الفهرس 
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
In the first part, an indoor research trial was conducted in the mushroom research and production laboratory at the Department of Horticulture, the Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University. Productivity of two oyster mushroom species (Pleurotus ostreatus and P. columbinus) was evaluated for ten different substrates. These included six sole and four blended substrate recipes. For the six sole substrates, three were target untraditionally used substrates studied against three commonly used substrates. The three target untraditional substrates were Cynodon dactylon grass weed (CW), African mahogany (Khaya senegalensis) tree leaves (TL) and Faba Bean (Vicia faba L.) straw (FBS). The three commonly used substrates were rice straw (RS), wheat straw (WS) and sugarcane bagasse (SCB). The four blended substrate recipes were prepared from equal weight of FBS and SCB with each of CW, TL, RS and WS. Data were recorded for days lapsed to visible pinheads formation (VPF), fruiting bodies yield (FBY), number of fruiting bodies per culture (NF), average fruiting body weight (FW) and biological efficiency (BE). Statistical analysis showed significance for variance due to substrate X mushroom cultivar for all the parameters studied. However, Pleurotus ostreatus mushroom was superior to P. columbinus mushroom exhibiting a magnificent FBY and BE and reduced VPF in both trials. Closely similar result was found for NF and FW with minute exceptions. The overall results suggest that Cynodon dactylon grass weed was superior to sugarcane bagasse, faba bean straw and African mahogany tree leaves and mostly similar to wheat straw. Therefore, Cynodon dactylon grass weed may be exploited as a potential substrate for production of oyster mushroom.
In the second part, a field trial was conducted in 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 to assess outdoor production of two cultivated species of oyster mushroom interplanted with faba bean (Vicia faba L.). The tested cultivated mushroom species were Pleurotus ostreatus and P. columbinus. Faba bean was planted on Oct. 29-30. The mushroom cultures were placed on three different dates. These dates were set at two week intervals starting at the blooming stage of faba bean (on Jan). Data for fruit bodies yield revealed superiority of P. ostreatus over P. columbinus in both years for all interplanting dates. However, P. ostreatus produced higher fruiting bodies’ yield when placed within faba bean rows on the first date or the second date. The biological efficiency of P. ostreatus ranged from 29% to 45%. Meanwhile, P. columbinus produced its highest fruiting bodies crop when placed between faba bean plants on the second date. The P. columbinus showed biological efficiency in the range of 12% to 24%. The higher crop of P. ostreatus could be ascribed to producing large number of fruit bodies of greater average weight. In addition to its higher yield of fruiting bodies, P. ostreatus consistently developed harvestable fruiting bodies earlier than P. columbinus. An increase of 27%, on average, was detected in faba bean dry seed yield when grown with mushroom intercrop compared to its sole cultivation. No difference was detected between dry seed yield of faba bean whether grown with P. ostreatus or P. columbinus. This study suggests a feasible integration of non conventional mushroom crop in the higher plant crop production system towards securing food availability while improving income of small farmers. Here, it is recommended to utilize ostreatus mushroom placed between faba bean plants on the first to mid-Jan.
Keywords: African mahogany tree leaves, Cynodon dactylon grass weed, non conventional crop, outdoor, planting date, Pleurotus columbinus, Pleurotus ostreatus, , substrate.