Abstract

The study was conducted to investigate yields of mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) on wheat straw and waste tea leaves based composts. Mixtures (50:50, v/v) of some locally available peats including peat of Bolu (PB), peat of Agacbasi (PA), peat of Caykara (PC) and their mixture (80:20; v/v) with which piece of mosaic and sand were used. Also, some activator materials such as wheat bran, wheat chaff, chicken manure, pigeon manure, and poplar leaves were used for A. bisporuscultivation. The results on wheat straw based composts provided the highest mushroom yield (23.01%) that was obtained on wheat straw and pigeon manure based compost using a mixture of PA with PC (50+50; v/v) as casing material. For waste tea leaves based composts, the highest mushroom yield (24.90%) were recorded on wheat straw and pigeon manure based compost using a mixture of PC with sand (80+20; v/v) as casing material.

Key words: Mushroom, waste tea leaves, wheat straw, activator materials, casing materials, yield.