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The physical structure of compost and C and N utilization during composting and mushroom growth in Agaricus bisporus cultivation with rice, wheat, and reed straw-based composts

  • Environmental biotechnology
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Abstract

The cultivation of Agaricus bisporus with compost made from wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), rice (Oryza sativa L.), and reed (Phragmites australis Trin.) straw was investigated. Straw degradation was analyzed at the microscopic level, and the corresponding changes in the breakdown of different lignocellulose components during different phases of composting and mushroom production helped in understanding the yield-limiting factors of using different straws to grow mushrooms. The wheat straw compost resulted in the highest mushroom production and had the highest bioconversion efficiency. The rice straw was limited by the softer texture, which resulted in low-porosity and overdecomposed compost in the composting process and decreased the amount of available lignocellulose during mycelial growth. Although reed straw had the largest carbon resources, its utilization rate was the lowest. The hard structure, low water holding capacity, and high porosity increased the recalcitrance of reed straw to degradation and prolonged the composting time, which resulted in large N and C losses and an increased C/N ratio. Moreover, reed straw failed to transform into “ready-to-consume C” in composting. Therefore, a high C/N ratio and deficiency of available nutrition decreased the utilization efficiency of the lignocellulosic components by A. bisporus during mycelial colonization and mushroom production. The investigation revealed that degradability by and availability to microbiota and A. bisporus seemed to be the overriding factors for optimizing the composting process with different straw types.

Key points

• The physical structure of compost has a significant influence on the composting process.

• Degradability and availability are key factors in compost quality evaluation.

• Lignocellulose utilization efficiency positively correlated with mushroom yield.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the earmarked fund of the Agriculture Research System of Shanghai, China, (202009) and Shanghai Agriculture Applied Technology Development Program, China (20170101). We thank Dr. Chen Yongxiang and Dr. Chen Qingjun for useful suggestions. We thank AJE for providing language editing help.

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The software in this manuscript is available.

Funding

This work was funded by the earmarked fund of Agriculture Research System of Shanghai, China, (202009) and Shanghai Agriculture Applied Technology Development Program, China (20170101).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Research Center for Edible Fungi Biotechnology and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Applied Mycological Resources and Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Agricultural Genetics and Breeding, Institute of Edible Fungi, Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, No. 1000, Jinqi Road, Fengxian District, Shanghai, 201403, China

    Qian Wang, Jiaxiang Juan, Tingting Xiao, Jinjing Zhang, Hui Chen, Xiaoxia Song, Mingjie Chen & Jianchun Huang

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  1. Qian Wang
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  2. Jiaxiang Juan
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  3. Tingting Xiao
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  4. Jinjing Zhang
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  5. Hui Chen
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  6. Xiaoxia Song
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  7. Mingjie Chen
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  8. Jianchun Huang
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Contributions

QW, MC, and JH conceived and designed the research. QW, JJ, TX, and XS conducted the experiments. QW and HC analyzed the data. QW wrote the manuscript. JH and JZ critically read and corrected the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jianchun Huang.

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Wang, Q., Juan, J., Xiao, T. et al. The physical structure of compost and C and N utilization during composting and mushroom growth in Agaricus bisporus cultivation with rice, wheat, and reed straw-based composts. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 105, 3811–3823 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-021-11284-0

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