Matured Paddy straw mushroom
Matured Paddy straw mushroom

(Volvariella volvacea)

Paddy straw mushroom (Volvariella volvacea) also known as Chinese mushroom, ranks sixth among the cultivated mushrooms of the world. Being started cultivating in 1940 at Coimbatore, this mushroom could not make much head way with the time except in some coastal states like Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. This mushroom has several advantages like requirement of the tropical or sub-tropical climate, fast growth rate, easy cultivation technology and good acceptability at consumers’ level. The raw materials required for its cultivation are also available in abundance in country at very nominal rates. The high temperature requirement for its cultivation also makes it a good choice for adoption in round the year cultivation of mushrooms. Paddy straw mushroom contains good amount of protein, crude fibres and ash, all make it a health diet along with superior composition of various elements and essential amino acids.

Paddy straw mushroom (Volvariella volvacea), commonly known as the straw mushroom, or the Chinese mushroom, belongs to the family Pluteaceae (Kotl. & Pouz) of the Basidiomycetes (Singer, 1961). It is an edible mushroom of tropics and subtropics, and first cultivated in China in 1822 (Chang, 1969). Initially this mushroom was known as “Nanhua mushroom” after the name of Nanhua Temple in Northern Guangdong Province in China. In the beginning, paddy straw mushroom was cultivated by Buddhist monks for their own table, however, by 1875 it was sent as a tribute to the royal family. It is presumed that cultivation of this mushroom begun before the 18th century, almost 300 years ago (Chang, 1977). Around 1932 to 1935, this mushroom was introduced into the Philippines, Malaysia and other South Asian countries by Chinese (Baker, 1934; Chang, 1974) .

Paddy straw mushroom is also known as “warm mushroom” as it grows at relatively high temperature. It is a fast growing mushroom and under favourable growing conditions total crop cycle is completed with in 4-5 weeks time. This mushroom can use wide range of cellulosic materials and the C: N ratio needed is 40 to 60, quite high in comparison to other cultivated mushrooms. It can be grown quite quickly and easily on uncomposted substrates such as paddy straw and cotton waste or other cellulosic organic waste materials (Ahlawat & Kumar, 2005). It has been considered as one of the easiest mushrooms to cultivate. Paddy straw mushroom was first cultivated in India in 1940, however, its systematic cultivation was first attempted in 1943. Presently this mushroom is more popular in coastal states like Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal, however, it can also be cultivated in most of the states, where agroclimatic conditions suit and agrowaste is available in plenty.

LIFE CYCLE AND GENETICS OF BREEDING SYSTEM

In contrast to green plants, most mushroom species are haploid, and diploid phase is normally transient and restricted to the basidium. Paddy straw mushroom has distinction from other mushrooms. Being homothallic species, the individual uninucleate haploid self fertile spores germinate to produce mycelia and completes the life cycle without the need of a mating type factor. Clamp connections are entirely absent in Volvariella spp. In V. volvacea, the hyphal cells are multinucleate, clamp connections are absent and basidiospore receives only one nucleus each following meiosis. Wide variation exists in growth rate and other characteristics of single spore mycelia. It is still difficult to call this mushroom as primary homothallic as the research carried out by different workers have given different explanations behind existence of self fertility among majority of the basidiospores and non-existence in minority of the basidiospores.

BIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS

The fruiting body of the paddy straw mushroom is divided into six different developmental stages viz., pinhead, tiny button, button, egg, elongation and mature stage. Each has its own morphology and anatomy.

1. Pinhead stage:The pinhead stage is of the size of a pinhead in which the veil is spotlessly white (Fig. 1). In vertical section, the pileus and stipe are not visible. The whole structure is a knot of hyphal cells.

2. Tiny button: Both the tiny button and pinhead stages are formed from interwoven hyphae. In a young tiny button, only the top of the veil is brown, while the rest is white (Fig. 1).

It is round in shape and if a vertical cut is made through the button, the lamellae are seen as a narrow band on the lower surface of pileus.

3. Button stage: This stage of paddy straw mushroom is sold in the market at a premium price. In this stage, the whole structure is wrapped by a coat, which is called as the universal veil (Fig. 1). Inside the veil, closed pileus exists. As such the stipe is not visible but in longitudinal section of mushroom it is visible.

