THE PROMISING BUSINESS OF GROWING MUSHROOMS

The mushroom business in the Philippines is apparently a burgeoning business with enormous
commercial potential in as much as it targets a basic need: food. There is also a claim, on the
contrary, that its present cultivation in this country is limited, perhaps due to the limited local
knowledge about its culture.
But at the heart of the Manila metropolis in Boni Avenue is a dynamic and bracing research
center of Rizal Technological University that is taming and developing mushrooms in
underground passageways. These channels are valued historically where they were used by
World War II soldiers to transport themselves inconspicuously to and from adjoining towns from
their attack or defense or simply to escape from enemy troops.
Finding the tunnels apposite for other purposes has given them modern-day worth. The tunnels
are regarded to impact positively and directly to the local mushroom industry.
Cultured inside the adobe-made tunnels are edible mushrooms species that grow in semitemperate areas like Pleurotus sp. (oyster or abalone mushrooms), Auricularia sp. (ear fungi),
Agaricus bisporus (tropical white button mushrooms), Volvariela volvacea (rice straw or banana
mushrooms), and Lentinus edodes (shiitake or brown or black Japanese mushrooms).
Moreover, the culture of medicinal mushrooms is gaining its popularity abroad. That is why the
research center is now starting to cultivate mushrooms which have therapeutic
applicationslike the Ganoderma lucidumto parallel our innovation with those in foreign
lands, says Angelita Medalla, a universitys faculty researcher and mushroom specialist.
Mushroom growing can be made double in a cooperative where division of labor can be
resourcefully practiced.
The Biology

Mushrooms are fungi characterized by the presence of gills under

the umbrella-shaped cap called pileus. Some have the presence of rings; others have none. Some
grow in mass or in clusters; others develop in singles or in pairs. Others thrive well on cool
weather, some in warm places. Like plants, mushrooms have seeds responsible for propagating

the species. They produce spores like all fungi. These spores are very diminutive and
microscopic that they disperse and disseminate through the air with the wind. When they happen
to fall on a suitable agricultural waste, these spores germinate and develop into mycelium. If the
conditions are favorable, it continues to grow, ramify and develop into mushrooms.
Why Grow Mushrooms?
Medalla stresses that edible mushrooms are good sources of high-quality protein. They can be
produced with greater biological efficiency and have an important role in elevating the diet of
people enduring from protein deficiency, she says, adding that they can represent a source of
high-value metabolites like anti-tumor or cancer agents.
There is also a reason that one of the most cost-effectively practical processes for biocon-version
of agricultural and industrial lingo cellulosic wastes is the cultivation of edible mushroom. This
is extremely important in rural areas where there are available large quantities of agricultural
wastes ideally suited for growing different types of edible mushrooms, Medalla exemplifies.
Furthermore, the substrate (or agricultural waste) residues that are left after harvesting
mushrooms can be converted into feedstock to ruminants and used as soil conditioners. Medalla
articulates they can help increase the income in the rural and urban areas, improving the social
status of unemployed people.
Economics of Cultivation

Mushroom cultivation is an income-generating activity that can

be done both in rural and urban areas. Mushrooms can be grown on commercial or small scale
using either highly urbane equipment or low-cost materials and agricultural wastes.
The choice of species and technology, according to Medalla, will depend on the conditions
prevailing in the place where one prefers to grow the mushrooms, the availability of the substrate
to be used and the availability and amount of capital.
Medalla suggests that mushroom growing can be made doable in a cooperative where division of
labor can be adroitly practiced. There is a group that can be engaged in spawn production,

substrate preparation, planting or inoculation, fruiting, harvesting, processing and marketing

