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Abstract: Mushroom cultivation is a recent introduction in India. Three mushrooms, namely Agaricus bisporus (temperate mushroom or white button mushroom), Volvariella volvacea/V. diplasia (tropical mushroom or paddy straw mushroom) and Pleurotus spp. (commonly called Dhingri in Northern India) are suitable for their culture in different agro-climatic zones of this country. Of these, A. bisporus is popular and is being intensively grown in the States of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and parts of Uttar Pradesh. The cultivation of A. bisporus comprises four important steps, namely, compost preparation, filling and spawning, casing and cropping. Of these steps, casing is important for the initiation of fruit bodies. Consequently, the quality and quantity of mushroom crops is governed by the casing materials used. The main prerequisites of good casing under local conditions are: (i) it should be free from lumps and at the same time should not be fine and powdery; (ii) it should possess good water-holding capacities; (iii) it should have the capacity for gaseous exchange; (iv) it should have been disinfected either by steam cr a chemical and thus be free from pathogenic microbes and pests; (v) it should have pH 7 - 8.5 (Garcha, 1980). Initially, in India, top soil from cultivated fields was tried as casing material. Later on, clay, loam, sand and mixtures of ash, stone, gravel and spent compost were tried at Solan, H.P. (Seth, 1978). However, utilization of spent compost with sand and slaked lime (4:1:1) was reported by Mantel (1973). Garcha et al. (1980) recommended two years old spent compost and farmyard manure (1:1) as a good casing material under Punjab conditions. In Kahsmir, because of the abundant availability of peat, farmers use soil and peat mixture (2:1) (Kaul, 1978). However, no concrete research programme on the evaluation of casing materials is being pursued in India. The present report deals with the evaluation of combinations of 21 casing materials for cultivation of A. bisporus under Punjab conditions in mushroom houses with provision for cross ventilation and no control over temperature and hmnidity.
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