BUTTON MUSHROOM – SPAWNING

a) Tray system of cultivation
The compost when ready, is taken in trays leaving about 5 cm from the top.
There are different methods of spawning and are indicated below.

1.Single layer spawning:
The grain spawn is scattered uniformly all over the compost surface in a tray which is then covered with a thin layer of compost 200 g of spawn for 1 m² beds.

2.Double layer spawning
The trays are half filled and spawn is scattered. Then the tray is filled completely compost and spawn is applied as above and covered with a thin layer of spawn.

3.Through spawning/ mixed spawning:
The required quantity of spawn is mixed with the compost and filled in trays or polybags

4.Spot spawning
The compost is filled in trays and holes of 2.5 to 5 cm deep are made with fingers about 8-12 cm apart in rows. About 5g of spawn if introduced into the cavities and covered with a thin layer of compost.
After spawning the beds should be covered with sterilized newspapers and water is sprinkled over the papers to maintain the moisture in the compost. The temperature should be around 25± 2° C with RH of 90 per cent. The spawn running will be completed in 15 days and it is ready for casing.

b) Bag system of cultivation
In this method polythene covers of size: 35”x24” with 150 gauge thickness are used. The spawn is mixed with the compost @ 500- 750 g/ 100 kg compost. Then mixed compost is filled in polythene bags @ 15-20 kg / bag. Finally, the beds are covered with newspaper.

BUTTON MUSHROOM- CASING AND CROPPING
Casing is nothing but application of a thin layer of soil so as to induces buttoning. There are different materials are used for casing and some of the commonly used ones are given below:

Casing materials:

Casing soil should have 80% water holding capacity, with a pH of 6-7-8.2(Best:7.7). In addition it should have high porosity to get good aerobic condition.

Treatment of casing materials:
The casing materials are to be sterilized before application. Chemical treatment and Pasteurization are the two important methods followed.
Chemical treatment

Prepare formalin 2% solution by mixing 2 lit in 40 lit of water. Heap the case material and drench formalin @ 10 lit/m³ and cover it with polythene sheets for 3 days. After 3 days disturb the casing soil to remove excess formaldehyde and used for casing. It has to be done 15 days before casing.
Pasteurization:

Fill the casing soil in trays and steam at 65-70° C for 4 hours.

Procedure

Procedure for casing

1. Remove newspaper and apply casing soil to a thickness of 3-4 cm and gently press it.
2. Keep the temperature around 24 and relative humidity of 100 for one week.
3. Reduce the temperature to 15-18 and relative humidity to 85-90 after one week.

(Pinheads appear 12-15 days after casing and cropping continues for 6-8 weeks. Mushroom ready for harvest in another 10 days and appear at weekly intervals.)
Normally 4 kg of mushroom can be harvested from 20 kg compost in Polybag method. In the case of tray system, the yield varies from 6-8 kg/ Sq. m.
Mushroom can be harvested by gently twisting the fully-grown mushroom to avoid disturbance to young buttons. The following are the different stages of mushroom and the button stage is the correct stage of harvest and stages yield poor quality mushroom.

Stages of harvest:

Updated on Dec 2013