4. Egg stage: This stage also fetches premium price in the market, at this stage, the pileus is pushed out of the veil and the veil remains as volva (Fig. 2). The stipe is again not visible at this stage. The lamellae of this stage do not bear basidiospores. The size of the pileus remains very small upto this stage.

5. Elongation stage:The pileus remains close and the size is smaller than mature stage while the stipe attains the maximum length (Fig. 2). The stipe is marked with water proof drawing ink.

6. Mature stage: At mature stage, the structure is divided into three regions: (i) the pileus or cap, (ii) stipe or stalk and (iii) the volva or cup (Fig. 3). The pileus is connected in the centre with stipe and is of usually 6 to 12 cm in diameter.

The fully grown pileus is circular in shape with an entire margin and smooth surface. The surface is dark grey at centre and light grey near the margin. The lower surface of the pileus bears lamellae and their number varies from 280 to 380. The lamellae vary in size from full size to one quarter size of pileus. Under the microscope, each lamella is seen to be composed of three layers of interwoven hyphae. The outermost layer is called the hymenium and it forms the club-shaped basidia and the cystedia. The basidia bear basidiospores. Usually one basidium bears four basidiospores. The basidiospores vary in shape; egg shaped, spherical or ellipsoidal. The colour of basidiospores again vary and it may be of light yellow, pink or dark brown.

Another important part of mature fruiting body is the stipe, which connects the volva and the pileus. The length of the stipe depends upon the size of the pileus and it is usually about 3 to 8 cm in length and 0.5 to 1.5 cm in diameter. It is white, fleshy and without any annulus. At the base of stipe remains the volva, which is basically a thin sheet of interwoven hyphae around the bulbous base of the stipe. The volva is fleshy, white and cup shaped with irregular margins. The base of volva bears rhizomorphs, which absorb the nutrition from the substrate.

Nutritive Value

The excellent unique flavour and textural characteristics distinguish this mushroom from other edible mushrooms. The nutritive value of straw mushroom is affected by the method of crop raising and the stages of maturation. The available data reveal that on fresh weight basis, it contains around 90% water, 30-43% crude protein, 1-6% fat, 12-48% carbohydrates, 4-10% crude fibre and 5.13% ash. The fat content increases with the maturation stage and a fully mature fruiting body contains as high as 5% fat. The N-free carbohydrates increase from button stage to the egg stage levels, off at the elongation and drops at the mature stage. The crude fibre remains almost at same level in first three stages and increases at mature stage. The egg stage contains highest level of protein which decreases at mature stage. Ash content remains almost similar at all the developmental stages.

The straw mushroom is known to be rich in minerals such as potassium, sodium and phosphorus. Potassium constitutes the major fraction of major elements followed by sodium and calcium. The levels of K, Ca and Mg remain almost same at different developmental stages except that of Na & P which drop at the elongation and the mature stages. The contents of minor elements, namely Cu, Zn and Fe do not vary much at different stages of development.

The levels of thiamin and riboflavin in paddy straw mushroom are lower than Agaricus bisporus and Lentinula edodes, while niacin is at par with these two mushrooms (FAO, 1972; Chang, 1979). At all stages, lysine is the most abundant essential amino acid and glutamic acid and aspartic acid are the most abundant nonessential amino acids. Tryptophan and methionine are lowest among essential amino acids. The level of phenylalanine increases nearly one fold at elongation stage, while lysine decreases to about half of its value at the button stage.

The straw mushroom is comparable to that of other mushrooms both in terms of amino acid composition and the percentage of essential amino acids in the total amino acids. In fact, paddy straw mushroom contains high percentage of essential amino acids in comparison to other mushrooms and the abundance of lysine is very important. The other three amino acids namely leucine, isoleucine and methionine are low in paddy straw mushroom as compared to other mushrooms.

