Effect of supplement source and caseing layer on yield and biological efficiency of White buttons mushroom (Agaricus bisporus(

Abstract

This study was conducted in the mushroom production project / Department of Horticulture/ College of Agriculture / University of Baghdad for 2010 - 2011 season . This study to determine the effect of supplement source in the production and biological efficiency of white button mushroom using three sources of supplement a wheat bran , dates juice (Dibis) and sucrose, and study four types of casing layers , Peat moss (peat moss 90% + 10% CaCO3) , clay soil and peat moss (clay soil 45% + peat moss 45% +10% CaCO3) , sandy soil and peat moss (sand 45% + peat moss 45% + 10% CaCO3) and mixture of three soils (peat moss 30% + Sand soil 30% + clay soil 30% +10% CaCO3) The Compost was prepared using the long method and filled in 10 kg plastic bags and the spawn was added to each bag (1%) and the bags were moved to the incubation room at 25 ± 2 oC with 90 – 95 % relative humidity .Casing soil (5cm) was added after the complete growing of the mycelium on the compost in the bags. Incubation room was changed to growing room by reducing room temperature to 16 oC and the reduction of CO2 concentration to 600 ppm by ventilation . Fruiting bodies were harvested. The results showed that wheat bran raised the yield to 1297.69 g/ bag ad 12.97 kg/m2 and increased the biological efficiency to 51.9 % and increased the percentage of dry matter to 8.69 % and the protein to 43.97 % and reduced the respiration rate to 20.95 mg CO2 /kg /hr compared with using sucrose and date juice which gave less than the above results. Phenolic compound were higher in the fruiting bodies due to the use of dates juice . Casing with sand and pet moos, increased the number of flashes , the average flash weight , the total fresh yield and fruiting body weight, the biological efficiency and the protein content .