aspects, she says.
Mushroom production is a complicated business. It involves a number of complicated steps and
operations like the pure culture preparation (the selection of the acceptable fruiting culture of the
mushroom); the planting material preparation; the substrate preparation where mushrooms will
be grown; the actual planting or the inoculation of the substrate; and the harvesting, processing
and marketing.
The Technology
Each operation, according to Medalla, consists of many sequential steps that are crucial and
important if success is to be achieved. Despite the electricity fluctuation in the university when
MARID visited the university for two days, she shared how mushroom technology functions in
their laboratory and underground passageways:
A. Propagation of pure culture
During the preparation of the culture media, peel and weigh the 200 grams of fresh, hale and
hearty potatoes. Dice these potatoes to about two-centimeter cubes. Boil one-liter distilled water
and add these diced potatoes. Let them simmer for ten minutes or until they are soft enough to be
eaten. Strain off these diced potato through cheesecloth, and restore the volume of the potato
decoction (broth) to one liter by simply adding distilled water. Bring the potato decoction to boil,
and add 20 grams of agar. Stir the mixture until the agar dissolves. Add 20 grams of dextrose
powder and stir until it also dissolves.
Pour and distribute 40 to 50 milliliters of the mixture into empty bottles. Plug the mouth of the
bottles with cotton, cover with paper, and tie with rubber band. Sterilize them in pressure cooker
at 15 pounds for 15 to 20 minutes, and allow the pressure to drop down to zero pounds per
square inch. Take out the sterilized culture media, and slant the culture media bottles.
Then isolate the pure culture using the tissue culture. This method is done through selecting a
young and healthy mushroom that is disinfected with 70 percent alcohol by rubbing a cotton
swab. With a sterilized scalpel, cut approximately one-centimeter cube of the tissue and plant on
the slanted agar with the use of sterilized forceps or scalpel. Incubate at room temperature for ten
to 14 days or until the media is fully impregnated with the mycelia.
B. Production of the spawn
Wash thoroughly the grains in tap water. Transfer in clean casserole, and add water till one inch
above the level of grains. Boil until the grains are about to burst. Cool the grains by spreading in
a nylon cloth or line screen and allow the water to drain off leaving the grains just damp (65 to

70 percent moisture). Distribute grains equally in bottles, plug with cotton and cover them with
paper or foil, and support them with rubber band. Sterilize at 15 pounds for an hour. Cool the
bottles at room temperature; aseptically inoculate with young and vigorous culture of the
mushroom mold. Incubate at room temperature until the grains are fully impregnated with the
mushroom molds.
C. Production of the fruiting bags (growing method)
At the preparation of the composted sawdust medium, mix thoroughly the composted sawdust
medium composed of 78 percent sawdust, 20 percent class A rice bran, one percent calcium
carbonate or lime and a percent of washed sugar. Add tap water until the mixture attains 65 to 70
percent moisture, which is determined by pressing a handful of mixture in the hand and no water
should run off in between fingers and the materials should stay in form after releasing the
pressure.
Pile the substrate or mixture in a pyramidal form. Cover with plastic sheet for a period of five
days with turning every after two days, repiling and returning the plastic cover again. On the fifth
day or after the second turning, aerate the piled materials by spreading thinly in a shaded area to
remove the toxic gases that may have been produced during the period of composting. After the
acidic smell has gone, check and adjust the moisture content making sure that it is 65 to 70
percent.

Pack the substrate in not-so-loose-or-not-so-compact bag. Collect the upper part of the
bag and pass it through a plastic ring, and pull the plastic ring down thus making the mouth of
the bag. Plug each bag with cotton, cover it with paper, and tie with rubber band. Sterilize 15
pounds for an hour and a half, or the bags may be subjected to steaming process. The period of
steaming depends on the load of the container.
To propagate the mushrooms, transfer the sterilized and cooled bags inside the inoculation room,
which has been previously disinfected. Aseptically inoculate each bag with the mother spawn.
Transfer the spawned bags in the incubation house, and incubate at 25 to 28 degrees Celcius for a
month or until fully impregnated with the mushroom mold.
Once the bags are fully ramified, allow them to undergo maturation period by extending
incubation by another month. The matured bags are then ready to open. Open the bags carefully