Mushroom Cultivation Technology

A variety of waste materials have been used for cultivation of the paddy straw mushroom, which include: paddy straw (Chang, 1965), water hyacinth (Chang & Mok, 1971), oil palm bunch (Naidu, 1971), oil palm pericarp waste (Graham & Yong, 1974; Yong & Graham, 1973), banana leaves & saw dust (Chua & Ho, 1973), cotton waste (Chang, 1974, Hu et al; 1973 & Yau and Chang, 1972), sugarcane bagasse (Hu et al., 1973, 1976 & 1976) etc. Paddy straw mushroom prefers high cellulose, low lignin containing substrate and produces a family of cellulolytic enzymes (Ahlawat et al., 2005). The cultivation of Volvariella is less sophisticated, less extensive and can be rewarding in tropical & subtropical climates (Sukara et al., 1985). Before 1970, it was only paddy straw, which was in use for paddy straw mushroom cultivation.

However, in 1971, cotton waste (Ginning mill waste) was first introduced as the heating material for growing of straw mushroom followed by complete replacement of paddy straw with cotton waste by 1973 in Hong Kong. This was practically the turning point in the history of paddy straw mushroom because cotton waste gives a higher and more stable yield (30 to 40%) along with early fructification and harvesting. After adoption of cotton waste, the cultivation of paddy straw mushroom has become semi-industrialized in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, China & Thailand.

The common methods employed for paddy straw mushroom cultivation are given below:

A) CONVENTIONAL METHOD

The different steps involved in this method are as follows:  Preparation of paddy straw bundles of 0.75 – 1.0 kg (80- 95cm long & 12.16cm wide) preferably from hand threshed paddy.

  • Immersing of bundles in clean water for 12-18 hours in a cemented water tank.
  • Draining out of excess water by placing bundles on raised bamboo platform.
  • Making bed by placing 4 bundles side by side and another four bundles similarly but from the opposite side, forming one layer of eight bundles. The open ends of bundles from opposite sides should overlap in the middle.
  • Forming of second, third & fourth layer by intermittent spawning between first and second, second and third and third and fourth layers.
  • Spawning on entire surface of the layers of the beds at a space of 5cm apart leaving margin of 12-15cm from edges.
  • Sprinkling of red gram powder over the spawned surface.
  • Using 500 gm spawn and 150 gm of red gram powder for a bed of 30-40 kg of dried paddy straw.
  • Pressing of bed from the top and covering with clean plastic sheet for maintaining required humidity (80-85%) and temperature (30-350C).
  • Removing of plastic sheet after 7-8 days of spawning and maintaining temperature of 28-320C and relative humidity about 80%
  • Mushroom will start appearing after 4-5 days of sheet removal and will continue for next 20 days.
  • After crop harvest the substrate can be used for manure in the field.

Tutorial Video

Note:

For hot regions the width of bed can be decreased by placing first layer of 4 bundles followed by another layer of 4 bundles from opposite side but directly on the first layer. It is to be followed in 3rd, 4th & 5th layers. The 5th layer can be of bundles or of loosened paddy straw .

The size of beds may vary from 100cm x 100cm x 100cm; 60cm x 60cm x 30cm and 60cm x 60cm x 120cm .

  • Alternatively the beds can be prepared with the help of boxes of 80cm x 80cm x 10cm and of 60cm x 40cm x 30cm size. In this method the material is to be chopped to a uniform length of 20cm and followed by filling in box parallel with the length of the box. It is followed by soaking of the material along with box in 2% CaCO3 solution for 2 hrs or until the straw becomes dark brown. It is followed by draining of excess water and spawning of substrate at a depth of 5 cm from the sides of the box followed by plugging the openings with previously water soaked newsprint.

The boxes are to be incubated at a temperature of 35 to 380C with RH of 75% for next 4-5 days. It is followed by lowering of temperature to 28 to 300C with RH of 75 to 85% along with introduction of fresh air. Use only superfine mist for maintaining proper level of humidity in the room. The bedding material can also be sprayed with fine mist if it is getting dried. Controlling of ventilators is must for maintaining optimum aeration and temperature inside the room.

There are several other methods of cultivation of paddy straw which can increase the biological efficiency and yield by 10-25%. To learn more you can enroll into the advance level training course. n this training program you shall learn everything about fungi, and the genus Volvariella and It's cultivation technology. The course covers are the vital areas like cultivation, farm design, substrate selection, spawn, pest and disease control , food processing and marketing.

The course design is hybrid, you will learn through our online program ( Videos, eBooks, Audiobook, Live webinars, Doubt clearing sessions) and also you will receive mushroom spawn, so that you can carry on with your practical assignment. Our instructor shall guide you through out the practical session.

