White button mushroom (Agoricus bisporus) cultivation technique and farm project for a developing coutry

Dennis Kamelin

Bachelor's thesis

Abstract:

Mushrooms represent a small branch in the evolution of the fungal kingdom Eumycota and are commonly known as the "fleshy fungi". Mankind has collected wild mushrooms for thousands and thousands of years. The White button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus, was domesticated in France. The first descriptions date from 1707. Cultivation of A. bisporus rapidly spread after the second World War when reliable spawn became commonly available in a number of countries.Mushrooms are the fruit of the mushroom plant, the mycelium. A mycelium is a vast network of interconnected cells that permeates the ground and lives perennially. During few weeks of fruiting, the mycelium is in a frenzied state of growth, amassing nutrients and forming dense ball-like masses called primordia that eventually enlarge into the towering mushroom structure, which is the main consumption product.The starting culture can be made from a fresh and healthy fruit body or obtained from a type collection. Most growers start a culture from spores. Tissue culture is another assured method of preserving the exact genetic character of a living mushroom. Basically, spawn production is nothing more than putting mycelium of the desired mushroom in suitable sterilized substrates under aseptic conditions. All the stages of mushroom production after spawn is ready have to be carefully planned because these steps determine the farm layout. Because the project farm includes all the production phases it is important to decide the number of rooms and if various stages of growing will be done in the same room with changing conditions (substrate doesn’t need to be transported between rooms) or in different rooms with stabile conditions suitable for a single phase (transport of substrate between rooms).Project farm is located in Kazakhstan as an example of a developing country with very low mushroom production, location is chosen with respect to market distance and infrastructure costs. Investments are kept as low as possible.

Keywords

Mushroom cultivation, Agaricus bisporus, developing country, horticulture, project farm

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 13. 5. 2019

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: Ing. Ivan Jablonský, CSc.
• Reader: Lucie Wiesnerová, Ing.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources

Bachelor programme / field:
Agriculture and Food / Agriculture and Food