Cultivation of Pleurotus Ostreatus on Agricultural Waste and their Combination

Abstract Background:Mushrooms are increasingly becoming an important component of diets worldwide and it is of paramount importance to choose appropriate substrates to grow them. The objective of this study was to grow Pleurotus ostreatus using different agricultural substrates.Methods:Corncobs, Finger millet straw and Bamboo waste were collected from different sites of Awi zone. The substrates were chopped in to small pieces and 500g of their dry mass alone and their combination was measured packed in polythene bag, moistened, and pasteurized. The cooled substrates inoculated with a spoon of P. ostreatus spawn brought from Debre Berhan University. The bags were placed in growing room and growth parameters were recorded continuously with monitoring of environmental variables. The experimental setup was completely randomized design, six treatments with three replicates.Results: The fastest spawn running phase of P. ostreatus was observed in 28.71±0.80 days, pinhead formation of 32.36±0.26 days and fruiting bodies formation of 5.19±0.74 days after pinhead appearance was recorded on Corncob substrate. The highest fresh weight and biological efficiency with significant statistical association was obtained from the P. ostreatus grown on Finger millet straw (253.07±1.05 and 50.20±0.47 respectively). The highest average number of pinhead and fruiting bodies (29.60 and 11.44 respectively) was recorded on Finger millet straw. The lowest biological efficiency (20.80±0.41), fresh weight (101.48±0.91), number of pinhead (14.40), number of fruiting bodies (4.25) was recorded from a mixture of Corncob and Bamboo waste (50% each) substrates.Conclusion:The use of mixed Corncob and Bamboo waste (1:1) for cultivation of P. ostreatus is not encouraged due to poor growth performance.