Bonus:

You shall be invited to exclusive members community in WhatsApp and Facebook , where you can learn from peers. For marketing purpose we do post regular buy leads and their contact details through out the India and world for our community member.

To join the Mushroom Farming Training program & buy mushroom spawn,

Visit: https://bmmushroom.shop

Harvesting and Processing

The straw mushroom is harvested before the volva breaks or just after rupture. These stages are called as the button and egg stages. This mushroom grows at high temperature and moisture, therefore, its growth is very fast. So, for harvesting of straw mushroom at good condition it has to be harvested twice or thrice in a day (morning, noon & afternoon). This mushroom usually takes 9-10 days from spawning to first harvest of crop and the first flush normally lasts for 3 days, which constitutes about 70 to 90% of the expected mushroom yield. The intervening period of 3 to 5 days requires thorough watering and maintenance of optimum conditions inside the cropping rooms. The next flush will again lasts for 2-3 days and yields less mushroom than the first flush. The second flush adds only 10 to 30% of the total crop.

The mature fruiting bodies should be carefully separated from the beds/substrate by lifting and shaking slightly left or right and then twisting them off. The mushrooms should not be cut off by knives or scissors from the base of the stalk, because the stalk left behind on the bed/substrate will rot and be attacked by pests and contaminated by moulds, which in turn will destroy the mushroom bed.

PROCESSING

Straw mushroom is more perishable than other edible mushrooms and can not be stored at 40C as it undergoes autolysis at this temperature (Ahlawat et al. 2006). This mushroom can be stored at a temperature of 10 to 150C for 3 days and little more at 200C or under controlled atmosphere storage. The loss of moisture in 4 days stored mushroom could be as high as 40-50% in unpacked mushroom, while it can be reduced to 10% on packaging in perforated polythene begs.

Straw mushroom can be processed by canning, pickling and drying. However, practically the straw mushroom from China to Hong Kong is transported in wooden cases, in which the two compartments of the case are filled with ice, while the central compartment with mushroom. On the other hand, this mushroom is transported by air from Taiwan to Thailand in bamboo baskets with central aeration tunnel and packed with dry ice wrapped in paper. However, like button mushroom, more research work is needed in this mushroom also for studying the effect of blanching, post harvest storage, soaking and other chemical treatment before canning in order to increase the drained weight and improve the quality of the canned product.

Air Drying: Sun drying is very common in straw mushroom. The mushrooms are cut longitudinally before drying. Drying by hot air is better than sun drying because mushroom retains better flavour and colour. Drying takes place in 24 hours at 300C. However, mushroom can also be dried with temperature beginning at 400C than increasing gradually until it reaches at 450C for eight hours. Blanching of mushrooms for 3-4 minutes in hot water or 4-5 minutes in steam helps in retaining better colour of the dried product during storage. Pretreatment of mushrooms with 0.1% KMS or combination of 0.05% KMS and 0.05% citric acid significantly improves the quality of the dehydrated product (Dev Raj et. al., 2004).

The optimum drying temperature, time and critical moisture content for drying of the paddy straw mushroom has been recorded to be 600C, 7 hrs & 5%, respectively (Singh et. al., 1996). Fresh mushrooms are reduced to about one-tenth of their original weight after dehydration. Dried mushrooms should be placed in air tight containers, to prevent moisture absorption. Dried mushrooms can be powdered and then used for making soup, ketchup or curry after reconstitution in water.

Freeze Drying:Freshly picked mushrooms are to be frozen at – 200C and then freeze dried. The finished produce on rehydration used to be better than air-dried product. On reconstitution it becomes almost indistinguishable in appearance from the fresh ones.

Diseases/Insect-Pests and Their Management In Mushroom

Cultivation of paddy straw mushroom at industrial scale is a recent development and not much attention has been paid to the diseases and insect-pests aspects of this mushroom. The limited information available has been given in the under mentioned paragraphs.

A) PESTS

The common pests of straw mushroom are the mites, millipedes, grubs, nematodes and earthworms. Mites contribute to the maximum damage of the mycelium and the buttons. Among other pests, the damage caused by the nematodes is also very significant which has been discussed in detail.

