Evaluation of Different Substrates for Yield and Yield Attributes of Oyster Mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) in Crop-livestock Farming System of Northern Ethiopia

In Tigray region of Ethiopia there is high rate of malnutrition which is severely affecting productivity of households. Cultivation of edible mushrooms can help to diversify income and mitigate malnutrition in the region.

A laboratory experiment was carried out at Aksum University, northern Ethiopia aimed at evaluating the yield and yield attributes response of oyster mushroom to five types of substrates namely cotton seed hull, teff straw, barley straw, sesame stalk and sawdust.

The experiment was set up in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD).

Findings of the experiment revealed that the type of substrate significantly (P≤0.05) affected days to mycelium invasion, days to pinhead formation, days to fruiting bodies formation and yield of Pleurotus ostreatus. Cotton seed hull was fastest in days to mycelium invasion with 15.66 days although in statistically parity with teff straw, barley straw and sesame stalk. Besides, cotton seed hull gave shortest days to pinhead formation, and days to fruiting bodies formation with 20.33 and 22.33 days respectively. The highest yield of 2170.33 gm kg^-1 of substrate was obtained at cotton seed hull followed by barley straw which gave 1486.90 gm kg^-1 of substrate and Teff straw which gave 1264.74 gm kg^-1 of substrate.

The experiment highlighted that cotton seed hull and barley straw can be used for mushroom production in the study area.