Development and application of mushroom cultivation waste recycling technology on flower cultivation

Abstract

Mushroom cultivation waste exceeds 123,000 t each year in Taiwan, which not only causes pollution, but also affects the development of the mushroom industry and urgently needs proper treatment. On the other hand, Taiwan imports more than 250,000 m3 of peat every year for flower planting. The price of imported peat moss has risen due to the decline in production in the production area. Therefore, we have developed an alternative substrate from mushroom cultivation waste for planting flower or vegetable seedlings. The spent shiitake mushroom cultivation substrate was mixed with chicken manure, soybean meal, and rice bran for the composting. The compost of spent shiitake mushroom substrate was completed. After two months of aeration fermentation. The C/N value of the spent shiitake mushroom cultivation substrate compost (SSC) dropped from the initial 24.55 to 14.29. The physical properties of SSC have a bulk density of 0.301, a total porosity of 88.7%, a water capacity of 209%, and a water holding capacity of 62.9%. We evaluate and test the suitability of SSC as a growth medium component. The germination rate of Celosia cristata and Torenia fournieri were 51.04±9.23 and 80.21±10.42% on SSC, respectively. The seedlings of C. cristata and T. fournieri were cultivated in the growth medium components of peat moss in different proportions mixed with SSC by volume. In terms of plant height, plant weight, the total number of leaves, days of first flowering, and inflorescence length, C. cristata and T. fournieri plants in the growth medium containing 10 and 20% SSC performed better than the sphagnum control.