What are mushrooms?
Mushrooms are unique structures of fungi that belong to the Kingdom fungi, which also includes yeasts, moulds, and mildews. Fungi have been categorized under four major groups.
1. Zygomycota
2. Ascomycota
3. Basidiomycota
4. Deuteromycota
Most mushrooms belong to the Basidiomycota ,and aid in producing, storing of spores that would be used in reproduction. Mushrooms have been consumed by humans for thousands of years. Since the demand for these mushrooms has increased, commercial mushroom cultivation has started. In Sri Lanka, demand for edible mushrooms has increased in the last few years.
In Sri Lanka, growing mushrooms is primarily done at the household level as a small business. There are many mushroom growers in Sri Lanka. Even though there is a sizable market for high-quality mushrooms, most growers frequently fall short of the standards because they lack the necessary knowledge. If done properly, mushroom cultivation can be a lucrative business.
Figure 1 - Labelled figure of mushrooms
Commercially Cultivated Mushrooms in Sri Lanka
- Piduru Bimmal (Volvariella volvacea)
- Muthubeli Bimmal (Pleurotus ostreatus)
- Boththam Bimmal (Agaricus bisporus)
- Shitake Bimmal (Lentinus edodes)
- Abaloni Bimmal (Pleurotus cystidiosus)
Among these mushroom types, Muthubeli Bimmal is the most popular Mushroom variety and Piduru Bimmal are commonly cultivated.
Edible Mushrooms Native to Sri Lanka
Uru Paha Bimmal – Lentinus giganteus
Uru paha Bimmal is a mushroom species native to Sri Lanka. This mushroom species has the taste of Pork. Hence the name Uru (Pig) paha Bimmal. This species is the largest Mushroom in Sri Lanka. Uru paha bimmal grow naturally around the roots of large trees like Jack (Artocarpus heterophyllus). This species has shown promising results of growing under artificial environments. Apart from these varieties, some other types of mushrooms that naturally grow in Sri Lanka include Mawali Hathu, Indalolu, Monara Bimmal, and Kiri Bimmal.
Pest and the Disease Management in Mushroom Cultivation
Large-scale financial losses result from pest attacks on the mushroom industry. Particularly harmful insect species include Drosophila, which feeds on these mushrooms. When mushrooms appear transparent or decayed, these pest attacks are apparent.
Control Methods
Once these mushrooms have been infected, it is difficult to control the pests of mushrooms. So, it is really important to take actions to prevent the pest attacks from the beginning of the cultivation. Keeping the equipment used in Mushroom cultivation clean, avoid using same cultivation room to keep differently aged mushrooms, removing and destroying any infected bags from the cultivating area ,harvesting the mushrooms at correct maturity, only using sprayers to moist the cropping room without using hands, if the pest attack is severe, remove all the bags from the cottage and use a recommended insecticide to treat the infected area – keeping the cottage close for 24 hours after treating could be practiced.
Preservation of Harvested Mushrooms
As mushrooms contain more than 90% of water, they have less shelf – life. If mushrooms are kept in an open environment, these mushrooms can dry rapidly due to loss of water. This will also result in reduction of weight of mushrooms. So, it is really important to preserve these mushrooms immediately after harvesting.
Muthubeli Bimmal can be kept fresh in a cold place up to 12 hours after the harvest. This can be kept inside a refrigerator, packed in aerated polythene bags up to 2 – 3 days. To keep this species up to 4 -6 weeks, mushrooms can be boiled for three minutes and stored in a deep freezer.
Stripped mushrooms can be boiled with water vapor for 03 minutes and then sun dried to preserve for 06 months.
Piduru Bimmal is less preservable. It can be kept up to several hours after the harvest in a cold environment. Can be kept up to 24 hours in a refrigerator.
Characteristics of Poisonous Mushrooms
Poisonous mushrooms have a dark color and a strong aroma. One of the characteristics of poisonous mushrooms is that they deter insects.
Simple Tricks to Identify the Poisonous Mushrooms at Home
To identify poisonous mushrooms, one can perform easy tests at home. The mushrooms may be poisonous if the onions turn purple when cooked with them or if they stain the silver spoons black.
Figure 2 – 𝘈𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘢 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘢 – a Poisonous Mushroom
Advantages of Mushroom Cultivation
Good return on investment, availability of low-cost raw material, ability to start the cultivation within a small space, ability to start the cultivation with prevailing infrastructure facilities (Room inside a house), harvesting is possible in short duration of time.
References
https://agrislanka.blogspot.com
Image courtesy
Featured image – https://agri.pdn.ac.lk>dodangolla
Figure 1 – https://www.researchgate.net/figure.Mushroom-morphology
Figure 2 – https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Amanita_muscaria