Re: Mixing up a new batch of potting 'soil'
- To: propagation@mallorn.com
- Subject: Re: Mixing up a new batch of potting 'soil'
- From: G* O*
- Date: Sat, 15 Apr 2000 21:40:11 -0400
Living in the hilly portions of PA, I find that mushroom compost is
reasonably cheap, and very available. Unfortunately it is of highly
variable quality.
The problem is that the raw ingredients that mushroom growers use
fluctuates quite a bit in price, and mushrooms can utilize a wide variety
of food sources. When they use mostly horse manure and straw to make
mushroom compost, it tends to come out very well. They also supplement
with all nature of organic matter (not to be confused with organically
grown matter).
I've been fortunate to get decent batches, last year's not quite as nice as
the year before. However a friend of mine ounce got a load with a lot of
trash in it, literally, plastic, old denim fabric, rocks, a real mess. I
can only wonder about the mushrooms that were shipped to market off of that
one!
The other problem I've found is that often the compost gets to the consumer
a little too quickly. That is, the mycelium is often still somewhat alive,
and the compost is rather hot. The 5' high pile in my backyard steamed
through most of the summer last year, and the pile shrank by a good 1/3 by
late fall. I used the compost rather sparingly, but it did wonders for my
vegetable garden. This year I am using it straight as a rather high
powered potting soil, and it seems to be working decently. I've also
started several flats of seeds with a 50/50 mix of last year's mushroom
compost and topsoil with excellent results thus far.
One thing about last years batch was that it came complete with gravel.
Limestone gravel was used to buffer the pH of that batch of mushroom
compost. Lime is more common, and faster acting, but perhaps the gravel
was purchased at a decent price, and was thrown in the mix. This might
bother some people, but it didn't really concern me, as my soil tends to be
acidic anyway, and this will just add long term buffer to it.
Just my thoughts on the mushroom compost.
Glider
At 11:18 AM 4/15/2000 -0400, you wrote:
>Large divisions require large pots (1/2 gallon and up) and large pots
>require lots of potting soil. I'm sure you've all been there!
>And there lies my problem. Last year I used a mixture of purchased triple
>mix (compost, mushroom compost, and top soil) and Pro mix (soil-less mix).
>Many plants did ok, some did poorly and quite a few died! So .... I'm not
>going to try that particular mixture this year.
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