Coal gangue is the solid waste produced in coal mining and reducing the amount of coal gangue is urgent.Production of ecological substrate with coal gangue is a good way to deal with this problem.In this research，coal gangue was used as raw material along with different organic substances to produce ecological substrates for vegetation restoration.An L16(43)design，i.e.，orthogonal experiment of three factors and four levels，was used in the experiment，and impact of three raw material factors on substrate properties，including coal gangue particle size(A)，coal gangue content(B)and compost type(C)，were determined.Furthermore，a pot experiment of Festuca was used to test these results.Using physical and chemical properties of the ecological substrate and plant growth indices，range analysis and variance analysis were conducted to test the significance of the differences among the 16 substrate formulas.Main findings were as follows:(1)As for the nutrient indexes of the substrates，coal gangue particle size，coal gangue content and compost type all had significant influences(P<0.05)on the nutrient content.Considering the three nutrient indexes of organic matter，total nitrogen and total phosphorus as well as the economic principle，it was supported that C4A2B2(40% sludge compost and 60% large-size coal gangue)had reached a better level in three indexes.The smaller the coal gangue particle size is，the more favorable it is for nutrient release.The higher the coal gangue content is，the less the nutrient content is.Sludge compost is rich in nutrients.Adding sludge to substrate can increase the nutrient contents，while it also can increase the total amount of heavy metals.(2)For particle size composition of different substrates，the clay content was significantly affected by the coal gangue particle size and compost type(P<0.01).The content of sand and silt was only significantly affected by the type of compost(P<0.05).The optimal formula with the highest clay content was C4A3B4(20% sludge compost and 80% medium-size coal gangue)，while the optimal formula with the highest sand content was C1A3B4(20% plant compost with 80% medium-size coal gangue).Clay particle content of substrate tends to increase with the decrease of coal gangue particle size，while the sludge compost has the highest clay particle content，and the addition of sludge compost can significantly improve the substrate viscosity，which is good for water and nutrients conservation.Besides，plant compost can increase the proportion of sand，which is beneficial to water and air permeability.(3)In terms of plant growth，germination rate and aboveground biomass accumulation decreased with the increase of proportion of coal gangue in the substrate，may be related to the higher content of heavy metal elements and less nutrition components in the coal gangue.However，both aboveground and underground biomass were significantly affected by compost type(P<0.01).According to the growth performance of Festuca cultivated with ecological substrates in each group，formula B1C1A1(50% plant compost and 50% maximum-size coal gangue)can achieve the maximum germination rate，while formula B2C1A1(40% plant compost and 60% maximum-size coal gangue)can achieve the optimal biomass accumulation.Add substrate made of plant compost was superior in the accumulation of both aboveground and underground biomass.