Development of the Button Mushroom Cultivation Technology Based on the Combined Use of Sewage Sludge Compost and Cow Manure

Abstract

 In this study, we analyzed properties of sewage sludge compost and carried out a test button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) cultivation on it in order to put sewage sludge to practical application for growing edible mushrooms. The yield from test groups with only sewage sludge compost as the nutrient supplement was much less than that from control groups with cow manure. It means that sewage sludge compost does not contain enough cellulose and potassium for growing mycelia. On the contrary, the yield from test groups with combined use of sewage sludge compost and cow manure was 1.2~1.8 times of that from the control groups. The amount of heavy metals, the main components and amino acids in fruit bodies from all the groups were almost the same. We concluded that sewage sludge compost was applicable to edible mushroom media.