CULTIVATION OF THREE SELECTED Pleurotus SPECIES USING GROWTH MEDIA PREPARED FROM SUGARCANE BAGASSE AND DRIED LEAVES OF Eichhornia crassipes AND Argemone ochroleuca

Cultivation of edible mushrooms using agricultural invasive weeds could play a paramount role by producing foods with high nutritional value, and at the same time create environmentally friendly ways of food production. Thus, an experiment was conducted at Mushroom Research, Production and Training Laboratory of Haramaya University to cultivate three selected Pleurotus mushroom using three substrate and their combinations (dried leaves of Eichhornia crassipes (LEC) & Argemone ochroleuca (LAO) , and sugarcane bagasse (SCB) as a control). Phenological data, Yield and quality parameters were determined. From Phenological data, the fastest and slowest fruiting body formation (23.67 and 34.33 days) were recorded from Pleurotus ostreatus and Pleurotus sajor-caju grown on 100% SCB and 100% LAO respectively. For yield performance, highest and lowest yield (1697.00g &556.7g) were obtained for Pleurotus ostreatus and Pleurotus sajor-caju cultivated on 100% SCB and 100% LAO respectively. Highest value of biological efficiencies (71.67%) was obtained for Pleurotus ostreatus grown on 100% SCB. For quality parameters, highest percentage of crude protein (35.52% and 33.23 %) were obtained from Pleurotus ostreatus and Pleurotus florida grown on100% SCB alone, followed by Pleurotus ostreatus grown on 33% of (SCB, LAO and LEC) 31.66 %)). Lowest percentage of crude protein (14.38 %) was obtained for Pleurotus sajor-caju grown on100%LAO. Moisture content, crude fat, crude fiber, total ash and carbohydrate content obtained from this experiment generally ranged from 80.40 % - 88.53 %, 1.18 % - 1.97 %, 8.2 % - 12.82 %, 7.02 %- 8.28 % and 15.18 - 46.65 % respectively. A result from simple linear correlation analysis indicates that phenological parameters have no direct influence on total yield and biological efficiency. In general using the test substrate (LEC& LAO) in combination with SCB, provides comparable yield and quality parameters of the selected mushroom with that of the control substrate.