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Cultivation of White Button Mushroom (Agaricus

bisporus) under Evaporatively-cooled Mud House
Condition

Article · June 2010

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 Bangladesh J. Mushroom. 4(1): 13-18, 2010 (June)

Cultivation of White Button Mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) under

Evaporatively-cooled Mud House Condition

T. Arumuganathan1, R. D. Rai, R. P. Tewari, Rajesh Kumar, Vinay Khare and Shwet

Kamal
National Research Centre for Mushroom (Indian Council of Agricultural Research)
Chambaghat, Solan-173 213 (Himachal Pradesh), India

Abstract
An evaporatively-cooled mud house structure of size 32′ x 12′ x 8′6′′ was developed and
investigated for its suitability for growing white button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus).
Evaporative cooling pads of size 10 mm thickness were made up of partal (Abies pindrow) wood
shavings and installed in the side walls of mud house structure. Compost was prepared by standard
long method of composting and cultivation trials of button mushroom strain S-11 were carried out
in the newly developed evaporatively cooled mud house. The relative humidity and temperature
inside the cropping rooms were significantly differed from the outside atmosphere. The outside
atmospheric temperature and relative humidity ranged from 7 to 32.5°C and 9 to 92 %, respectively
during the period of study where as the temperature and humidity inside the evaporatively-cooled
mud house ranged between 17 to 24°C and 79 to 90 %, respectively. The button mushroom yield
obtained from the evaporatively-cooled mud house was 13.4 %. The mud house was found quite
suitable for seasonal cultivation of white button mushroom in the off-season for small and marginal
growers.

Key words: Evaporatively-cooled mud house, button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus,

temperature, relative humidity

INTRODUCTION
Button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) in India is grown by small, marginal and large
growers. The resource poor small and marginal growers largely depends upon season and
they produce mushroom during winter season with old low cost production system but
contribute significantly to the total output of mushroom (Arumuganathan et al., 2005). Such
type of seasonal mushroom growing in India is mainly confined to the hill state of Himachal
Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand and some part of Tamilnadu, Haryana, Punjab,
Orissa, Karnataka and Delhi (Singh et al., 1995). The seasonal growers, making use of
natural low temperature in the winter season and cultivate a minimum of one button

1Present address: Central Plantation Crops Research Institute, Kasaragod, Kerala - 671 124,
India. E-mail address: tanathan@rediffmail.com
14 Arumuganathan et al.

mushroom crop in their locality. But they have no control over the prevailing relative
humidity and temperature of the atmosphere to maintain them inside the growing rooms,
which is the basic and essential requirement to raise the button mushroom crop. In semi-
urban areas, normally the seasonal growing rooms are built with simple brick walls with roof
made of asbestos sheets and a false ceiling. These rooms are wholly depending upon the
prevailing climatic condition (Dhar and Arumuganathan, 2005). In rural areas, the mushroom
growing rooms are made by mud and button mushroom crop is raised in the months of
November to January. The objective of the study was to introduce the evaporative cooling
pads in the existing mud house structure so as to enable the seasonal growers to raise one
more crop during the months of April to May. This paper deals in finding the suitability of
cost effective mud-house installed with evaporative cooling pads for raising button
mushroom crop.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Mushroom growing room was built at National Research Centre for Mushroom, Solan,
Himachal Pradesh, India using mud, which is available plenty in the rural areas. The property
of the mud is to keep the room warmer in the winter and cooler during the summer. The
overall dimensions of the mud house used for the study was 32′ x 12′ x 8′6′′. The walls were
made up of mud and cement plastering was done to protect the wall from environmental
factors and also to provide stability to the walls. The thickness of the wall was 1′8′′ in all the
four sides. The roof was made with wooden frame work over which the mud was plastered to
arrest the free fall of sunrays inside the growing rooms, to protect the room from temperature
variation and to arrest the free entry of air into growing room. Besides the front door (7′ x 3′)
and back door (7′ x 3′), two ventilators of size 1′6′′ x 3′ and two windows of size 4′ x 3′ were
provided on the side walls for proper exchange of air inside the room through the evaporative
cooling pads. However, an exhaust fan was also fixed in the lower side of the room to ease
the removal of carbon di-oxide gas from the growing room and another exhaust fan was fixed
on the top left corner of the room for making the positive pressure inside the room. So that,
during the working of evaporative cooling system, fresh air from outside will be sucked
through the evaporative cooling pads and it provides the entry of huge quantity of chilled air
inside the room. Four Iron racks of size 5′ x 3′x 5′6′′ having 4 tires were kept in the room
leaving a free space of 2 feet between the racks and sidewalls for accessibility and easy
workability. These racks can hold a compost capacity of 2-3 tons of button mushroom
compost in pp bags. Fig. 1a shows the picture of the mud house before installing the
evaporative cooling system.

The evaporative cooling pads were provided in the windows (2 Nos.) and ventilators (2 Nos.).
The cooling pads of size 10 mm thickness were made using the partal (Abies pindrow) wood
shavings and bamboo. These cooling pads were installed in the windows and ventilators and
over which a G.I pipe of ¾′′ diameter was provided. Two mm holes at a distance gap of 10
Cultivation of white button mushroom under evaporatively-cooled mud house 15

cm were made on the pipe provided over the cooling pads and the pipe was finally connected
with the overhead tank for continuous water supply by gravity flow. Fig. 1b shows the mud
house with evaporative cooling pads and Fig. 1c shows the evaporative cooling pads with
water supply pipe.

Fig. 1b. Mud house with evaporative

Fig. 1a. Mud house cooling pad system

Fig. 1c. Evaporative cooling pad with water supply line.

