الفهرس 
Abstract
Pilot Assessment and Particular Experiment DesignationOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
A study was conducted in the mushroom research and production laboratory, Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University during Oct. to April 2011 and 2012. Production of fruiting bodies of Pleurotus columbinus mushroom was assessed for different recipes of rice or maize straw substrates mixed at different portions with composted materials. These recipes were: 1) raw straw (RS) mixed with 5% composted materials (CM), 2) RS mixed with 10% CM, 3) RS mixed with 15% CM, 4) RS mixed with 25% CM, 5) RS mixed with 50% CM and 6) 100% RS. These mixing portions of RS and CM were designated based on observations during a pilot assessment. The composted materials were made of moistened chopped raw straw mixed with chicken manure and soil. The studied parameters were fruiting bodies’ yield, spent weight, biological efficiency, days lapsed to visible pinheads formation, fruiting body cap diameter, thickness and weight and stem diameter, length and weight. Data showed a magnificent impact of substrate preparation on oyster mushroom fruiting bodies’ yield and growth characteristics. There was a significant progressive upgrading in all studied parameters of mushroom growth and crop outcome with increasing the percentage of CM mixed with the RS substrate up to 15%. Utilizing CM at 25% significantly downgraded these parameters. No mushroom growth was observed at all when the mushroom was cultivated in medium contained 50% CM. Instead, molds of different colors grown on that latter substrate mixture. The recipe containing 15% CM distinctly gave the uppermost fruiting bodies’ yield. This recipe exhibited up to79% increase in fruiting bodies crop outcome relative to growing on sole RS. Differences for sole rice straw (RRS) vs. sole maize straw (RMS) and for RRS mixed with 15% CM vs. RMS mixed with 15% CM were inconsistent in the two trials for most of the studied traits especially fruiting bodies’ yield. Therefore, rice and maize substrates seems to be competitive to each other. Overall results suggest that the sole RS substrate may have not provided all nutrients required, especially nitrogen, for optimum growth of the mushroom. In this regard, the present study proposes that composted materials hold a great promise for development of oyster mushroom production industry.
Keywords: edible fungi, fruiting bodies, lignocellulosic materials, macrofungi, Pleurotus spp., primary decomposer.