Usability of Zea mays and Sorghum bicolor on the growth and yield of oyster mushrooms

Abstract

In this research, three agricultural substrates, Zea mays, Sorghum bicolor Horse S, and Sorghum bicolor Giza 115, were evaluated as growing media in commercial mushroom cultivation. Zea mays waste had the highest moisture content with a relatively high nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, protein, and energy value compared with Sorghum bicolor Horse S and Sorghum bicolor Giza 115, so the results indicate that Zea mays waste cultivated with different species of Pleurotus tested gave high-production oyster mushrooms with the highest biological efficiency and also a high total number of fruit bodies. P. floridans cultivated in Zea mays waste gave the best production by 182 gm, biological efficiency of 36.4%, and also a high number of fruit bodies (28) followed by P. pulmonarius on Sorghum bicolor Horse S waste, which gave production by 180 gm and also a high number of fruit bodies (27).