In order to raise the button mushroom crop in the mud house, button mushroom compost was
prepared by long method using raw material as per the standard method recommended by
Vijay (2005). S-11 strain of Agaricus bisporus was evaluated during the study. The
temperature and relative humidity were recorded daily using maximum-minimum
thermometer and Dial type hygrometer, respectively. The mushroom yield in percentage was
determined by the following formula:
Total mushroom harvested (kg)
Mushroom Yield (%) = ---------------------------------------- x 100
Total substrate used (kg)
16 Arumuganathan et al.

Legends
A) Door (7′ x 3′)
B) Exhaust Fan (Ventilator) (1′ 6′′ x 1′6′′)
C) Ventilator (Evaporative cooling pad) (1′6′′ x 3′)
D) Window (Evaporative cooling pad) (4′ x 3′)
E) Ventilator (Evaporative cooling pad) (1′6′′ x 3′)
F) Water tank
G) GI Pipe (3/4′′)

Fig. 2. The schematic diagram showing the various components of the mud house with
evaporative cooling system.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The button mushroom crop was raised in the evaporatively cooled mud house during the
month of April-May. During the period of study, the average minimum and maximum outside
atmosphere temperature and relative humidity at NRC for Mushroom, Solan, Himachal
Pradesh, India, ranged from 7 to 31.5°C and 9 to 87 %, respectively during the month of
April and 12.5 to 32.5°C and 29 to 92 %, respectively during the month of May. The
temperature and humidity inside the mud house ranged between 17 to 24°C and 79 to 90 %,
Cultivation of white button mushroom under evaporatively-cooled mud house 17

respectively. The temperature and humidity variation inside the mud house and atmosphere
are shown in Fig. 3 and 4, respectively.

It is observed from the Fig. 3 that the maximum and minimum outside daytime temperature
during the study period was 27 and 19°C. The similar temperature values observed inside the
mud house were 24 and 17°C when the evaporative cooling pads system was not used in the
mud house. The reduction in the temperature inside the mud house is due to the property of
the mud, which keeps the room cooler in summer and warmer in winter. When the
evaporative cooling pads were provided with the water supply, the maximum and minimum
temperature values were drastically reduced. This is mainly due to the evaporative cooling
effect of water which flows through the cooling pad come in contact with the incoming air, it
evaporates into the air. The heat energy present in the air changes from water to water
vapour, thus cooling of air takes place. During the working of evaporative cooling pad in the
mud house, the temperature values were obtained between 21 and 15°C, which is the ideal
temperature for the growth of button mushroom.

It can also be seen from the Fig. 4 that the maximum and minimum outside daytime relative
humidity during the study period was 92 and 80 %. The similar humidity values observed
inside the mud house were 90 and 79 % when the evaporative cooling pad system was not
used in the mud house. On providing water supply over the evaporative cooling pads, the
maximum and minimum relative humidity values were raised. This is mainly because of the
evaporative cooling effect of water which flows through the cooling pad comes in contact
with the incoming air, it evaporates into the air. The heat energy present in the air changes
from water to water vapour and thus adiabatic cooling of air takes place, which eventually
increased the relative humidity inside the mud house. During the working of evaporative
cooling pad in the mud house, the humidity values were obtained between 90 and 83 %,
which is the conducive relative humidity for the growth of button mushroom.

Excellent spawn run was observed in all the bags during the study period in the mud house
and it took 17 days for the completion of spawn run. The button mushroom yield obtained in
the study was 13.4 %. This result is on par with Singh (1997), who has also reported that
button mushroom crop yield of 10 to 15 % obtained in the seasonal mushroom growing
condition by small and marginal growers of Uttar Pradesh using the long method compost.
Such type of mushroom growing house can be constructed for Rs. 6000 to 8000, as per the
prevailing rates in the locality. It can be concluded that evaporatively-cooled mud house is
highly suitable for cultivating button mushrooms in the temperate regions and North Western
Plains in India during the month of April-May which enables the seasonal growers to take up
one more crop in the off season apart from the regular crop at winters.
 18 Arumuganathan et al

30 27
Temperature (degree celcius)

24 24
25 22 21 21
19
20 17
15
15

10
5

0
Atmosphere temperature Mud house temperature E.C. mud house temperature
Fig. 3. Temperature variation at Evaporatively cooled mud house and atmosphere.

95 92
90 90
90 87
Humidity (%)

84 85
85 83
80 79
80

75

70
Atmosphare humidity Mud house humidity E.C. mud house humidity
Fig. 4. Relative humidity variation in the Evaporatively cooled mud house and atmosphere.

REFERENCES
Arumuganathan, T., Dhar, B. L. & Rai, R. D. 2005. Low cost structure for the seasonal production of
mushroom. In: Frontiers in Mushroom Biotechnology (Eds.) R. D. Rai, R. C. Upadhyay &
S. R. Sharma, National Research Centre for Mushroom, Solan. pp. 294-300.
Dhar, B. L. & Arumuganathan, T. 2005. Farm design for white button mushroom cultivation.
Technical bulletin, National Research Centre for Mushroom, Solan. p. 17.
Singh, R. P. 1997. White button mushroom cultivation in Uttar Pradesh. In: Advances in mushroom
Biology and Production (Eds.) R.D. Rai, B.L. Dhar & R.N. Verma, Mushroom Society of
India, Solan. pp. 379-390.
Singh, Sudhir., Kumar, C. G. & Singh, Shivashraya. 1995. Production, processing and consumption
patterns of mushrooms. Indian food Industry. 14(6): 38-46.
Vijay, B. 2005. Formulations for compost for white button mushroom. In: Frontiers in Mushroom
Biotechnology (Eds.) R.D. Rai, R.C. Upadhyay & S.R. Sharma, National Research Centre for
Mushroom, Solan. pp. 80-87.

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