A Comparative Evaluation of the Physical and Chemical Characteristics of Composted Tea Tree (Melaleuca alternifolia L.) with Pine Bark Growing Media in Tobacco (Nicotiana tabucum L.) Seedling Production

Abstract

In the search for alternatives to sawdust as growing media in commercialmushroomcultivation, three organic substrates obtainable as crop residue, maize husk, maize cob, and maize stalk, with each being supplemented with rice bran, were evaluated as growth media for the oyster mushroom, Pleurotus ostreatus (Kummer). For the tested alternatives to sawdust, the harvested weight of fruiting bodies that sprouted on a kilogram maize husk media per crop (32.99 g) was the highest. Sawdust media supported significantly (𝑃 < 0.001) heavier fruiting bodies (42.18) than the maize residues. The peak mushroom harvests for the various substrates were obtained between the first and seventh fruiting body flushes. The biological efficiency of the substrates, which measured usable nutrients indicated that maize stalk supplemented with rice bran, was 39% compared to that of the sawdust media (60%). The maize husk media and the maize cob media had biological efficiencies of 32% and 9.5%, respectively. These results indicate that two of the tested growing media (maize stalk or husk) produced mushrooms with yield characteristics that were comparable to the well-used sawdust in the cultivation of oyster mushrooms.The environmental and economic parameters involved in the use and carting of sawdust make these on-farm crop residues a viable alternative for mushroom cultivation in especially nonforest zones of Ghana.