Growth-enhanced Performance by Pleurotus ostreatus Cultivated on Salon Effluent and Spent Calcium-carbide Amended Substrates

Aims: To investigate the growth response of Pleurotus ostreatus, a wood-rotting fungus, to different growth substrates [Sawdust (SD), dry banana leaves (BL) and a combination of both BL and SD (BLSD)] amended with waste [salon effluent (SE) and spent calcium-carbide (SC)].

Place and duration of study: Department of Plant and Ecological Studies, University of Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria, between May 2015 and August 2015.

Methodology: Amendments were applied to growth substrates at different levels of concentration as follows: 0 ml and 0 g, 5 ml and 5 g, 10 ml and 10 g, 15 ml and 15 g per kg substrate. Mature mushrooms were harvested and assessed on the following parameters; number of fruit bodies, fresh weight, dry weight, length of stipe, girth of stipe, pileus area using conventional method.

Results: Number of fruitbodies, fresh weight, dry weight and stipe length increased with increase in concentration of additives. Best performances of these growth parameters were obtained at 15 g/kg and 15 ml/kg concentration. The highest number of fruitbodies (with a peak mean value of 28.42 fruitbodies at 15 g/kg concentration), highest value of fresh weight and dry weight were observed in SD. The longest stipe length, largest stipe girth and pileus area were observed in BLSD, though it exhibited least performances in other growth parameters. BLSD amended with salon effluent produced mushrooms with the largest pileus area (with a peak mean value of 53.8 cm2 at 15ml concentration) compared to the other substrates.

Conclusion: This study reveals that all growth parameters of P. ostreatus assessed were positively influenced by all the levels of amendments on the substrates used in this study. Therefore, these wastes could be used to increase the yield of P. ostreatus and possibly remediate sites polluted by these wastes.