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["Donna &/or Kieran" <holycow@cookeville.com>]

"My potting soil came from Vermont Compost company (picked it up at the organic farming conference)."

 

Well I doubt that this story has anything to do with your trees or the Vermont Compost co, but it might save someone some trouble in future.  We used to live not too far from Monterrey Mushrooms over in the Tenn Valley.  Spent mushroom compost was cheap and very popular with gardeners.  One day visiting friends we were introduced to one of their friends who worked there.  He said don't get any of the compost this year, we've had a terrible problem with contamination, the wrong kind of mushrooms.  We deal with it by dosing the infected area with salt to kill them.  A few years later someone commented that nothing would grow where they'd spread the stuff.  Most years I think it was fine, but not knowing must have really hurt some people's gardens.      Donna