This research studies the effect of mixing some locally available and cheap materials such as river sand, berlite, saw dust and lime powder with peat-moss as an alternative to pure peat-moss in making the casing layer of mushroom basins. Research in
cludes 14 treatments.
The results show that saw dust and berlite at levels of 10, 20 and 30% with peat-moss contribute in increasing the capacity of the water retention of the casing soil, compared with other treatments, having thus a positive role in increasing the production of the agricultural mushroom significantly in the first week. Saw dust treatment at 20% level recorded (16.33 kg/m2) in the same week, which is the highest production rate in comparison with the control treatment (9.5 kg/m2). Also, the total production of the first and second weeks recorded (26 kg/m2) for the 20% saw dust treatment compared to
(21.5 kg/m2) for the control.
A significant increase has been recorded in the amount of total production in all saw dust treatments, and decline in the rest of the treatments in comparison with the control. The lowest production of mushroom was (8.17 kg/m2) with lime powder treatment at 30% level. The treatments of saw dust levels of 10, 20 and 30% and berlite 20% registered an increase in the net profit and the earning potentials compared to the cost of production.
