Background:

Pleurotus is one of the best-known edible mushroom genera. In recent years there has been a marked interest in its commercial production, which has led to the search for substrates or mixtures that ensure high productivity.

Objective:

To determine the effect of the main chemical components of substrates for the production of two strains of Pleurotus spp.

Methods:

Different mixtures were made from corn cob, grass and coffee pulp, establishing 10 treatments, which were bromatologically analyzed. Two strains of Pleurotus spp. were cultivated. The Biological Efficiency (BE), Production Rate (TP) and Yield (R) were evaluated.

Results and conclusions:

In both strains ECS-123 and ECS-1123, treatment 7 (100 % grass) obtained the highest values of EB (38.2 % and 48.8 %, respectively), TP (0.5 % and 0.6 %, respectively) and R (14.7 and 18.8 %, respectively). These values were not statistically different from other treatments containing grass, but from the one with higher nitrogen content (coffee pulp) so it is stated that a nitrogen concentration of 0.5 % and C/N ratio of 96.75 are sufficient to obtain a good production of basidiomata. The importance of other factors on the production of strains is highlighted.