Can Mushrooms Clean Up Fertilizer Runoff?

Overview

Objectives/Goals To find if Pleurotus ostreatus mycelium is an effective ammonia remover in freshwater environments. Methods/Materials Materials: -18ml Scott's MiracleGro liquid houseplant fertilizer -3 Critter Carriers -75 grams of Pleurotus ostreatus mycelium -75 grams of alder sawdust -2 empty medium sized mesh filter bags -APA aquarium test kit -Rainwater(with zero ppm of ammonia, etc.) Methods: 1. Place an equal amount of water into each container 2. Take all the mycelium and place it into a filter bag 3. Take all the sawdust and place it in a filter bag 4. Add 6ml of fertilizer to each container 5. Place the sawdust in one container and the mycelium in another. Mark as such 6. Leave one undisturbed as a control 7. Measure daily for ammonia 8. Record all relevant information 9. Continue experiment for nine days Results This experiment had some very interesting data. All of the tanks tested had the same level of ammonia for the first four days, at approximately nine ppm (parts per million). Then the mycelium test dropped to eight ppm. The next day it plummeted to four ppm, then two ppm. It remained at two ppm for the rest of the experiment. The sawdust stayed at nine ppm for the first five days, then dropped to eight ppm. The control stayed the same throughout, at the original nine ppm. Conclusions/Discussion Pleurotus ostreatus mycelium did reduce ammonia while the other tests did not. Therefore, the hypothesis was correct. The major drops in the data of the mycelium occurred when the author tried to partially suspend the mycelium in the water using surgical gauze. This was due to the fact that the mycelium was

Awards (1)

• Honorable Mention

Competition history

• CSEF 2013 Environmental Engineering (Junior Division Only) · Entry J1022

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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