Nematodes: Infestation of nematodes occurs if the compost has not been properly pasteurized. High water content of compost does not allow proper fermentation to occur and the temperature does not rise sufficiently high and consequently the compost remains immature. The high moisture does not allow to raise the temperature of the center of the bed sufficiently high (+500C) to kill the nematodes and thus nematodes survive even after pasteurization. On spawning, the temperature further comes down and suits to the nematodes for their rapid multiplication.

Nematodes eat mushroom mycelium and thus stop the supply of nutrients to the growing pinheads which consequently die. The mushroom house, tools, materials and place of composting, all are capable of harbouring nematodes for their subsequent spread to the compost in the beds. The active stage of nematodes can not tolerate a temperature of 500C. Considering the above facts, the following suitable strategy can be adopted for obtaining a quality compost.

*Maintaining of compost moisture between 60-65%

*Injection of steam after 10-12 hours after filling as it will allow the nematodes to come on the surface of the compost. The nematodes on compost surface will be killed faster during pasteurization than those which are in the center of the compost.

B) DISEASES

As such not much research work has been carried out on the diseases aspect of this mushroom. However, Coprinus sp. damages the crop to the greatest extent being having the same growth requirements as of the Volvariella spp. The other competitor moulds which have been recorded are the Trichoderma sp., Penicillium sp. and Mucor sp., which mainly come because of the improper pasteurization of the substrate or because of the use of contaminated spawn.

Coprinus - Fungal competitor of Paddy straw mushroom: The straw mushroom has several competitors, but Coprinus is the most frequently encountered. Coprinus completes its life cycle in a much shorter duration (1 week) than the straw mushroom, which takes around 9 to 10 days. Hence, Coprinus becomes a very strong competitor of straw mushroom.

The pileus of Coprinus fruiting body opens quickly and then overnight the mushroom undergoes auto-digestion, leaving spores as a black ink of fluid. It leads to a strong odour in the residue and followed by the growth of green mould. That is usually Trichoderma. Coprinus has the same growth requirements as of the V. volvacea and hence, damages the mushroom beds. The one major difference between two fungi is the requirement of nitrogen level, as Coprinus requires almost 4 times more nitrogen than Volvariella.

The optimal pH requirement for two fungi also differs and Volvariella grows best at 9.0 pH, while Coprinus at 5.0 pH. Considering the differences in these two requirements, growers can manipulate the growing conditions favouring Volvariella than Coprinus. The important steps can be:

*Keeping C: N ratio of the compost in the range of 40:1 to 50:1 and if any nitrogen source is to be added, it should be added in the beginning of the composting, as it will be utilized properly during fermentation.

*The moisture content should be maintained in the range of 60 to 65% to obtain high temperature fermentation. The wet compost will decay fast and will promote the growth of Coprinus.

COMMON PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED DURING CROPPING AND THEIR ORIGIN

Poor growth of the fungi:Insufficient food, inadequately beaten or too compact compost bed or poor quality spawn.

Presence of contaminants: Temperature might not have been enough high during pasteurization to kill the contaminants or the steam might not have reached upto the core of the compact compost, or the use of contaminated spawn.

Strong ammonia smell: Excessive use of nitrogen source or improper conditioning at Phase-II of composting.

Mycelium drying out: Scarcity of water or excessive ventilation.

Failure to form fruitbody: Deficiency of light, degenerated spawn or too old spawn, excessively high temperature or poor ventilation.

Death of young mushroom: Degeneration of spawn, insect infestation, insufficient oxygen, excessive CO2, sharp temperature fluctuations or diseases caused by fungi or virus.

Growth of Coprinus: Excessive nitrogen, poor quality straw or excess heat of the compost bed.

Conclusion

As we know cultivation of mushrooms and in particular the tropical mushrooms is the easiest way of agro-waste utilization in the shortest possible duration with an additional advantage of producing a quality food, possessing good proportion of essential amino acids, elements, fibre, ash and fatty acids.

The additional advantage with paddy straw mushroom is, its shorter life cycle, fast growth, simple cultivation technique and high acceptability at consumers’ level because of its unique texture and aroma. The bottle-neck of lower biological efficiency has almost been sorted out after bringing in of the cotton waste as the substrate; however, much more research work is needed to be done for developing suitable processing technology like of the button and other commercially grown mushrooms.

