The Growth of Pleurotus ostreatus in Different Substrates

Over the decades, the cultivation of mushrooms has become more accessible and researchable as many studies seek methods to sufficiently grow them. Oyster mushrooms, scientifically known as Pleurotus ostreatus, are the second most cultivated mushrooms in the world preceded by button mushrooms, or Agaricus bisporus. One method that has been proven successful numerous times is the use of substrates to grow mushrooms. The purpose of this study was to determine which substrate, wheat straw, sawdust, and alfalfa hay are most effective in the growth of P. ostreatus. It was hypothesized that if Pleurotus ostreatus were grown in three different substrates, alfalfa hay, wheat straw, and sawdust then alfalfa hay would have the greatest increase in mass and sawdust would have the least increase in mass. This was due to the fact that alfalfa hay is often given to animals because of its nutritional value, thus possibly having a positive effect on mushroom growth as well. The three substrates, wheat straw, sawdust, and alfalfa hay, along with the control groups were observed and weighed daily during a 16-day growth period to discover which experimental group had the most growth. A one-way ANOVA test was run to find the significance of the raw data collected. It was established that alfalfa hay (M = 23.430, SD = .262) was most effective while the control group (M = 17.573, SD = .644) was least effective for the growth of P. ostreatus. It was also found that the sawdust substrate (M = 21.560, SD = .937) showed the second most significance in growth and the wheat straw substrate (M = 22.180, SD = .412) had the third most significance. It was concluded that the null hypothesis was accepted in this experiment.