Production parameters of Pleurotus ostreatus cultivated on substrates supplemented with vermicompost

Abstract

The production of edible mushrooms is an alternative to meet the food needs of the human population. The development of edible mushrooms is generally carried out on substrates made up of agro-industrial production waste, primarily straw. To improve the carbon/nitrogen ratio of these substrates, different materials have been used, resulting in improved production parameters. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the production parameters of Pleurotus ostreatus cultivated on substrates supplemented with vermicompost. It was found that P. ostreatus does not develop on a substrate consisting exclusively of vermicompost. The reduction in production parameters (number of fruiting bodies, wet and dry weight of harvested mushrooms, and biological efficiency of substrate use) is directly related to the amount of vermicompost present in the growth substrate. The negative effect of vermicompost appears to be associated with the presence of fungistatic and fungicidal metabolites of unknown nature and origin.