Evaluation of Mycelium growth of Shiitake Mushroom (Lentinula edodes) for mother spawn production at high temperature

Abstract

Shiitake mushroom (Lentinula edodes) is the second most cultivated mushroom in the world after button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus). However, the production of shiitake mushroom in Malaysia is still limited. This is because shiitake mushroom cultivation required low temperature and humidity. In addition, the cultivation technique employed in shiitake mushroom production required engagement of natural logs from species of tree which is unavailable in Malaysia. Thus, the current work emphasizes on the utilization of locally available cereal grains and biomasses as substrate for mother spawn production at high temperature. Overall, the work has examined the mycelium growth rate of L. edodes on different growth medium such as potato dextrose agar, malt extract agar and nutrient agar at different incubation temperature (25 °C, 30 °C and 35 °C), studied the performance of different substrate such as paddy, maize, rubber wood sawdust and paddy straw as growth medium for spawn production and evaluated the optimization of parameters of spawn run. The optimization studied was focused on parameters such as temperature, rice bran composition and calcium carbonate composition. From the evaluation of mycelium growth, the highest mycelium specific growth rate which is 01290 day-1 was obtained on the potato dextrose agar at temperature of 30 °C. While, the highest mycelium growth rate of evaluation of substrates as medium for spawn production denoted that mycelium growth rate on paddy exhibited the highest value which was 18.8970 mm/day. Lastly, the optimization of spawn run parameter signified that minimum spawn run period which is 24 day was obtained at temperature of 30 °C, 10% rice bran composition and 1% of calcium carbonate composition.