PRODUCTIVE CAPACITY OF PLEUROTUS OSTREATUS USING DEHYDRATED ALFALFA AS SUPPLEMENT IN DIFFERENT AGRICULTURAL SUBSTRATES

The study had the objective of supplementing with different proportions of dehydrated alfalfa (Medicago sativa L) the different agricultural substrates most frequently used in the production of the "oyster mushroom" fungus from the municipality of Tetela de Ocampo, Puebla, Mexico. Seventeen treatments were performed, including 5 controls for each substrate used in a random experimental design in blocks, with a total of 85 production units. The substrates were inoculated and after 28 days of incubation, these presented 90 % of mycelium colonization of the CP-50 strain of Pleurotus ostreatus and after 121 days the experiment was finished by obtaining three harvests for each treatment. The best combination for the production of oyster mushrooms was the "PT-3Al" treatment with 17.94 kg, the treatment that obtained the lowest production was "Al" with 3.51 kg. The lowest biological efficiency (BE) is for bean hay residue with 46.84 %, in addition to the most abundant substrate of the region, "maize stubble", increasing its BE from 64.30 to 120.91 % with a supplement of 3 kg of alfalfa and a biodegradation rate of 64 %. The use of dehydrated alfalfa as supplement in the conventional substrates increases the production of the CP-50 strain under controlled conditions.