Poultry litter is composted to reduce odor and pathogens and to improve its quality as a soil amendment. Organic material, e.g., sawdust, is added to increase the C:N ratio to achieve optimum degradation of organic C and retention of N through microbial biomass formation. However, the relative biodegradabilities of the organic material in poultry litter and the amendment are usually not known. ...

Pleurotus tuber-regium is a tuberous wild mushroom species, highly expensive, nutritious, very rich in proteins and known to possess medicinal values. The dwindling forests and the absence of commercial cultivation of this mushroom have resulted in scarcity of the sclerotia. The study was conducted to determine the optimum temperature, pH and light regime for the growth of P. tuber-regium and e...

Enzymatic hydrolysis (EH) lignin was modified with formaldehyde. TGDSC and PY-GC-MS analysis methods were adopted to characterize the differences between EH lignin and the modified lignin. The modified lignin was then mixed with wood sawdust and made into a lignin-based composite under the following conditions: pressure of 2 to 5 MPa, temperature of 175 to 190 C, and the modified lignin dosage ...

This study was conducted to evaluate the properties of cement bonded particleboard made from rice husk and sawdust. Sawdust and rice husk fine boards were made using two ratios of cement and particles of 70:30 and 80:20, but rice husk coarse was made with a ratio of cement and particle of 80:20. The density of sawdust and rice husk fine boards in a ratio of cement and particles of 70:30 was 960...

The technology for biodegradation of pig manure by using houseflies in a pilot plant capable of processing 500-700 kg of pig manure per week is described. A single adult cage loaded with 25,000 pupae produced 177.7±32.0 ml of eggs in a 15-day egg-collection period. With an inoculation ratio of 0.4-1.0 ml eggs/kg of manure, the amount of eggs produced by a single cage can suffice for the biodegr...

A well-drained soil in N-fertilized dairy pasture was amended with particulate organic carbon (POC), either sawdust or coarse woody mulch, and sampled every 4 wk for a year to test the hypothesis that the addition of POC would increase denitrification activity by increasing the number of microsites where denitrification occurred. Overall mean denitrifying enzyme activity (DEA), on a gravimetric...

Oak woodchips, used for production of shiitake Lentinula edodes (Berk) Pegler, are increasingly difficult to obtain due to dwindling supplies. We investigated the effect of adding ground wheat straw as a substitute for portions of oak woodchips in substrate formulae on mushroom yield and size. We also determined the effect of mushroom cropping on relative feed value (RFV) by chemical analysis o...