Has anyone here used a mixture of normal top soil and mushroom compost? If so, did you get good results? I'm thinking of using this for the SFG and it will take 5.3 cubic yards at a cost of $35.00 per cubic yard. A little pricey yes?
Greg
Mushroom Compost?
Very pricey IMHO. Any mushroom farms near you? Here we get it from Ro-Lands Mushroom Farm They give away the compost for free during the week of Mother's Day, but its available at any time of the year for $1.00/bag, any size bag from lunch bag to garbage bag, bring your own shovel and bag. $5.00 for quarter ton truckload, $10 for half-ton truck load.if you bag and haul it yourself. It is wonderful stuff.
i heard this weekend that muchroom compost becomes very compact - was not a positive review - heard it on paul parent garden show
I have not heard that wha. Did they mix it with anything or just spread it on?
i think he was talking about it in a container and he recommended epsom to loosen it up.
Ok. I can see that.
When I lived in Kennett Square, PA (self proclaimed Mushroom capital of the world), I used straight mushroom compost on top of all my beds, with NO additional manure or anything and everything grew wonderfully! I just put it on 4" thick on top of the crappy clay the builders left me with and then put my shrubs directly on that, and covered with more mushroom compost, newspapers and wood chips. Since I lived in a fancy development, we would get gigged for leaving piles of dirt and mulch sitting around and with my back, it was move it the day I got it, no time for adding stuff.
I never had a problem with it getting compacted, in fact the worms loved it and the red clay got very black and rich looking in just one growing season! The first year I lived there I planted my live CHristmas tree directly into the builders soil and it died a miserable death, by drowning, that's why I used the layer of mushroom soil the next year...
So if I could get it by the truckload here, I would definitely use it exclusively. Unfortunately here it only comes in bags.
I believe I paid $69.00 for a dump truck full, delivered, back in 2005. A tractor bucketfull is about a yard, so a small dump truck is probalby about 5 or 6 yards. Are you getting it from Mr Mulch in Abingdon?
This message was edited Feb 26, 2009 1:33 PM
I wonder if what these people are adding into the compost is what's driving up the price. I have yet to have anyone quote a price for the mushroom compost that comes anywhere close to the quote I got.
Greg
Supply and demand creates the pricing.....in supply is trucking and handling costs. Demand that is strong usually finds the area a bit higher cost than other areas. More and more people have learned about mushroom compost so demand is increasing. We are two to three hours away from the source. Our per yard cost was $26.00 at the landscaping garden center in 2008.
I live in a horsey ownership area. Some of the horse people will actually load it and thank you for hauling it away. This has to be composted on my site but the free leaves in the fall makes it easy to build and keep tons in various ages and conditions literally for the cost of hauling.
The only thing in mushroom compost if it has not been played with by someone is sawdust, straw and sometimes finely ground wood chips used as bedding by the horse stable management. I have heard of ground newsprint being part of the base but I have never seen any that appeared to contain paper.