Nutrient Content and Yield in Three Flushes of Oyster Mushrooms

Abstract

A study on oyster mushroom yield and chemical composition was carried out.The aim of this work was to provide more information on the yield and chemical composition of mushrooms of each flush of pleurotus sajor caju and p.HK35 grown on water hyacinth,wheat and soybeans straw.The data within each flush was subjected to the analysis of variance following the split plot design.Combined flush analysis was done to compare the yield and chemical composition of the three flushes and linear regression was used to compare the chemical composition of the substrate and mushroom.The species and flush had a significant (p<0.05)influence on the yeild and chemical composition of the mushroon.The type of substrate had an influence on the chemical composition of mushroom but not on the yield.Mushroom grown on water hyacinth were high protein(31.7%)and ash (10.4%) while those from soybean straw were high in cabohydrates(42.2%).Mushroom grown on wheat straw were high in ash content (10.4). Water hyacinth was the best straw since mashrooms produced were high in protein. It was also observed that the chemical composition of the mushrooms depends mainly on the substrates composition.Pleurotus sajor caju had higher ash content(10.29%)and P.HK 35 produced significantly higher yeild (540g)than P.sajor caju (377g).Mushrooms from the three flushes differed in yield and chemical composition. Mushrooms from the first and second flush were the best since they had high yield and were high in carbohydrates,fiber and protein while those from the third flush were high in fat and ash.