Sawdust-based compost for production of Pycnoporus sanguineus basidiocarps

This work aimed to get compost with cellulose-rich residues for Pycnoporus sanguineus basidiocarp production. Two isolates of P. sanguineus (Ps08 and Ps14) were grown in polypropylene bags containing sawdust of Eucalyptus sp. and rice bran in rates of zero, 5% and 20%, and humidity of 75%. We used two granulometries of sawdust, less than 500 µm and between 500 and 841 µm, compress to get a density of 0.5 g mL⁻¹. Basidiocarps were harvested at 90 and 180 days of incubation, evaluating quantity, diameter, fresh and dry masses and production of the pigment cinnabarin. For the variable granulometry, there was an effect only for the isolate Ps14, which produced basidiocarps with diameters 14.65 mm in granulometry less than 500 µm and 8.56 in granulometry 500–841 µm, however, comparing the isolates, Ps08 produced larger basidiocarps, with an average diameter of 36.99 mm while 11.60 mm for Ps14. Only the isolate Ps08 responded in a dose-dependent manner to rice bran concentrations. As for the fresh mass of basidiocarps, in both harvests the isolate Ps08 presented higher values than the isolate Ps14 in the first and second harvests, in the granulometry less than 500 µm. The cinnabarin content of Ps14 isolate was higher than Ps08, with values of 0.67 e 0.43 mg mL⁻¹, respectively, in the granulometry 500–841 µm, with a tendency to increase in cinnabarin content with higher additions of rice bran. Thus, it was possible to produce basidiocarps of P. sanguineus in an axenic way using cellulosic residues supplemented with rice bran.