by cutting the plastic below the neck, and water them abundantly but carefully. The floor and the
walls of the house should also be watered.
On the third day, pinheads or primordial will develop. In this case, do not water the bags but the
walls and the floor. Harvest period is expected on the fourth and the fifth day and harvesting goes
for two to three days. After fruiting, the bags should rest for five to seven days. During rest
period, monitor the temperature (25 to 28 degrees Celcius), relative humidity (85 to 90 percent)
and moisture (65 to 70 percent). After each rest period, normal flushing or fruiting will follow
and the cycle is repeated. The complete fruiting cycle lasts for two to three months.
MUSHROOM FARMING, CULTIVATION AND GROWING
The culture of mushroom is gaining popularity in the Philippines. Mushroom is a delicacy and is
really accepted as vegetable. Its present cultivation in this country is limited, perhaps due to
insufficiency of planting materials and the limited local knowledge about its culture.
Mushroom growing requires little space and time and farmers can make use of their rice straws
following harvesting. Mushroom can be grown the whole year round provided a good storage of
rice straw is prepared.
This article illustrates the fundamental techniques involved in the culture of banana or rice straw
type of mushroom, Volvariolla volvacoa. The vegetable and Legume Crops Section of the
Bureau of Plant Industry is now producing mushroom spawn in abundance.
Materials and Methods I
Dry rice straws and banana leaves are the most common types of bleeding materials. However,
other materials like cotton wastes, jute sacks, corn stalks, water hyacinth, sugar baggasse and
abaca waste materials may also be used for bedding materials.
Sufficient water supply and soaking tank or any similar container are used. Plastic sheet of gauge
No.6, empty cement bags and sacks are used to cover the beds.
Procedures
1. Gather long, clean and well dried rice straws and banana leaves, preferably those that are
still standing in the field. Avoid using old and contaminated bedding materials.
2. Bundle the bedding materials 6-8 inches in diameter. If rice straws are used, arrange butt
ends together.
3. Cut the bundle materials 1.5 to 2 ft. long.
4. Soak the bundled materials in water for at least 3 hours but not more than 10 hours until
enough moisture is absorbed by the materials.

5. Foundation as support for the bed.

6. Set the soaked-bundled materials, closely knit the together, evenly and compactly.
7. Water the bed well with the urea or ammonium sulfate at rate of 1-2 tbsp. per gallon of
water. Add sugar at the rate of 33 grams per gallon of water to improve the yield of
mushrooms.
8. Press the layer to level of surface. Stop watering when the water starts to drip off the bed.
9. Insert thumb-size spawns around the bed, four (4) inches from along the side and four (4)
inches apart from each other. Never plant spawn at the middle of the bed.
10. Set the second layer of straw on the top of the first layer. Put the butt ends together in two
opposite direction. Water and press down. Follow the same procedure until a six-layer
bed is attained.
11. Cover the entire bed with plastic sheet gauges No. 6 or cement bags or sacks for seven
days after which it is removed.
Harvesting
The growth of mushrooms on the bed come in flushes. With adequate maintenance and care, the
first flush usually comes and flushes from 13 to 15 days following seeding. When a flush is on
watering must be avoided. Watering is resumed when the flush is over. Harvesting is done in the
following manner:
1. Harvest the whole mushroom including the stump. Don?t leave any stump in the bed as
this would rot and in rotting the adjacent mushroom may be affected.
2. As much as possible care must be taken not to disturb the small buttons.
3. Mushrooms in the button stage of growth are more succulent, hence they are better
preferred than the fully opened ones.
4. Harvested mushroom may be placed in trays or in kaings.
Care in the Mushroom Bed
1. When the bed is made, it may be well to cover it with plastic sheet, gunny sack or any
suitable materials to protect it from the drying effect of the wind and to keep it humid.
2. After the removal of the plastic sheet don?t water the bed as the bed is still wet.
3. Watering should be done only in amounts, which would keep the surface moist and its
environs humid.

4. Watering may be done using a sprinkler, passing same over the bed and along the sides.
Avoid soaking the bed as this condition is equally harmful to the proper development of
the mushrooms as insufficient watering.
5. When the mushroom buttons start to form, water must be stopped until the flush is over.
6. Resume watering when the flush is over to coax another flush to come.
Materials and Methods II

hoe for tilling the soil

string

bamboo or wooden stand or bench

rice straw

urea fertilizer: 1-tsp./gallon water

newspaper for wetting

Procedure
1. Till an area about 4 meters long, one-half meter wide and 15 cm deep.
2. Dig a canal around this, about 30 cm wide and 15 cm deep.
3. Dry the straw very well, tie in bundles about 8 cm thick.
4. Cut the bundles of straw in same lengths, evenly.
5. Soak the bundles of straw in water for four hours.
6. Put the bamboo bench over the tilled soil. Spread the bundles of straw on the bench,
alternately arranging them in the first layer, all heads to the left in the next layer, all heads
to the right, etc. up to the fourth layer.
7. Crumple the newspaper and soak in the four liters water with 3 gms urea (3 gms urea or
1-1/2 tsp).
8. On thumb sized pieces of newspaper, plant the mycelium (mushroom seeds). About three
bottles of mycelium will be consumed for every 4 meters bed with six layers.

