Matured Compost as an Exogenous Microbial Agent Promotes the Composting of Mushroom Residue

Abstract

The effects of different microbial inoculants on the compost of mushroom residue were studied, effective microorganisms (EM) and mature compost (M) were added as exogenous microbial inoculants, and no microbial inoculants were added as a control (CK). The results show that the treatment with mature compost had the fastest heating, while the EM treatment maintained the longest high temperature. The pH of treatments EM and M increased rapidly in the early stage of composting, and treatment M was the first to reach a stable value about 7.8. The EC value of treatment EM was relatively stable. The content of NH+4 gradually decreased, while NO−3 gradually increased from 0.174 g/kg. The humus content of treatment M was the highest, and E4/E6 was relatively stable. The addition of mature compost and EM can promote the composting process of mushroom residue; furthermore, the effect of adding mature compost was better than that of EM.