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Abstract: A pH is often used as a quick and readily available diagnostic tool for mushroom growing. pH values may have practical importance if they can be correlated empirically with some factor such as the yield of mushrooms. Experiments reported herein were conducted to determine the influence of the compost pH and casing soil pH on the yield of mushrooms. Specific objectives were: first, to ascertain the normal compost and casing soil pH trends during the cropping period, and second, to measure the effect of a range of initial pH levels as they might influence the pH trends during the cropping period. There have been several published investigations of pH values or ranges as optimum for mushroom mycelial growth and mushroom yields. One of the most comprehensive studies of the influence of pH on mushroom mycelial growth in nutrient solutions was that by Treschow (6). Values of pH between pH 6.0 and pH 7.0 have been reported as optimum values for mycelial growth on liquid and semisolid media. Styer (5) reported a drop in compost pH during the cropping period. Most of the work published on compost pH has been concerned with the pH during the composting process and at the end of the pasteurization. Several optimum pH values have been reported for casing soil. These values have usually been above pH 7.0. Lambert and Humfield (1) investigated a range of initial casing soil pH values. They concluded that an approximately neutral soil (pH 7.0) gave better yields than excessively acid or alkaline soils, but that any pH value between pH 5.5 and 8.0 seemed suitable. The most common practice in the mushroom industry at the present time is to prolong pasteurization of the compost until the pH is approximately pH 7.5. Pasteurization is sometimes terminated when only traces of, or no, ammonia remains in the compost regardless of the pH of the compost. The casing soil is usually adjusted to a pH 7.0 or higher by the addition of ground limestone.
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