By Niño Manaog
Burias, Mambusao,
Capiz—It was skills transfer at its best.
On May 19–20, 2014 ,
Dr. Emelita Solante, director of the Extension Institute of the Capiz
State
University St.
Dominic
College
For two days, Solante taught mushroom
culture to Dr. Nilda Balsicas, vice-president for academic affairs and
research; Dr. Zenaida Sadiwa, community development officer; Mr. Gydion Nicolie
Batuigas, OIC-program chair for nursing; and Mr. Nelson Capagngan, farm
manager, all of SDCA.
According to Solante, the participants
benefited much owing to their interest and enthusiasm to learn.
After lecturing on the basic concepts
involved in mushroom culture, Solante taught the participants hands-on on the
different stages involved in oyster mushroom production.
First, they were taught the preparation
of pure mushroom culture which includes the preparation of pure culture media;
preparation of grain spawn or mother spawn; and preparation of fruiting bags which
covers the mixing of substrates, composting, bagging, pasteurization,
inoculation and incubation.
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Nelson Capagngan (left) and Gydion Nicolie Batuigas (right) sift the sawdust which will be used as substrate for the fruiting bags of the mushrooms.
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According to Solante, pasteurization
kills harmful microorganisms, which usually takes six hours; inoculation allows
the grain spawn to be added to the pasteurized fruiting bag. Incubation,
also called spawn run, then, allows the substrate to be “colonized” by the
micro-organism, which usually takes not less than 45 days.
Solante also taught them on mushroom
growing practices. Among other practices, Solante stressed that the mushroom
grower should practice cleanliness in each of the processes involved. From the
preparation of the culture media where the mushrooms will be grown up to the
fruiting stage, the grower must see to it that the entire growing area is free
of possible contaminants.
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| As part of preparing the culture media for mushrooms, Dr. Emelita Solante (left) guides Dr. Nilda Balsicas (right) in putting the cotton plugs on the bottles containing the potato dextrose agar (PDA) for sterilization. |
She also advised them to observe sanitary
practices in order to ward off mushroom flies which infest mushrooms during
fruiting stage.
At the end of the training, each of the
four participants was required to produce three fruiting bags which will be
ready for fruiting after two months. They were also awarded certificates.
The training drew favorable responses.
For one, Dr. Balsicas noted the nitty-gritty of the processes involved in
mushroom production, citing how trial and error in their hands-on activities
made them learn it best. For her part, Dr. Sadiwa found the
inoculation procedure to be very meticulous even as she recognized its
importance in the production.
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As per preparation of the culture media for mushrooms, Dr. Zenaida Sadiwa (foreground), community development officer of SDCA, helps prepare the potato dextrose agar (PDA), general medium for growing fungi, which was used for oyster mushroom production.
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The officials said that in the coming
months, SDCA will seek to replicate the technology in their own school. They added
that they are also willing to transfer the skills to their own constituents in Cavite .
For trainings and reservations,
interested parties can contact Dr. Emelita Solante, MTS training-in-charge, at
0917-726-5682.
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