Market Farming

["Bill & Izabella" <pureprairiefarm AT gmail.com>]

Definitely the leaves.  They will break down quickly and trees

definitely need the carbs.

 

Mushrom compost is aged horse manure and is high in ammonia and

high in sodium.

 

Carey Reams said fruit trees make 50% of their own nitrogen so they

don't need as much N as the university says.  They need P and Calcium

which are made available by fungi, especially micorrhyza, and fungi

do not like N, they thrive in high carb.  Think of a forest soil; leaves and

branches layered.  Not green manure cover crops.

 

If I was you, I would add wood chips, lime and soft rock phosphate.

 

Bill

 

On Sat, Jan 29, 2011 at 10:13 PM, Leslie Moyer <unschooler AT lrec.org> wrote:

I'm getting ready to plant a 7-acre mixed fruit orchard (tree fruits) and I'm wanting to bring in some compost just before I plant.  We've been readying the soil for the past year+ by growing a couple of cover crop successions on it.  We've also raised the pH to proper levels and brought in chicken litter to bring up the NPK to good levels.  However, I'd like to add more organic matter to the soil and, most importantly, increase the bio-diversity of soil organisms.  I have easy access to two kinds of compost in my area. Mushroom compost and leaf compost.  The leaf compost isn't very well composted.  I would more appropriately call it leaf mulch.  It is shredded, but the composting process is incomplete, to say the least.  I think that the fungal life in the leaves would be good for the fruit trees, but I know that some tannins can be harmful to fruit trees.  On the other hand, the mushroom compost is-as I understand it--"sterilized". Doesn't this kill much of the "good" biolo
 gical life in the soil?  Of these two options--mushroom compost or leaf compost--which would you recommend?  Or shall I search for another option?  (We do have a human waste compost available here that I've used on ornamentals and it works *great*, but I'm unwilling to use it on edibles.) We used to have composted chicken litter available, but they went out of business (and I already have all of the nitrogen I need right now anyway).

--Leslie
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