To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [permaculture] mushroom compost question
Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2006 11:01:38 -0600
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?
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.