Breeding Two Species of Pleurotus spp. Fungi on Different Local Agricultural Wastes

Abstract

Abstract Study was conducted in Desert Studies Center, Al-Anbar University on June, 2019, where two strains of Oyster Mushroom Pleurotus ostratus were bred. The first is from Egypt, Nutritional Fungi Lab, Cairo University and the second from Protection Department, College of Agriculture, Al-Anbar University. They were bred on medium potato dextrose agar (PDA) which is used as a inoculum source for other media. Dates seeds and wheat straw were used as carriers for fungal pollen production. Both strains were grown on local cultural wastes in two experiments: the first is in vivo to determine the effect of waste extracts (dates seeds, chimplan, sesbania and wheat straw) on the rate of fungal mycelium growth on a solid medium and the biomass formed on a liquid medium where the results of mycelial growth rate on solid medium showed the dominance of F1 strain significantly on strain F2 with growth rate of 6.825 cm, whereas the medium prepared of wheat straw and chimplan has dominated with highest significant mycelia growth rate of 6.717 and 6.693 cm successively. The second experiment is the productive for both strains and included three factors: (M) the medium type that included seven fusions, (T1) wheat straw + urea, (T2) wheat straw + 10% chimplan, (T3) wheat straw + 10% dates seeds, (T4) wheat straw + 10% sesbania, (T5) wheat straw + 5% chimplan + 5% dates seeds, (T6) wheat straw + 5% chimplan + 5% sesbania, (T7) wheat straw + 5% dates seeds + 5% sesbania. The second factor is the carrier type (S) which included using wheat grains (W) and dates seeds (D) and the third factor is both fungal strains (F), to test the mycelium growth on agricultural wastes as well as the carrier role. The fungal mycelium growth results for various types of local agricultural wastes stated that the least duration for fungal mycelium growth was 26 and 26.17 days with both media T4 and T5 successively, and the longest duration was with treatment T7 at rate 39.25 days. The strain F2 insignificantly exceeded the strain F1 with time rate 29.57 days, and the carrier W has insignificantly exceeded the carrier D with a time rate 29.88 days.