Cyanobacterial Culture as a Liquid Supplement for White Button Mushroom (Agaricus bisporus)

Cyanobacteria comprise a large group of structurally complex and ecologically significant gram-negative prokaryotes. There are many reports that these microorganisms produce phytohormones such as cytokinin, auxin and auxin-like substances in soil. Until now most research and applications of cyanobacteria have been conducted with green plants growing. There is no evidence to provide that cyanobacterial culture could stimulate mushroom growth and mushroom yield. In this study, algal culture of heterocystous cyanobacteria Anabaena vaginicola Fritsch et ich was sprayed on casing soil at primordia formation stage of Agaricus bisporus, before the first, the second and the third flushes. The result showed that inoculation of cyanobacteria into the casing soil as biofertilizer significantly increased mushroom yield and quality. In complementary studies, nitrogenase activity of this alga was determined by acetylene reduction technique and identification of phytohormones was performed with HPLC method. Chemical content of algal suspension was another factor that was analyzed in this experiment.