of its lower cost (and local availability) it may be better suited as a substrate than sawdust. Furthermore, rice straw generally generates higher yield and better quality mushrooms; both texture and taste of mushrooms are improved when using straw instead of sawdust. Nevertheless, straw needs to be prepared before use requiring harder work, and fermentation for a period of 9 12 days. 2. Preparing rice straw as substrate: Put straw in grinder to reduce its size. Soak paddy straw 100 Kg. with water and mix with urea 1-2 % by weight, ferment for 3 days. Turn over the pile, then mix with 2% lime and ferment it again 3 days. Turn over the pile again, mix with 0.2% magnesium sulfate, and ferment 3 more days. The last turn over makes the straw readily composted for using as substrate. Check moisture and for a urea smell. If there is no urea smell and the moisture is 65-75%, the substrate is ready for packing. If there is some urea smell, it is necessary to ferment further until there is no more smell. Then pack in size 8 x 12 PP. Bags.

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MUSHROOM CULTIVATION: Producing substrate bags 3. Substrate preparation 100 kg Sawdust Add to sawdust: 5 kg Rice bran 2 kg Calcium sulfate 1 kg Calcium carbonate 0.2 kg Magnesium sulfate 0-1 kg Sugar Note: Substrate recipe should serve as a reference. Recipe can be changed by adding some rice flour, sticky rice flour, corn flour, cassava peels, cotton waste, Soya-bean residue, and other nutritious agricultural waste. In cool climates, it is possible to use additives or complementing materials up to 20%. Beware: for hot climatic zones, do not use more than 7.5% additives. (If rice straw, recipe needs to be modified as above mentioned)

4. Weigh all components using scale.

5. Mix well all ingredients in mixer or manually using shovels or paddles

6. Add water to keep moisture content between 65-75 %.

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7. Make sure all ingredients are well mixed and that there are no lumps.

8. Sitting on floor, fill plastic bags with substrate using small shovel.

9. Compact substrate by hitting bags with empty bottle, hand,

Or

Use compacting machine.

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10. Place plastic ring on bag

11. Pull out top of bag through plastic neck.

12. Fold-down on plastic ring.

13. Tie with rubber band.

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14. Introduce stick with pointed head through plastic neck of bag to make hole almost to the bottom of the bag; DO NOT TOUCH BOTTOM of bag.

15. Check weight of bags (should be between 800-1000 grams per bag)

16. Prepare plastic caps to close bags by adding cotton.

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17. Close bags with plastic caps.

18. Fill iron racks (9 bags per rack for commercial chamber). Transfer bags to pasteurization chamber.

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