Oyster mushroom Pleurotus ostreatus cultivation on various substrates

Purpose of investigations was determination of the best substrate for growing an edible mushroom ( Pleurotus ostreatus (Jacq.) P. Kumm., 1871). The substrates tested have included such waste products of the local agricultural crops as heel of cottonseed, cotton stems, cotton bolls, wheat stubble and rice stubble. Level and time longevity for covering of various substrates with a seed mycelium, numbers of produced primordial fruiting bodies and yield size on these substrates have been determined. The best results have been received when heel of cottonseed was used as a substrate; yield of fruiting bodies was equal to the 74,5% of the substrate weight and a full cycle of the time from inoculation of the substrate till harvest of fruiting bodies three times have taken 48 days. Heels or rice seeds were the worst of substrates tested.