permaculture

["Forest Garden" <forestgarden@gvtc.com>]

A nearby commercial mushroom grower sells the used soil / compost in which
they grew the mushriooms.  The cost is really reasonable.  I am seriously
thinking of getting some - the price is definantely right!   When I looked
into something like this a few years ago I was deterred by the perception
that commercial mushroom gorwing uses a lot of chemicals (pesticides,
fungicides, etc.) that would be residual in the compost.  Does anyone know
if this is true?   Would this be good stuff to use?  Any downsides you can
think of?

Sincerely,

Marjory

The growers webiste is:. http://www.kitchenpride.com/

It costs only about $7.50 per cubic yard!


The soil is apparently HOT when you pick it up and needs to be mixed with
other soil before being used. They say they have a LOT of it for sale.


Ingredients: Sheep manure, Wheatstraw, Cotton seed meal, Cotton seed oil,
Cotton seed hulls, Limestone, Peat Moss

 The mix is pasteurized (cooked @ 150 degrees @100% humidity) to kill
anything that would compete with their mushrooms for the nutrients.

 Issues I have with it:  None of the ingredients are organic. This is BAD
NEWS with the cotton ingredients especially, I believe. I'm not as concerned
about the loss of soil microbes, as I can reintroduce them with compost tea.