Effect of casing material fermented with thermophilic fungi on yield of Agaricus bisporus

Farm yard manure and spent mushroom compost based (3:1, v/v) casing material was fermented with thermophilic fungi and plain water to study their effect on yield of Agaricus bisporus. Out of various treatments, the plain water and Scytalidium thermophilum inoculated treatments incubated for 12 and 48 h respectively, yielded significantly higher mushroom yield over unfermented control without affecting the fruiting body quality. Major fraction of mushroom yield from the above fermented casing materials was harvested during first four weeks of cropping. Higher mushroom yield from fermented casing materials was attributed to the addition of exo-polysaccharides and utilization of available nitrogen from the casing materials during their fermentation by the fast multiplying microbes.