Enhancing food security: cultivation of oyster mushroom (Pleurotus sajor-caju) using agroforestry wastes

Maize cob, oil palm fibre and saw dust were screened for cultivation of oyster mushroom (Pleurotus sajor-caju) in a Completely Randomized Design consisting of nine treatments, replicated six times. The treatments are maize cob, boiled maize cob, oil palm fibre, boiled oil palm fibre, sawdust, mixture of oil palm fibre and sawdust, mixture of maize cob and oil palm fibre, mixture of maize cob and sawdust, mixture of maize cob, sawdust and oil palm fibre. The maize cob served as the control and the results showed that the maize cob naturally supported the mycelia growth and production of fruit bodies (312.89 g). Growth on mixture of maize cob and oil palm fibre was similar to that of maize cob but the yields are different (176.89 g). Oil palm fibre has a poor yield of 62.56 g. The result showed that unboiled oil palm fibre did not support the growth of mushrooms. The production of fruit bodies on the mixture of oil palm fibre and sawdust was scanty as well as the mixture of sawdust and maize cob. Statistically, mixture of sawdust and oil palm fibre and mixture of sawdust, maize cob and oil palm fibre are not significantly different (P>0.05) while all other substrates are significantly different (P<0.05) for the fresh weight at first flush. It also shows that boiled maize cob is the highest producing substrate at all flushes followed by unboiled maize cob and sawdust. The results showed that oyster mushroom (Pleurotus sajor-caju) can grow well on agroforestry wastes.