Yeah! The mushroom compost is great!

Last year I got a very romantic gift of a trailer full of mushroom compost from my DH. (Okay, I asked for it).

Anyway, I let it sit in a pile over winter. I put in about 1/2 mushroom compost and soil to my raised bed. Everything looks bigger and more lush this year. I also planted some zuchinni and watermelon in other soil and they didn't do nearly as well as the mushroom compost area.

Sorry to look your gift 'horse in the mouth', but any idea what it cost?

We have a long flat bed trailer and I think it cost about $21 for us to fill it at the mushroom business. Of course, that didn't include the cost of gas to go pick it up. Hubby was smart and put down some chainlink fence we had in the trailer's bed and then we had some fabric you use under the liners of ponds he put on top of that. When we got it home he just pulled it out off the trailer with his tractor and some chain attached to the chainlink fence. That sure saved me shoveling it all out.

It still smelled like horse pooh when I got it and still had mushrooms all over the place. My pile shrank down over time. I think you can get it in bags now at different places. I know the look and smell of it varies around the country from people I got feedback from here at Dave's. I didn't have any problem with weeds in mine; however, one person thought maybe she did. Then she thought maybe the weed seeds blew in.

I liked it so much I'm gonna see if I can get some more this year.

I have 5 good size watermelons on the one in mushroom compost and 1 small melon and 0 melons on the ones not in compost. These were after thought plants that were on sale and bought late in the season.

The dill plants I have are about 3 times as big as the ones I had in the same spot over the years. I used just regular compost and some liquid fertilizer in the past. This year just mushroom compost. The Cherokee Purple heirloom tomatoes are nice and fat.

I got 12cu yrds of Mushroom compost delivered to my home for $112. It is nothing more than horse manure and sawdust, shavings, or chips. But this combination is awesome for soil manufacture and health. You need to get enough manure in the mix so about 1/3 is actually manure and urine. So the dirtier the horse stall the better the compost. I visit my dirty horse barn every year for some more goodies. Also you do better with sawdust and shavings rather than chips. Especially in a veg garden cause I have noticed the wood has a tendency to flavor the root stock with a bitter taste for a year or more with chips.

Darlindeb, I'm in Tulsa and I've been lookin for mushroom and poultry compost and so far am having no luck. Could you please give me some info on where I can get this mushroom compost??? I would really appreciate it.

Thanks,
Debbie

Be careful with mushroom compost, especially the sort of bagged stuff you might find at your local Wal-Mart! I have used it but was luckier than some other local gardeners. Come to find out this stuff here at the local Wal-Mart that is supplied from a Texas based company is notrorious for raising the pH of your soil. Our local extension service here in Montgomery County told me about it in time, thank goodness.

pH, not unlike the Rickter Scale for earthquakes, is a logrithmic scale. What this means is that this is not what many comprehend as a standard arithmatic progression of numbers, ie., 1 + 1 no longer equals 2, but 3 or 4. Logrithmic scales are geometric. Therefore, just like earthquakes going one entire unit is not just an increase of one, but more like 3X's. So, decimal increments of ph change can, will, and do make very large changes in your soil acidity or alkalinity. Also remember, the lower the pH number the more acidic and the high the pH number the more alkaline. A pH of 7.0, in most cases is considered neutral. The nice thing about most soil is that it is so diverse in its complexities that this acts much like a "buffering" system where mistakes like I made in using this local mushroom compost can be tolerated. However, just like any chemical/organic buffer it has its limits.

I am lucky that I have a good source of great mold compost almost around the corner. Nature's Way Resources (NWR), here in the Conroe, Texas area produces a fantastic 2 year old mold compost at a very reasonable cost either by the cubic yard or by the bag. Additionally, all the staff of NWR are master gardeners.

Personally, I have found now the best thing for my veggies is larger screen size two year old mold compost, their Microlife 6-2-2 pelleted organic fertilizer, and Green Sand (a mined micronutient fossilized seabed material). The Microlife NWR here sells is more taylor made for the soils in this part of Texas so you might want to work with them on what your soil analysis warrants. Also, the Microlife is great to add directly into the hole your transplants will be going into.

Finally, not only has this NWR mold compost added to the macro and micro life of my soil, it is screened so that my entire 2,700 sq. ft. of my garden has a much better physical soil structure too. This past Friday NWR began selling their own 5 gallon compost tea brewer. I have not found out their final price on their compost tea brewer, but it will be much less costly than many other commercial models currently on the market. They also have developed over the last year with their compost tea maker their own compost tea compost. I have yet to try one, but will let you know when I do and what my results are looking like.

Regards,
Tomatomaniac

I'll have to go out and stick a ph meter in the soil and see what I get for a reading. Anyway, I got mine in Miami, OK at JM Farms, Inc.

baja220 I'll send you a D-mail with phone number etc.

darlindeb, how much mushroom compost can you get from them at a time? What is the cost? I am only about a 3 hours drive from Miami.

I don't know the current price; however, I'll send you a D-mail and you can call'em. Last year we got a long flatbed trailer full for 21 or 27 bucks.

I've been working too many hours right now to run out and do a Ph test on my soil. I do know the quality of this stuff varies around the country.

Ok, I feel stupid. (not terribly unusual) But I thought Mushroom compost was just that, mushroom compost, the stuff left over from growing mass production mushrooms. And I thought that pony poo or moo poo was just that, pony poo or moo poo.. If that's all mushroom compost is, I can go over to the neighbors with the Farmall M and get a bucket load anytime... It's been stacked up in a pile for as long as I can remember, well rotted. So, do they form logs out of pony/moo poo and sawdust and grow mushrooms on that and then recycle it as mushroom compost? or is it strictly from the business end of the said pony or moo.... ;) Thanks. :)

Diann

I don't know what all is in it. Apparently, it varies in quality around the different parts of the country. Mine had mushrooms still growing in it. This spring my pile even sprouted some mushrooms. Mine was great.

So can I take it from this that mushrooms growing in my compost heap means good? I mean, I just turn them over and let them become more compost, but I'm figuring now that it means what's going on in the heap is very nutritious and all that.

I don't know? I just leave the mushrooms alone. All I can tell you is that I got good results using the mushroom compost I got.