Mushroom compost

Millie Burrell amburrell@ag.tamu.edu
Sat, 30 Jul 2005 10:20:59 PDT
I have a friend who was doing his Master's thesis on mycorrhizal associations under various soil conditions.  One of the conditions was to be in an organic soil--which included mushroom compost as the compost element.  When he tested the soil, not only were the salts extremely high, the pH was around 10-11.  That kind of pH makes most nutrients unavailable for plant uptake.

While it may be cheap and in large supply, I have to agree with Mary Sue and Bill, especially after seeing my friend's data.

Cheers, Millie



Millie Burrell
Graduate Student
Department of Biology
Texas A&M University
Norman Borlaug Center
MS 2123
College Station, TX  77843-2123
(979) 845-2683
millieb@tamu.edu 




>>> Blee811@aol.com 07/30/05 11:12 AM >>>
Mary Sue referred to using mushroom compost one year with disastrous  
results. I used to build whole beds with it, mixing it with our native clay  soil. It 
added wondrous tilth. About three years after the first bed, every  daffodil 
planted in it was gone. 
 
Another year, the daffodils didn't even come up the first spring in a new  
bed with mushroom compost.
 
The horticulture head at our huge Spring Grove Cemetery here in Cincinnati  
told me that when they add soil amendments, they always send samples to a lab  
for analysis first. He had a batch of mushroom compost that came back with the 
 analysis that it was so full of salts it would not support plant life.
 
Of course I no longer use mushroom compost.
Bill Lee
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