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 _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php