Free Webinar workshop Registration Form:https://forms.gle/Mh87L2mMFipWcAqi9

Download materials, eBooks, Marketing Community: https://bmmushroom.com/m/login?r=%2Fmembers-only-exclusive-1

Email:bm@bmmushroom.com

Official Mob/Whatsapp no: +917363970073

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/BMMUSHROOM/

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/bmmushroomspawn/

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/bm-mushroom-41a2a4221/

Twitter:https://twitter.com/BmMushroom

Previous Webinars on mushroom:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBpzNTYfiX-hgCCU2zb5WWX796iWUp15C

YouTube channel for learning:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvg8B9ecOBVyN2_kkHB-ayw

References

  1. Ahlawat OP (2003). Survivability of paddy straw mushroom cultures on storing under different conditions. Indian J Mushroom XXI (1&2): 13-18. 2. Ahlawat OP, Ahlawat K and Dhar BL (2005). Influence of lignocellulolytic enzymes on substrate colonization and yield in monosporous isolates and parent strains of Volvariella volvacea. Indian J Microbiol 45(3): 205-210. 3. Ahlawat OP, Pardeep Kumar, Rai RD and Tewari RP (2006). Variations in biochemical properties of different strains of Volvariella volvacea (Bull Fr.) Sing. under different conditions. Indian J Micobiol 46(1): 31-37. 4. Ahlawat OP and Kumar Satish (2005). Traditional and modern cultivation technologies for the paddy straw mushroom (Volvariella spp.). In Frontiers in Mushroom Biotechnology (Rai RD, Upadhyay RC and Sharma SR, Eds.) pp. 157- 164, National Research Centre for Mushroom, Solan (HP), India. 5. Baker JA (1934). Mushroom growing in Wellesley and Penang Provinces. Malay Agric J 22: 25-28. 6. Chang ST (1965). Cultivation of the straw mushroom in S.E. China. World Crops 17: 47-49. 7. Chang ST (1969). A cytological study of spore germination of Volvariella volvacea. Bot Mag 82: 102- 109. 8. Chang ST (1974). Production of straw mushroom (Volvariella volvacea) from cotton wastes. Mushroom J 21: 348-354. 9. Chang ST (1977). The origin and early development of 34 Cultivation Technology of Paddy Straw Mushroom (Volvariella volvacea) straw mushroom cultivation. Econ Bot 31: 374-376. 10. Chang ST (1979). Cultivation of Volvariella volvacea from cotton waste composts. Mushroom Sci 10(2): 609-618. 11. Chang ST (1982). Cultivation of Volvariella mushrooms in South East Asia. In Tropical Mushrooms – Biology, Nature and Cultivation Methods (Chang ST and Quimio TH, Eds.) pp. 221-252, Chinese University Press, Hong Kong. 12. Chang ST and Miles PG (2004). Volvariella – A high temperature cultivated mushroom. In MUSHROOM – Cultivation, Nutritional Value, Medical Effect and Environmental Impact (Chang, ST and Miles PG, Eds.) pp 277-304, CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida. 13. Chang ST and Quimio TH (1982). Tropical Mushrooms – Biological Nature and Cultivation Methods, Chinese University Press, Hong Kong. 14. Cheng S and Mok SH (1971). Preliminary experiment of water hyacinth used as a medium for the cultivation of paddy straw mushroom. J Hort Soc China (Taiwan) 17: 194-197. 15. Chua SE and Ho SY (1973). Fruiting on sterile agar and cultivation of straw mushroom (Volvariella species) on paddy straw, banana leaves and saw dust. World Crops (London) 25: 90- 91. 16. Dev Raj, Gupta Pradeep, Ahlawat OP and Rai, RD (2004). Effect of pretreatment on the quality characteristics of the dehydrated paddy straw mushroom (V. volvacea Bull.). Indian J Mush XXII (142): 24-28. 17. