Science Experiment into Profitable Business: Microbial Culture of an Edible Mushrooms

This microbiology science experiment was done during my bachelor's degree.

MUSHROOM CULTURE

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Mushroom farming is a sprouting industry that has a lot of potentials. Materials used for planting are readily available at home. The cultivation of edible mushrooms is one of the rare examples of a microbial culture wherein the cultivated microscopic organism itself is directly used as human food. Mushroom growing is one of the fastest developing biotechnical industries all over the world.

Mushrooms are being used as food and medicine since then. Their cultivation on the extensive scale can help solve many problems of global importance such as protein shortage, resource recovery and reuse as well as part of environmental management. Edible mushrooms contain a high percentage of protein, all indispensable amino acids, and vitamins B-complex and other biochemical compounds. This vegetable is also a food source of dietary fiber and the quantity present is much higher than the crude fiber. Also through mushroom cultivation, it can help reduce po<verty and strengthens livelihoods that is a reliable source of income through the generation of a fast yielding and nutritious food.

The best part of this experiment is that we can be able to culture and sprout a good variety of mushroom using a waste from the rice field in our place through the use of materials and ingredients available at home. Also to complete the process is to apply our skills so that we can successfully cultivate such mushrooms.

These are the materials required:

1. Plastic heat-resistant bag
2. PVC Pipe
3. Rubber Bands
4. Cotton Plug
5. Flat Bottle (Tanduay Bottle)
6. Inoculating Loop (Small Spatula)
7. Alcohol Lamp
8. Cutter
9. Autoclave (pressure cooker)
10. Electric Stove
11. Funnel
12. Clean Bench
13. Clean Room
14. Match

These are the ingredients needed:

1. Rice Straw
2. Saw Dust
3. Good variety of Mushroom
4. Potato
5. Water
6. B-complex (medicine tablet) Optional
7. Grain (Rice)
8. Vermin (fertilizer) can be any other fertilizer available in the market
9. Peptone (chemical) Optional
10. Gelatin
11. Sugar

PROCEDURE:

1. Preparation of Culture Media

a. First, boil water in a pot by an electric stove. ( Measurement of the water is by liter can be in 1, 2, 3 etc. depending on how many would you make. )

b. When boiling, pour the sliced potatoes. See to it that the potatoes are truly smoothened in order to get its juice.

c. After it has been boiled, remove the potatoes and set aside. Its juice is the most important.

d. Pour 20 grams of sugar to the water that was mix with potato juice and simultaneously pour the slice gelatins of about 4 bars per 1 liter of water.

e. After all the ingredients are being poured, mix and boiled cool down and its ready to be poured into the flat bottle/s.

f. Every 1 bottle consists of an average of 50 ml of the boiled culture media.

g. After, close its mouth using a cotton plug and cover with a clean paper and sealed with a rubber band.

h. Ready for sterilization.

i. Sterilize using our autoclave for 15 minutes at 121 degree Celsius and 15 psi.

j. After the sterilization has been completed, cool down and place in slanting position somewhere in a clean room. Leave it until it hardens.

NOTE: Please be careful not to touch the culture media to the cotton plug for it may lead to contamination.

2. Tissue culture preparation

Need a very good variety of mushroom to be culture.

To start, sterilize both hands.

a. Use clean cutter for the cutting and getting off a portion of the mushroom to be cultured.

b. Cut the mushroom into two. The center is the very sterilize part of the mushroom.

c. Get the culture media or the bottle that we previously made. Heat its mouth into the alcohol lamp to make it somewhat sterilize.

d. Also, heat the inoculating needle to be used.

e. Carefully insert the inoculating needle having a little portion of tissue we got from the center of our mushroom into the culture media.

f. After, flame again into our alcohol lamp the mouth of the bottle and cover with a cotton plug and ready for incubation.

g. Incubate for 2 weeks.

h. We can produce tissues through incubation.

3. Grains spawn preparation

a. Palay is needed. In our case, we use grain rather than palay (skin dyer).

b. Wash grain 3 times and boil.

c. After boiling, drain the water and maintain its moisture content of about 60%. NOTE: we can know if it is in 60% moisture content if it has no longer water droplets.

d. After squeezing, put it inside our heat resistance plastic bag (in our case we use 250 ml Erlenmeyer flask) after cover it with a cotton plug and a clean paper and sealed it with a rubber band.

e. Sterilize for 30, 45, 60 minutes at 121 degree Celsius at 15 psi in the autoclave or pressure cooker. (Pretreatment)

f. After sterilization is complete. Cool it down.

g. Ready for planting with our pure culture.

4. Planting pure culture to the grain

a. Bring the sterilize Erlenmeyer flask with grain to the clean room in the clean bench for planting.

b. Flame the mouth of our pure culture media bottle and as well our inoculating needle.

c. Get a little amount or portion of our gelatin with the pure culture of our mushroom.

d. Put it in our sterilize Erlenmeyer flask with grain inside.

e. Ready for incubation.

5. Preparation of substrate

Soaking: Soak the rice straw into the water with a 1 tablet B-Complex and 0.1 grams of peptone overnight. After the rice straw has been soak, exude and is ready for chopping.

Chopping and formulation: Chop the rice straw 2 to 3 inches. It is to be cut in order for the formulation of the substrate to be fast and easy. After chopping, mix it with a sawdust in the ratio of 7 parts of the rice straw and 3 parts of the sawdust. Mix it well. And is ready for bagging. Add vermicast of about 100 grams.

Bagging: Using a molder put the mix formulated substrate into the plastic bag. Make sure that the formulated substrate is tight inside the bag and be in ¾ of the said plastic bag. Put a PVC neck and cover it with a cotton plug or cotton waste.

6. Planting on a substrate to harvesting

Planting or inoculation: Open the fruiting bag with substrate inside. Open as well the grain spawn which is in the Erlenmeyer flask. Pour an average grain into the fruiting bag. Cover it with a cotton plug or cotton waste. Ready for incubation.

Incubation: Clean room with moderate temperature. Incubation is finish and done if the fruiting bag is in white color or has been full of the seedling of our mushroom. Ready to be placed in the growing area.

Harvesting and maintenance: Use clean hands only. Slowly harvest the mushroom.

NOTE: in one fruiting bag we can harvest at least 200 grams of mushroom and it can last for about one or two months. Maintain the moisture of our fruiting bags. Water them at least once a day if it is in a cold place and 3 to 4 days if it is in a warm place.

CONCLUSION

Our cultured mushroom takes about 1 to 2 months to grow depending on the prevailing environmental conditions. After we harvested our first mushroom bud we observe that it only takes for about 3 days for its’ second fruit to sprout again but unfortunately not all fruiting bags has a mushroom fruit growing in it, it is maybe because some are late bloomer that said to grow slowly and some mushroom tissue can’t easily travel through the bag due to lack of water or moisture content. So as a conclusion one of the factors that the mushroom to really grow is the said moisture content, it is really necessary that we should water our mushroom accordingly (if cool place water it once a day and if in warm place water it 3 to 4 times a day).

The second factor in order for the mushroom to sprout is its corresponding pre-treatment time because I observed that fruiting bags with a wet condition with 30 minutes time pretreatment has more number of growing mushrooms rather than the wet condition in 45 and 60 minutes time. Thus the implication is that mushroom really grows faster and healthier with the more presence of moisture content or in wet condition and with its corresponding 30 Pre-treatment time.

I believe that with proper care and love, indeed our mushroom culture would have its healthy fruits growing more and more.

Thank you very much for stopping by. I hope you enjoy reading and was challenged to do it. God Bless.

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Reference:
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