Method of growing edible mushrooms

Details Method of growing edible mushrooms Method of growing edible mushrooms

1985-02-13

1987-01-20

Bagwill, Robert E.

Plant husbandry

Mushroom culture

71 5, A01G 104

Patent

active

046371630

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to the production of edible mushrooms in commercial or household scale by making use of solid nutrition beds that are made of low-priced cellulose and lignin containing materials. A particular object of the invention is the production of wood-rotting edible mushrooms, such as Lentinus edodes species.
Growing of wood-rotting mushrooms has traditionally been effected in blocks chopped off the trunks of oak or oak-related or other hardwood species. Growing is usually done outdoors and for climatic reasons the production of e.g. Lentinus edodes has only been possible in such subtropical countries where the relative humidity of air is sufficiently high for growing. This mode of growing is also quite labor intensive.
In order to compensate for growing in blocks of wood, efforts have been made also toward developing compound nutrition beds and growing technique applicable to the use thereof. One such method has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,127,965. In this method, the raw material comprises substantially sawdust obtained from hardwood species, the share of hardwood being necessarily at least 60%, and farinaceous and proteinaceous waste materials, the amount of starch having been 5-15% and the amount of protein 1-15% of the entire nutrition bed. As for its reaction, the growth bed is neutral or slightly acidic (pH 4,5-7) and, thus, the competitivity of mycelium and the prevention of contaminations require sterilization of the nutrition bed followed by aseptic treatment thereof. The most serious drawbacks of prior art methods are manual processes and high contamination percentage resulting therefrom. The performance of various steps of growing is quite labor intensive, requiring e.g. designing of nutrition beds in the growing step of mycelium and/or the use of special moulds, which further add to the growing costs.
The present invention strives to eliminate drawbacks of the prior art methods by developing the growing technique of wood-rotting mushrooms, such as Lentinus edodes, Kuehneromyces mutabilis, Pholiota spp. and Pleurotus spp. in solid compound materials, while also striving to decrease raw material costs and to simplify the process as well as to clear up possibilities of mechanizing it, the objective being however to maintain the sensory properties of mushrooms and satisfactory level of crop.
When looking for economically available raw materials it was found out that the mycelium of Lentinus edodes grows well also in northern Europe on beds containing the sawdust of general hardwood species, such s alder, (Alnus incana, A. glutinosa), birch, (Betula pubescens, B. pendula) and aspen, (Populus tremula), the sawdust of alder and birch being clearly superior to that of aspen.In order to increase the nutritive content of a nutrition bed use is made of a material containing some farinaceous and proteinaceous substance, preferably e.g. threshing and assorting wastes of grain. By limiting the amount of readily hydrolyzable polysaccharides, such as starch, and mono- as well as oligosaccharides and added proteins used for the growth bed to less than 10% of the nutrition bed material as well as by extending the growing time of mycelium it has been possible to increase the ability of mycelium to exploit the polysaccharides and lignin of wood and at the same time to substantially increase productivity of the culture as compared to the prior art methods.
In the method of the invention, minor amounts of peat are mixed with the bed material during preparation. The peat balances water content of the bed and solidifies the bed, thus eliminating the necessity of using moulds in this method. In addition, the peat decreases pH value of the bed. The amount of peat preferably exceeds 4%.
In order to simplify the prevention of contaminations and to decrease the investment and operating costs of the equipment needed therefor, it proved preferabe to adjust the pH value of a bed to less than 5, whereby a sufficient effect will be achieved by means of a pasteurization treatment effected to the inter

REFERENCES:
patent: 4083144 (1978-04-01), Fuzisawa et al.
patent: 4127964 (1978-12-01), Mee
patent: 4127965 (1978-12-01), Mee

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