9. Plant the wet paper with mycelium 5 cm deep into the layers of straw about 5-8 cm away
from the edge and 10 cm from each other.
10. After 5-7 days, cover the top of the pile with a clear plastic sheet like a roof resting on the
bamboo, to maintain the 40%-50% heat that is just right for mushroom growth.
11. Mushroom Seeds, Supplies and other information
12. Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI)
Ms. Estrella D. Tuazon
Chief, Plant Quarantine Service
San Andres, Malate, Manila City
Tel No. (632) 523-9132
Fax No. (632) 524-2812
E-mail: bpi@edsamail.com.ph
13. Mushroom Producers Association of the Philippines, Inc.
c/o Daily Harvest Manufacturing Corporation
21 Railroad Street, Port Area, Manila
Tel. No. (632) 442-5074
Training and Seminar
14. Comprehensive Mushroom Growing (28 hrs / 4 days) 4,169
TLRC 633-6733 or 637-4018 loc 300, 304, 306

15. Sprinkle water 5-6 days after this preparation. Fill the canals around with water to repel
the insects and to maintain the right humidity. Stack up only until four layers during
Summer and 6 layers during the rainy season.
16. Do not water after this. On the 6 or 7 day if the weather is dry, water gently, using a
sprinkler. Repeat if necessary.
Harvesting Mushrooms
1. If the mushrooms are now umbrella-like, 10-14 days after planting, they may be
harvested. These will wilt in 24 hours. The closed ones or button-like last up to 48 hours.
2. Do not use scissors in harvesting because the parts that remain in the straw will rot.
Carefully twist the lower stem with your fingers so as to get it whole.

3. Spread the harvested mushroom on a basket for selection. Wash gently if these will be
cooked soon.
4. Let the straw bed rest for 7-10 days. In one area 4 meters and with six layers of straw,
about seven kilos of buttons or 12 kilos umbrella mushroom can be harvested.
Other Benefits of Mushroom1) Organic Matter Mushrooms decompose the dead bodies of
plants and animals serve as cleaning function in the environment. They can be used to
breakdown agricultural waste (rice, straw, sawdust, peanut shells, banana stalks, cotton and flax
waste, fruit pericarps, corn cobs, sugar cane bagasse, etc). One good thing about mushroom
culture is there is no wastage. After production, the mushroom bed can be converted into
fertilizer.2) Medicine Mushrooms have been known to possess the following actions:

Antibacterial

Antitumor

Hypocholesterolemic

Hallucinogens found in the mushrooms are helping psychiatrists in the treatment of

mental illness

3) Income minimum input (if you start from growing bags)

4) Adaptable to group involvement/division of labor
5) Environmentally sound
6) Can be integrated into existing agricultural system
Nutritional Value of Mushrooms
Many myths have been spread about mushrooms. One of the most inaccurate is that mushrooms
have no nutritional value. To properly consider them for their nutritional benefits, they must be
viewed from a dried weight perspective. And mushrooms give you maximum nutritional benefit
only upon cooking. Mushrooms are relatively high in protein, averaging about 20% of their dried
mass. Further they contribute a wide range of essential amino acids. Low in fat (between .3 and
2%) and high in fiber, mushrooms also provide several groups of vitamins, particularly thiamine,
riboflavin, niacin, biotin, and ascorbic acid. Now that research is confirming that many of these
species also stimulate the human immune systems, mushrooms are clearly becoming the gourmet
health food of the 21st century.
Mushroom has been attracting attention of mankind since ancient times and use of mushroom, as
food is as old as human civilization. It is very rich in protein, vitamins and minerals.
Unfortunately. It is realized that mushrooms did not receive universal acceptance over the years
since a number of naturally growing mushrooms are poisonous. Now the situation has been
changed because the cultivated edible mushrooms are totally safe for human consumption.