Mushroom Culture

Machinery and Equipments required

Machinery & Equipments required

B. Machinery and Equipments Required:

• Various types of machineries and equipments having different uses will be required in a mushroom production unit.

a) For Spawn production unit:

1. Big Autoclave ( Horizontal type )

• It is required for the sterilization of grain bottles and substrates filled in polypropylene bags for producing spawn and also the non-composted substrates for production of speciality mushrooms.

2. Small Autoclave ( Standing type ):

• It is for the sterilization of culture media in tubes / flasks and the substrates, including grains for production of Master culture and spawn in glass bottles / PP bags on a small scale.

3. Pressure Cooker:

• A big size pressure cooker ( 5-10 litre capacity ) will be required for sterilization of media for routine laboratory work.

4. Boiler:

• Baby boiler run by wood fuel, electricity or diesel will be required for production of pressure steam for boiling , sterilization of grains and pasteurization of compost and casing mixture.

5. Laminar Flow:

• This is the machine on or in front of which isolations are taken or inoculation of grain bags / bottles with master cultures is done under aseptical conditions. The positive air pressure passed through the HEPA filters ( High Efficiency Particulate Air ) retains most of the fine bacterial and fungal spores so as to have minimum contamination problem.

6. Boiling Vessels:

• Steam operated Stainless Steel boiling vessels are required for boiling of grains.

7. Weighing Machine:

• Weighing machines is necessarily required for the exact measurement of raw materials for producing spawn and compost

8. Steel or cemented racks:

• Racks are required in the incubation and storage rooms on which the inoculated bags are to be kept at a particular temperature for mycelial run and their storage at different temperatures. Steel or iron racks will also be required for keeping large number of compost bags at required temperatures during spawn run and cropping stages .

9. Steel Trolleys:

• About 5-6 pushing type steel trolleys will be required for easy movement and carriage of grain bags, spawn bottles, compost bags and other materials from one room to another room

10. BOD Incubators:

• These are required to incubate cultures inoculated or transferred in tubes, Petri dishes, flasks and Master culture bottles for their speedy growth at a fixed temperature .

11. Oven:

• The oven is required for the sterilization of glasswares, including Petri plates, pippetes, beakers, glass tubes etc.

12. Refrigerators:

• In order to maintain purity of the fungal cultures for a considerable period, these are to be kept in the refrigerators in a cool environment.

13. Wire mesh Tray:

• One or two wire mesh trays will be required for removing excess water from boiled cereal grains or the boiled substrates like straw or sawdust used for mushroom production.