Agriculture Business Week

A contractual worker of the local government of Tarlac has developed an alternative way of reproducing mushroom spawns and other innovations in mushroom culture.

That’s Pablito Saiiniento of Dau, Mabalacat, Pampanga. He found that ipil-ipil or kakawate twigs can be used as a substrate in multiplying fungus mycelia or mushroom spawns. When made into wood chips, the twigs, said Sarmiento, are good alternative to potato-dextroseagar (PDA), which is the primary substrate in reproducing the fungus.

This 44-year-old worker who trained from the National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology of UP Los Banos learned this as he observed that fungus growth in decaying twigs of trees is more luxuriant and robust. Then he conducted experiments at home and determined the ideal sizes of wood chips to be used.

This technique is simple as preparation of PDA, claims Sarmiento, is long and tedious, hence it is prone to contamination. Moreover, mycelium is reportedly more viable with this method.

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Posted on March 22nd, 2010 under Fungi, Other Crops. Tags: Mushroom. Comments: 32

A whole day seminar on mushroom production is scheduled this Saturday, October 3, at the AANI Urban Farm at Kingsville Court, Antipolo City. The place is near Sumulong Highway.

Teddy Laurie who is an expert in producing spawns as well as growing the crop will conduct the seminar right at the AANI Urban Farm where he has put up a facility to produce planting materials, particularly fruiting bags of oyster mushroom.

Fruiting bags produced by Laurie are of such quality that they can remain productive for as long as eight months, according to him. Some fruiting bags from other sources usually remain productive for only a few weeks or months.

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Posted on September 30th, 2009 under Events, Fungi, Other Crops. Tags: Antipolo, Mushroom, Seminar. Comments: 30

The ancient civilizations of Egypt, Rome, and China knew of the importance of edible mushrooms as food. Egyptian pharaohs zealously kept the mushrooms for their own use, decreeing it was too delicate a morsel for commoners who could eat garlic!

The Romans restricted mushroom consumption to the nobility. Later, convinced that mushrooms gave their soldiers strength, the Romans permitted them to eat the fungus. The ancient Chinese called mushrooms the “divine fruit of immortality,” and Buddha is believed to have eaten them before being transported to nirvana.

Nutritionally speaking, mushrooms contain higher quality proteins than green plants, important minerals such as iron, phosphorus, potassium and calcium and nearly all vitamins, including vitamin D. Edible mushrooms are rich in vitamins B1 and B2. They also contain fibers, which stimulate digestion in humans, as well as other elements favorable for health. Another advantage is that they can be grown at home without any great effort.

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Posted on September 22nd, 2009 under Fungi, Income Booster, Other Crops. Tags: Mushroom. Comments: 17

The banana companies in Mindanao can make additional income from their banana stalks after harvest by processing them into fibers for the manufacture of paper. Normally, banana stalks are left to the elements to rot and be wasted after the fruits are harvested.

Dr. Shirley C. Agrupis and Rolyson B. Simpliciano, a biology professor of MMSU and her student, respectively, have found that the edible Pleurotus mushroom could be used to remove the lignin material from banana stalks and produce fibers for handmade paper making.

This could be considered a breakthrough since the banana industry produces voluminous amount of stalks that are normally considered waste. Moreover, their disposal is an added burden and entails additional operations cost.

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Posted on April 16th, 2009 under Fruits, Textile. Tags: Banana, Fiber, Mushroom, Pleurotus. Comments: 7

What started as a craving for mushroom 11 years ago has become a thriving agribusines of a 61-year-old mechanical engineer and his family today.

It may be odd, but that was how Jack Nagano of Barangay Mallorca in San Leonardo, Nueva Ecija started to become a mushroom, producer and processor. It started in 1996 when he was craving for mushroom which he, unfortunately, was not able to buy since he could not find someone selling some in his town.

Knowing that his favorite food has many health benefits, he was bothered why there was hardly one interested in cultivating and marketing mushrooms. Then he thought asking his neighbors – where he could buy mushroom spawns for he was already planning to grow mushrooms for himself.

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Posted on November 30th, 2008 under SPOTlight. Tags: Mushroom. Comments: 5