Determination of the Paper Quality as a Substrate for Oyster Mushroom Cultivation

Eight different kinds of papers, viz., glaze paper, brown paper, news paper, magazine paper, chart
paper, kite paper, rough copy paper and A-4 size printing paper, and two types of cardboard viz.,
corrugated cardboard and card board were evaluated for different manifestations of white oyster
mushroom Pleurotus florida Strain-P1. Among them news paper was later treated as a control. The
mushroom was utilized all the substrates for their growth and sporophore formation. Majority of
substrates were taken almost equal time for spawn run, primordial development and fruiting bodies
maturation. The measured parameters were net yield (Weight of fresh mushrooms), biological
efficiency, number of fruiting bodies produced and average weight of sporophores varied among
themselves. The crop of mushroom was harvested in three flushes where yield and biological
efficiency ranged 190-495 gm, 38-99% for the substrate used. Magazine paper (450 gm; 90%) and
card board (495 gm; 99%) produced significant (P=0.05) yield and biological efficiency over control.
They also produced significant number of mushroom fruit bodies (56 and 64, respectively).
Corrugated cardboard (10.29 gm) was found significant in terms of average weight per sporocarp.
The percentage yield of different substrates was also evaluated. Among the substrates, card board
contributed 14% of total mushroom production followed by magazine paper (13%) and news paper
(12%).