The influence of photosynthetic bacteria treatments on the crop yield, drymatter content, and protein content of the mushroom Agaricus bisporus

Experiments were performed to determine the effect of spraying suspensions of photosynthetic bacteria (PSB) onto casing soil on the yield, dry matter content, and protein content of the fruit bodies of Agaricus bisporus. The results showed that spraying PSB suspension at casing and between flushes c ould significantly increase the mushroom yield, and the increased rate of y ield had a positive correlation with the PSB density of the suspension. Whe n spraying 5000 ml of PSB suspension which contained 3.3 x 10(9) viable PSB cells/ml onto each tray (0.54 m(2)), increases in mushroom yield of 39.53% were obtained. No significant differences were found in either the dry mat ter contents or the protein contents of fruit bodies among all treatments. The mechanisms of mushroom yield increase resulting from spraying PSB suspe nsion were discussed. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.