Effects of Physical and Chemical characteristics of Different Casing Soils on Quantitative and Qualitative Characteristics of Button Mushroom (Agaricus bisporus)

Casing soil is an important input in the production of the button mushroom, which is usually prepared from non-renewable organic sources (e.g., peat). In order to introduce a suitable alternative to peat, and also the effect of different casing soils on quantitative and qualitative characteristics of button mushroom this study was carried out.The reaserch was conducted in a completely randomized design with 20 treatments and three replications on an industrial scale in Negin Fasl Agro-industry Company. In this respect, different alternative materials, such as mixed cow manure, spent mushroom compost (SMC), cow manure vermicompost, and SMC vermicompost in different volume ratios with peat )preaperd from north of Iran, north peat) were utilized to produce different casing soil, which used in the process of button mushroom production. Commercial and total yield traits, biological efficiency, piece weight, dry matter percentage, and mushroom earliness were determined in the applied treatments.The results showed that there was a significant difference in yield, biological efficiency, dry matter percentage, and earliness traits among the treatments. The highest total yield and biological efficiency were related to the mixture of north peat and cow manure vermicompost (50% and 50%v/v), and the mixture of north peat and SMC vermicompost (50% and 50%v/v), with 16 kg/m2 yield., In cow manure (100%), and the mixture of north peat and cow manure (25% and 75%v/v) treatments no growing mycelial occured. The lowest total yield was achieved from north peat (100%), with 9.8 kg/m2.Overall, the results showed that replacement of cow manure vermicompost, and SMC vermicompost with peat and conventional casing soil treatments could lead to save the costs, and preservation of natural resources.