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Abstract: Four agricultural wastes abundant in eastern Mediterranean countries, i.e. wheat straw, cotton gin-trash, peanut shells and poplar sawdust, were comparatively evaluated as substrates for the cultivation of selected strains of Pleurotus ostreatus, P. eryngii, P. pulmonarius, Agrocybe aegerita, Lentinula edodes and Volvariella volvacea. Both quantitative and qualitative parameters were examined, i.e. substrate incubation efficacy, earliness, yield, biological efficiency, basidiomata number, weight and size, etc. Wheat straw and cotton gin-trash are the most suitable substrates among those tested for Pleurotus spp. and A. aegerita (the former being more advantageous for high BE's and size of basidiomata, the latter for earliness and length of cultivation cycle), followed by poplar sawdust and peanut shells. Cotton gin-trash proved to be unsuitable for L. edodes which performed far better on wheat straw and poplar sawdust for all parameters examined, whereas V. volvacea on cotton gin-trush and wheat straw. The results, verified for P. ostreatus and P. pulmonarius strains in successive cultivation studies of five Pleurotus strains on cotton gin trash, are encouraging for mushroom production diversification by the exploitation of cotton gin-trash, which is cheap and abundant in the Mediterranean area, as alternative substrate for the cultivation of exotic mushroom species.
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