African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 6 (3), pp. 204-212, 5 February 2007   

ISSN 1684–5315 © 2007 Academic Journals        

Full Length Research Paper

Cultivation of Agaricus bisporus on wheat straw and waste tea leaves based composts using poplar leaves as activator material

Hilmi Toker¹*, Ergun Baysal¹, Osman Nuri Yigitbasi¹, Mehmet Colak¹, Huseyin Peker², Hakan Simsek¹, Ferah Yilmaz³

¹Mugla University, Faculty of Technical Education , Kotekli, 48000, Mugla, Turkey.

²Karadeniz Technical University, Faculty of Forestry, 61080, Trabzon, Turkey.

³Mugla University, Mushroom Research  Center, Kotekli, 48000, Mugla, Turkey.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: hilmitoker@yahoo.com , Tel: +90-252-2111708. Fax: +90-252-223 8511.

Accepted 4 January, 2007

This study was carried out to determine pin head formation time and mushroom yield of Agaricus bisporus on some casing materials. Composts were prepared basically from wheat straw and waste tea leaves using poplar leaves as activator material. In this study, moreover, in order to follow the evolution of the composting process, daily temperature measurements were taken. According to the results of the study, in both compost types, maximum temperature values were observed in the second turning stage. While in the first and second turning stages, inner-pile temperature of the compost was in a tendency of exhibiting steady increase, they are prone to decrease in the following turning stages. In both composts, the period of composting has finished in 19 days. While the fastest pin head formation (13 days) was obtained on wheat straw based compost using peat of Caykara (PC) and forest soil (FS) (50+50; in volume); waste tea leaves based compost using peat of Bolu (PB) and peat of Caykara (PC) mixture (50+50; in volume) as casing material gave the fastest  pin head formation (13.30 days).  While, a mixture of peat of Agacbasi (PA) and perlite (P) gave the highest yield for wheat straw based compost, peat of Bolu shows the highest yield for waste tea leaves based compost.

Key words: Agaricus bisporus, wheat straw, waste tea leaves, poplar leaves, pin head formation, compost temperature, yield.