Organic Mushroom- Ajeet Kumar

Organic Mushroom

Ajeet Kumar

Mushrooms belong to a separate group of organisms called Fungi. The living body of the fungus is mycelium made out of a tiny web of threads (or filaments) called hyphae. Under specific conditions, sexually compatible hyphae will fuse and start to form spores. The larger spore producing structures (bigger than about 1 mm) are called mushrooms. Mushrooms did not prepare his food with the help of Chlorophyll; it prepares their food with the help of dead and decaying organic materials. They obtained their nutrient with the help of very fine thread like structures called mycelium which penetrates into the decayed material and then uptake their required nutrients. Mushrooms are grown in various ecological conditions from desert to forest. For the cultivation of mushroom requited favourable conditions like temperature, humidity. Temperature will be in between 8-37⁰ C and humidity will be in between 65-80 %. They comprise a large heterogeneous group with different shapes, sizes, colour and edibility. It is a rich source of protein as well as vitamins vis. Vitamin B, C and minerals vis. Calcium, phosphorus and iron along with some essential amino acids.

It is also called a vegetarian meat because it’s fleecy nature. It can be cultivated by all type of farmers like Marginal, Small, and Large farmers. Mushroom cultivation is an eco-friendly, highly profitable and fast money earning process. It can be a part time cultivation process for the farmers, because it cannot take much more time in management process. Today the demand of mushroom is very in all over the world. With the help of mushroom so many medicines are prepared by the pharmaceutical companies. Its food is also very delicious and costly that’s why farmers should go for the mushroom cultivation. In the cultivation process the cost of cultivation is very low but earning is higher than the production cost. When farmer will go for the cultivation of mushroom in Organic way then it is definitely help for reduce of cost of cultivation, because in this method farmer will not use any inorganic chemicals in the treatment of straw process and it also help for reduce the cost of water because in organic cultivation method requirement of water is less than the inorganic mushroom cultivation.

          Mushroom cultivation process in organic way is very easy. In this process farmer should take straw (Paddy, Wheat, Barly, Jwar etc.) as much as require, then remove all rotten as well as infected straw, then dry in sun light for removal of a small infection from the straw, then chaupped into 2-3 inch length, then calculate the required water (500%) and organic chemical like Maha Neem (0.1 drop of Maha Neem solution diluted into 10 litter of water), after the shocking of straw properly cover with plastic, straw will be shock for 18-24 hour, after that remove water form straw and spread over a clean plastic sheet and kept for 1-2 hour in shady place, after that prepare bag and spawning, after that tide with rope and kept in production room. After 15-20 days of bagging remove the plastic and then start water spraying for maintaining the proper moisture in the bag.

The favourable condition for growth of mushroom is also favourable for growth of mushroom pathogens. It is a challenging part of mushroom cultivation, because when we go for the control of theses pathogens with the help of inorganic chemicals then that pathogens makes a resistance against that chemical and when we apply that particular chemical at a same doses then that chemical does not work properly. That’s why we should go in organic way because in this way pathogens do not make resistance. In organic way mushroom cultivation we can use Maha Neem 10^-5 dilution for control of mushroom pathogens along with we can use this organic substances for the treat of straw. With the help of this solution we can control any type of fungus infestation. Trichoderma is a major problem for mushroom cultivation but we can control this disease with the help of Maha Neem 10^-5 dilution.

Ajeet Kumar, Consultant Agriculture, INRM Expert, JSLPS

(The article is retrieved from KDB Vol-3, Vol-3, edited by Atanu Deb; Article is attached here with author and editor's permission)