JOURNAL OF THE BOTANICAL SOCIETY, UNIVERSITY OF SAUGOR (Formerly Bulletin of the Botanical Society) Volume 44, 2014 Published By The Botanical Society, University of Saugor-470003, India Journal of the Botanical Society, University of Saugor, Vol. 44, 2014; ISSN 2229-7170 BOTANICAL SOCIETY DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY Dr. Hari Singh Gour Vishwavidyalaya, Sagar (M.P.) OFFFICE BEARERS (2012-1013) Patron : Prof. D.C. Atri President : Prof. P. Mehta Vice President : Prof. A.K. Kandya Treasurer : Dr. N.P. Bhalla General Secretary : Dr. S.K. Yadav Research Scholar Ramnaresh Chanpuriya Omkar Salanke Academic Secretaries: Prof. (Mrs.) J. Dubey Dr. A.S. Mishra Dr. N.P. Bhalla Executive Editor : Prof. A.N. Rai Dr. Deepak Vyas Joint Editor : Dr. (Mrs.) A. Mehta Business Manager : Prof. A.K. Kandya Dr. N.P. Bhalla Editorial Board : Prof. P.K. Khare Dr. Poonal Deharia Dr. A.J. Biswas Librarian : Dr. N.P. Bhalla Dr. A.J. Biswas Secretary : Praveen Pandey (M.Sc. III) Joint Secretary : Archna Kushwaha (M.Sc. II) Excursion : Nishant Singh (M.Sc. I) Dr. Hari Singh Gour Vishwavidyalaya, Sagar (M.P.) 470 003 India 2 Journal of the Botanical Society, University of Saugor, Vol. 44, 2014; ISSN 2229-7170 Efficiency of different casing mixtures and their thickness on growth and production of Calocybe indica Anjuli Chaubey* Poonam Dehariya and Deepak Vyas Lab of Microbial Technology and Plant Pathology, Department of Botany, Dr. H. S. Gour University, Sagar (M.P.) e-mail: [email protected] ABSTRACT Seven casing materials viz., Farm yard manure (FYM), Spent compost (SC), Garden soil (GS), Sandy soil (SS) alone and in combination as FYM+SC (1:1), FYM+GS (1:1) Sandy Soil (SS) and FYM+SS (1:1) were analysed with different treatments (Formaline (4%), autoclaved (15 ibs) and untreated (control) to see the effect on growth and production of C. indica. Effect of different casing thickness was also investigated. 2.5 cm thickness was found optimum to obtained higher yield of Calocybe indica (401.33 g/kg dry substrate). 4% formaline treated mixture yielded better in comparison to other combinations. Interestingly, when FYM was treated with 4% formaline gives better growth and higher yield of C. indica. Key words: C.indica, casing mixtures , casing thickness, treatment INTRODUCTION White milky mushroom (Calocybe indica), natïve to India, was first described by Purkayastha and Chandra (1974). The ability of this mushroom to grow at temperature of about 30-350C, accompanied by its excellent shelf –life makes it highly attractive market venture among the growers. Milky mushroom cultivation involves a number of operations. Once the spawn run is complete, the crop enters into reproductive phase leading to production of fruiting bodies. Even after the colonization of substrate, fructification will not take place unless the colonized substrate is covered with casing layer. The process of applying casing layer over the compost bed is called Casing (Pandey, 2008). Casing is an agronomic practice to cover the top of mushroom beds after spawn run with layer of appropriate soil mixture (Tandon et al., 2006). In our country different types of casing materials are used in accordance with the local availability and suitability. The composition of casing mixture determine its quality (texture, structure, pH, water holding capacity, (C:N) ratio, etc.), which directly affect the mycelial growth in casing layer and initiation of fruiting bodies (Tewari, 2005). Adjustment in thickness of casing layer accordance to the quality of casing mixture is necessary. The thickness of casing layer not only affects initiation of fruiting bodies and their development but also the duration of crop and fruiting body yield (Shukla, 2007). Dr. Hari Singh Gour Vishwavidyalaya, Sagar (M.P.) 470 003 India 3 Journal of the Botanical Society, University of Saugor, Vol. 44, 2014; ISSN 2229-7170 MATERIALS AND METHODS The culture of Calocybe indica was procured from the Mushroom Research and Training Centre, Pantnagar. The culture was maintained on MEA and incubated at 28+ 20C temperature. Cultivation was carried out in polythene bags of 60×30cm size and 100 gauge thickness. Spawning is done @ 4% wet weight basis of substrate employing thorough method of spawning (Shukla, 2008). The bags were kept in the crop room. For spawn run relative humidity and temperature were maintained between 85-90% and 32-350C, respectively. The completely colonized substrate was cased with different casing mixtures. Seven casing materials were collected namely Farm yard manure (FYM), Spent compost (SC), Garden soil (GS), Sandy soil (SS) alone and in combination as FYM+SC (1:1), FYM+GS (1:1) and FYM+SS (1:1) were treated different methods viz., with 4% formaline, autoclaved 15 lbs and untreated. The different casing thickness i.e. 1 cm,1.5 cm., 2.0 cm, 2.5 cm, 3.0 cm and 3.5 cm. were applied on the bags to see the effect on growth and production. The