Investigation on Chemical Properties and the Maturation Degree of Vermicompost Obtained from Button Mushroom Production Process Waste

Introduaction: Development of mushroom cultivation in Iran is considered and its production level is reached to Ninety tons per year. About five kg of waste is generated by producing one kilogram of button mushroom which can be refined by using vermicompost technology. This waste can be converted into valuable organic fertilizer and reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and reach to sustainable development. The purpose of this study is to convert the button mushroom production process waste to manure and investigate the chemical properties and quality of the fertilizer.
Wastes such as rotten mushroom, spent mushroom compost and peat are generated in cultivation process of Button mushroom that is large amounts of waste, and say it (SMC). In this study, SMC was vermicomposted in optimized process with treatment of wood chips, rotten mushrooms, carrots scum and leaves. Quantitative and qualitative indicators and its changes have been studied during the six weeks and the results achieved were compared with the national standard vermicompost (No. 13724) and its quality was determined in final product. Then by Using SPSS software, Pearson correlation test at a significance level of 0.05 were used to examine the relationship between inorganic materials and changes in other parameters and linear regression test were used to find relationships between one variable and the other variables.
The results showed that the Total Organic Carbon (TOC), potassium and total nitrogen in all treatments, increased during the time, however, pH and EC levels decreased during the vermicomposting process. Also significant increase in C/N ratio was observed in all treatments at the end of the six weeks and all the fertilizers were classified as one grade.
Results of this research showed that vermicompost process Lead to improvement in indicators of organic fertilizers derived from vermicompost beds and is one of the management suitable methods for workshop wastes of button mushroom production that is a way to achieve sustainable agriculture.