Barley (and other cereal grains) often become diseased in the field with Fusarium graminearum and contaminated with vomitoxin (DON), making them unsuitable for malting (1 ppm) and for animal feed (about 5 ppm).  This experiment explored the use of barley with 3.1 ppm DON in substrate to grow edible mushrooms and determine if the mushrooms would contain any DON.  Pleurotis ostreatus sawdust spawn (Poho oyster mushroom) and Lentinula edodes sawdust spawn (Shitake WR46^TM) were used in two identical experiments.  In polypropylene culture bags, a barley and hardwood sawdust mixture (4:1 ratio) was brought to 50% moisture and sterilized in a pressure cooker at 15 psi for one hour.  Three replications were completed.  Three flushes of mushrooms were harvested from each replication and dried at 125^OF.  Analysis was done by DairyOne (Ithaca, NY).  No DON was detected in the oyster or shitake mushrooms.  The spent oyster mushroom substrate plus mycelia was also tested and had a lower concentration of DON compared to the initial sterilized substrate.  More rigorous and thorough testing is needed.

Acknowledgements

Supported by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets under a grant for Malting Barley Research and Extension at Cornell University.