bags were covered with newspaper to prevent infestation by insects and weed moulds. Light watering was done twice a day to maintain 60% moisture on the bed surface. Data on days for pin head appearance, Number. of fruiting body, yield and BE were recorded. The experiment repeated three times. Statistical analysis was done by software systat 12. Results: Effect of seven casing mixtures with different treatments on yield and sporophore development of C. indica was presented in Table (1) The results show that appearance of fruiting body of test organism treated with different casing mixtures showed significant variation. As it is clearly evident FYM treated with 4% formaline solution was found better casing substance which provide conducive environment to the mushroom for early pin head appearance, and finally gives higher yield in comparison to other casing mixtures. In contrast to this SS was found poor casing mixture which responses slowly and do not provide very good atmosphere to the mushroom mycelium, resulting slower growth and poor yield of the mushroom. To obtain better yield of the mushroom not only casing material is prerequisite but more important thing is the thickness of the casing material maintained in the bags. In Table (2) a total of six casing thickness were analyzed to observe their effect on the growth and yield of Calocybe indica. The result obtained from this present experiments that thickness has played a significant role on the growth of C.indica. Different bags were maintained with different thickness and the result obtained the experiments suggest that 2.5 cm. thickness was optimum to obtained better growth and highest yield of the test organism. Dr. Hari Singh Gour Vishwavidyalaya, Sagar (M.P.) 470 003 India 4 Journal of the Botanical Society, University of Saugor, Vol. 44, 2014; ISSN 2229-7170 Discussion: Present findings indicate that among the casing mixtures FYM, Spent compost alone and their combination gave significantly higher mushroom yield . Among all the mixtures FYM had the highest water holding capacity (130%) and spent compost (105%) similarly maximum pore space was found in FYM followed by spent compost (Tandon et al., 2006). Thus This mixtures and their combinations have improved the physical and chemical properties of the casing media which resulted in better yield of mushroom. Effect of casing mixtures and treatments on yield of Calocybe indica was investigated by different workers and found variable results. Saini and Prasher (1992) suggested casing formulation developed from FYM + waste compost + soil (2:1:1, v/v) for better yield. While, Pandey and Tewari (1994) suggested use of garden soil, coir dust and FYM as casing material for cultivation of C. indica. Singh et. al., (2007) found that the casing prepared using spent compost, farm yard manure, sand and garden soil (1:1:1:1) gave the highest yield. Bhatt et. al., (2007) found that farm yard manure + sand (1:1) as casing mixture resulted in the highest yield of Calocybe indica. According to present study, FYM treated with formalin 4% solution was found best this is accordingly to the earlier work done by Mantel (1973), Saxena and Gupta (1986). Since casing thickness lead an important role for the growth of mycelium and higher yield of mushroom. Therefore, it was mandatory to investigate thickness of casing material. Because, thickness provide adequate moisture, aeration and protection. If thickness was less it affects adversely, due to lack of moisture, greater aeration and poor protection resulting causing poor growth of the mushroom. In contrast to this if thickness is high then it may provide greater moisture but poor aeration and conducive environment for the fungal weeds will negatively effect which also affect adversely on the growth and yield of the mushroom. Thus it is very important to achieve optimum thickness for the growth and yield of the mushrooms. Our results indicate 2.5 cm thickness is the optimum thickness which gives better environment for the growth of the mushrooms. Almost similar thickness 2.0 cm was used by Krishnamoorthy & Muthuswami(1997) to get the highest yield of C. indica. Acknowledgement : We are thankful to Head, Department of Botany for providing laboratory facilities and A.C. thanks U.G.C. for financial assistance. Dr. Hari Singh Gour Vishwavidyalaya, Sagar (M.P.) 470 003 India 5 Journal of the Botanical Society, University of Saugor, Vol. 44, 2014; ISSN 2229-7170 REFERENCES Pandey, V., (2008). Impact of physico-chemical properties and microbial dynamics of casing on sporophore development and yield of Calocybe indica P&C. Msc.Thesis , G.B.P.A. U. , Pantnagar (Uttrakhand). Tandon, Gayatri, Sharma, V.P. and Jandaik, C.L.(2006). Evaluation of different casing materials for Calocybe indica cultivation. Mush. Res. 15(1):37-35. Tewari, R.P. (2005) . From Director’s Desk. Mush. Newsl., National research centre for mushroom, Chambaghat, Solan , pp.