Re: mushroom compost

**Pat Meadows p*@meadows.pair.com**

On Tue, 22 Feb 2005 06:51:16 -0500, you wrote:

>Back in the late 70's when I was living in the suburbs of Philadelphia
>we used a few loads of mushroom compost on the property and in the
>vegetable garden.  I don't remember where I read it, probably Organic
>Gardening, but the report indicated that some of the pesticides used in
>the mushroom houses were really bad customers and they did not disappear
>in the composting process.  They were added after the compost had been
>made.  I had access to Philadelphia's composted sludge so I shifted when
>the sludge was rated safe for vegetable gardens.  I have a bit of
>difficulty understanding how the use of any kind of compost would effect
>the lungs, but you might want to do a bit of research about the safety
>of mushroom soil, even without the lung problem.  

(For clarity:  we are discussing spent mushroom soil, also
called spent mushroom compost, and not the compost used
initially to grow the mushrooms - we're talking about the
residue after the mushroom crop is harvested.)

This is what I found about it:

http://www.americanmushroom.org/compost.htm 

Note that they say "With SMC [spent mushroom compost] there
need be no concern about heavy metals or pesticides since
the compost ingredients have very low levels of heavy
metals. Mushroom farmers have used integrated pest
management practices for decades and pesticides are rarely
used on mushroom crops."

I note that the source is perhaps not totally disinterested,
but unless they are flat-out lying (which I would tend to
doubt), it does appear that mushroom growing practices have
changed drastically for the better since the 70s. 

The mushrooms are, after all, sold for human consumption so
hopefully there is some regulation of the type and amount of
pesticides, etc., used. 

Pat

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