Maize cob: A suitable substrate for making planting spawn

In recent years the mushroom cultivation technology has traveled far a head. The domestication of various mushroom species has been tried globally for food as well as medicinal purposes.

Spawn developed on maize cob substrate 
Photo © Dr. Siddhant Oys

For an amateur and professional cultivator, the training facilities for cultivation are now being imported by various research institutions and universities. One of the main resources of this discipline is the availability of spawn which is still produced by specialized and skilled personnel, institutions and mushroom laboratories.  Furthermore, the cost of spawn has become another important factor which does not promote the growers. The first important priority of the profession is to minimize the production cost of spawn without any detrimental effect on mushroom yield.

The spawn is generally referred to as seeds of mushroom. Its quality has the same effect as the seeds of higher plants on crop to achieve higher yield. In majority of cases the wheat grain is used to prepare the spawn. Unfortunately, the ever increasing demand of food grains for human consumption leaves little scope for their use in spawning making. A number of other materials, mostly agricultural waste which are of no use and are available in plenty can also be tried for this purpose. The type of wastes available varies from region to region. Used tea leaves, ipil ipil leaves, cotton waste, rice husk, lotus seed shell are such substrates which has been utilized by different workers in various part of the world.

In India, maize is an important crop which covers a sizable acreage. After the grain is harvested, the cob is either burnt negligently or thrown away as per convenience. In our laboratory, the chopped cobs have been tried successfully as a possible source of planting spawn substrate. On the basis of results obtained, mushroom growers are advised to use of cob spawn in the combination with grain spawn (1:1) for the cultivation of different Pleurotus species.

Source- C.S. Singh and Siddhant (2005): Maize cob- A new substrate for planting spawn. J. Basic appl. Mycol. 4(I&II): 71-74.