Effect of Humic Acid on Pleurotus Ostreatus Mushroom Cultivation and Analysis of Their Nutrient Contents

The study was conducted at the Microbiology Laboratory of Sathyabama University, Chennai, Tamil nadu, during the period of December 2008 to March 2009 to find the effect of humic acid treated paddy straw used as substrate for growing Mushroom.Humic acid was obtained from Neyveli Lignite Corporation, Neyveli. The aims of these studies are to increase the productivity with low cost of high nutritive substrate with humic acid treated paddy straw, andf its effects.Humic acid is one of good nutritive factor for mushroom cultivation. In this study various concentration of humic acid were taken and treat with paddy straw. The maximum yield (242gm) of mushroom was found to be in 4% of humic acid treated paddy straw, followed by 3%, 2%,1% and control (101gm). The lowest yield (96gm) was found to be in 6% of humic acid treated paddy straw.The nutrients like protein, fibre,fat,and ash was high in 4% of humic acid treated paddy straw.Outlay benefit analysis exposed that the 4% and 3 % shows potential for the growing of Oyster Mushroom.