Influence of Spent Oyster Mushroom Compost as Growing Media on the Growth and Yield of Organic Pak Choi

Cambodia is an agricultural country that consistently generates substantial agricultural waste or residue, including spent mushroom, rice husk, rice straw, and animal manure. Effectively managing these waste materials could prove to be the optimal choice for farmers, enabling them to reduce production costs and increase income. Spent oyster mushroom compost, among these wastes which contains valuable nutrients and also beneficial microorganisms. Therefore, investigating its use as a growing medium for Pak Choi, combined with other agricultural waste materials, is worth exploring. This experiment was conducted using a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with five growing media formulations (G1-G5), with G5 designated as the control, utilizing soil only. After the harvesting, the results demonstrated that all growing media incorporating spent oyster mushroom spawn mixed with other agricultural residues led to increased Pak Choi yields. However, G2, consisting of chicken manure, rice husk ash, spent oyster mushroom compost, and soil in equal proportions (1:1:1:1), emerged as the most effective growing medium formulation, as it consistently yielded higher Pak Choi yields