Muleta, Diriba (PhD)Gelano, Tadesse2020-12-022023-11-092020-12-022023-11-092018-08-08http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/23828Cultivation of mushrooms using locally available substance is a very cheap and environmentally friendly alternative for producing foods with high nutritional value. The consumption and familiarity of mushrooms to people has been limited in Ethiopia largely due to poor knowledge on the methods of production. This study was conducted to evaluate different locally available leaf litters and their combinations for their productivity and biological efficiency (BE) for cultivation of an edible mushroom strain, oyster (Pleurotus ostreatus); in Nekemte City, east Wollega Zone, Oromia Regional State between January, 2017 and September, 2017. An experiment was conducted to cultivate edible mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) using four different leaf litters: namely, Wanza (Cordia africana), Bisana (Croton macrostachyus), Khat (Catha edulis) and Eucalyptus tree (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) and their combinations to determine their biological efficiency for the selected mushroom species. The results showed that, mycelial extension, the highest and lowest mean value 0.521 cm/day and 0.323 cm were measured from Ce (Catha edulis) and CeCmCa (combination of Catha edulis, Croton macrostachyus and Cordia africana), respectively. The results revealed that differences in mean incubation periods and duration of pinning-to-maturation, pileus diameter, and stipe length were insignificant (p>0.05) among substrates. The first pinning took 34.66 days, followed by 9.66 to 10.66 days between different flushes. Mean durations from pinning-to-maturation ranged from 3.66 to 4.33 days. The mean pileus diameter of mushrooms ranged from 4.77 to 5.03 cm, whereas the mean stipe length ranged from 1.98 to 2.16 cm. In this study, the highest biological efficiency for the studied mushroom species was recorded from Croton macrostachyus leaf litter ((94.45%) followed by Eucalpytus camaldulis leaf litters (89.72%). All the substrates that gave over 50% BE could be recommended for oyster mushroom cultivation. The findings generally suggest that the mushrooms species when grown on locally available leaf litters may have the potential to solve the problem of food insecurity in Ethiopia and can also create job opportunity to youngsters, elders and disabled personnel.enEdible MushroomsSubstratesBiological EfficiencySpawnThesis