Bioconversion of bananiculture waste for Amazon edible mushroom production

The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of banana stalk and pseudostem residues from two banana cultivars as cultivation substrate for the Amazonian Pleurotus ostreatus NATB. The residues of the two cultivars (silver-dwarf and thap-maeo) were used to cultivate P. ostreatus NATB from the Mushroom Cultivation Laboratory Micoteca, CTI, INPA, Brazil, reactivated in medium Potato Dextrose Agar, and subsequently incubated in medium composed of banana juice infusion broth. The tertiary matrix or spawn consisted of solid residue without supplementation that was properly autoclaved for secondary matrix fragment incubation. The treatments were performed in HDPE bags with 1 kg of autoclaved residues, and were humidified at 75% with 5% of tertiary culture. Each treatment consisted of 20 repetitions incubated in a chamber at 25ºC for 45 days. Biological efficiency, yield, and loss of organic matter were evaluated. Mushrooms grown on dwarf silver pseudostem substrate had the highest average percentages in efficiency, biological and yield, but the loss of organic matter was not directly related to these productivity parameters or behavior that can be attributed to other factors such as CO2 and water loss during the process.