Hort. Sci. (Prague), X:X | DOI: 10.17221/66/2025-HORTSCI

Optimising oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) cultivation in West Africa: Soybean straw as a promising substrateOriginal Paper

Abdoul-Azize Boukary1, Lucrece Naomie Yabi1, Meike Piepenbring2, Nourou Soulemane Yorou1
1 Tropical Mycology and Plant-Soil Fungi Interactions, University of Parakou, Parakou, Benin
2 Mycology Working Group, Goethe University, Biologicum, Frankfurt am Main, Germany


Abstract: Mushroom cultivation has been proposed to valorise several types of lignocellulosic substrates. Soybean straw as the main dish for mushroom cultivation has not really been tried in West Africa, yet soybean cultivation has become very important in this area. The present study evaluates the performance of soybean straw in mushroom cultivation in Benin. We tested the cultivation of Pleurotus ostreatus on three different substrates, including rice straw, sawdust and soybean straw. Different water contents of the substrates were tested to identify the best for good biological efficiency. We evaluated the performance of a growing substrate by measuring the days required for complete colonisation, the time until primordia appeared, and the number of fruiting bodies per bag. Using a negative binomial regression model, we assessed the interactive effects of substrate type, moisture content, and their additive effects. To determine significance, we conducted Kruskal’s multiple comparison test to rank the means. This study showed that soybean straw was the substrate with the fastest mycelial colonisation (13 days) compared to rice straw or sawdust (2–3 weeks). Similarly, the highest yields were obtained on soybean straw (452.5 g/kg), followed by rice straw (367.8 g/kg) and sawdust (275.2 g/kg). Regarding water content, it was found that 60% was more favourable than 50% for both rapid colonisation of the substrates and a good yield, and the higher the water content, the better the yield. Due to its high biological efficiency, soybean straw has proved to be an excellent substrate for mushroom cultivation.

Keywords: biologic efficiency; lignocellulosic; lignocellulosic substrates; water content; colonisation

Received: May 14, 2025; Revised: February 11, 2026; Accepted: February 18, 2026; Prepublished online: October 2, 2026 

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