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) (1972). Food composition table for use in East Asia. Food Policy and Nutrition Division, Food and Agriculture Organisation, Organ, U.N., Rome. 18. Graham KM and Yong YC (1974). Studies on the paddy mushroom (Volvariella volvacea) II. Effect of bed depth on yield in oil palm 35 Cultivation Technology of Paddy Straw Mushroom (Volvariella volvacea) pericarp waste, Malay Agric Res 3: 1-6. 19. Hu KY (1985). Indoor cultivation of straw mushroom in Hong Kong. Mushroom Newsl Trop 6(2): 4-9. 20. Hu KJ, Song SF and Lin P (1973). Experiments on Chinese mushroom cultivation, I. The comparison of cultivating materials. J Taiwan Agric Res 22: 145- 148. 21. Hu KJ, Song SF and Lin P (1976). The comparison of composts made of different raw materials for Volvariella volvacea. Mushroom Sci 9(1): 687-690. 22. Hu KJ, Song SF and Lin P and Peng JT (1976). Studies on sugarcane rubbish for Chinese Mushroom Culture and its growth factor. Mushroom Sci 9(1): 691-700. 23. Naidu NR (1971). Cultivation of paddy straw mushroom, Volvariella volvacea (Fr.) Sing. using soil palm bunch waste as a medium. Planter 47: 190- 193. 24. Quimio TH (1993). Indoor cultivation of the straw mushroom, Volvariella volvacea. Mushroom Research 2(2): 87-90. 25. Singer R (1961). Mushroom and Truffles: Botany, Cultivation and Utilization, Leonard Hill, London. 26. Singh A, Keshervani GP and Gupta OP (1996). Dehydration and steeping preservation of paddy straw mushroom (Volvariella volvacea). Mushroom Research 5: 39-42. 27. Sukara E, Hendrarto IB and Dickinson CH (1985). The cultivation of the paddy straw mushroom, Bull Br Mycol Soc 19(2): 129-132. 28. Thakur MP, Godara DR, Shukla CS and Sharma RL (2003). Recent advances in the production technology of paddy straw mushroom (Volvariella volvacea). In: Current Vistas in Mushroom Biology and Production. (Upadhyay RC, Singh SK and Rai RD Eds.) pp. 194-209, Mushroom Society of India, NRCM, Solan, India. 36 Cultivation Technology of Paddy Straw Mushroom (Volvariella volvacea) 29. Verma RN (2002). Cultivation of paddy straw mushroom (Volvariella spp.). In Recent Advances in the Cultivation Technology of Edible Mushrooms. (Verma, RN and Vijay B, Eds.) pp. 221-220, National Research Centre for Mushroom, Solan (HP), India. 30 Yau CK and Chang ST (1972). Cotton waste for indoor cultivation of straw mushroom. World Crops 24: 302-303. 31. Yong YC and Graham KM (1973). Studies on the paddy mushroom (Volvariella volvacea). I. Use of oil palm pericarp waste as an alternative substrate. Malay Agric Res 2: 15-22. 32. Zakia Bano and Singh, MS (1972). J Food Sci Tech 9(1): 13. IMPORTANT BOOKS FOR FURTHER READINGS 1. Frontiers in Mushroom Biotechnology (Rai RD, Upadhyay RC and Sharma SR, Eds.), National Research Centre for Mushroom, Solan (HP), India (2005). 2. Tropical Mushrooms – Biology, Nature and Cultivation Methods (Chang ST and Quimio TH, Eds.) pp. 221-252, Chinese University Press, Hong Kong (1982). 3. MUSHROOM – Cultivation, Nutritional Value, Medical Effect and Environmental Impact (Chang ST and Miles PG, Eds.) pp 277-304, CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida (2004). 4. Current Vistas in Mushroom Biology and Production. (Upadhyay RC, Singh SK and Rai RD Eds.), Mushroom Society of India, NRCM, Solan, India (2003). 5. Recent Advances in the Cultivation Technology of Edible Mushrooms. (Verma, RN and Vijay B, Eds.) pp. 221-220, National Research Centre for Mushroom, Solan (HP), India (2002). 6. Biology and Cultivation of Edible Mushrooms. (Kaul TN and Dhar BL, Eds.), Westville Publishing House, New Delhi, India (2007) p. 225 . O.P. Ahlawat R.P. Tewar National Research Centre for Mushroom (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) Chambaghat, Solan-173 213 (HP) .