Re: Spent mushroom soil

[Pat Meadows]

I keep reading about spent mushroom soil here.

>Where do you get it?

I get it from local landscaping firms and/or greenhouses.

HOWEVER, we live in Pennsylvania - the mushroom capital of the USA.

We don't live near the mushroom farming area in southern PA, but I understand that mushroom farmers will fill a large truck with the spent soil, and sell it to landscaping firms, etc. throughout the area.

I doubt if they go to Arizona, though!

If I couldn't get this and needed soil amendments, I'd probably buy top soil, or compost, or composted manure - whatever I could find locally. Compost, by preference.

Pat

[zxcvbob]

I used to buy it directly from a mushroom farm in Madisonville, TX. I think a pickup truck load was about $12, no matter how full you loaded it; and they loaded it for you with a **HUGE** front end loader. Sometimes the stuff was fairly dry and you could fill a 3/4 ton pickup with sideboards until the stuff was almost even with the top of the cab. Other times it was really wet and heavy, and you could ruin your tires with only 1/2 a load. (Don't ask me how I know this.)

Usually it was wet and heavy even in the summer, because they watered the stuff.

Best regards, Bob

[Pat Meadows]

I think it's mainly aged horse manure but I think some straw or hay has also been added.

Pat

[Frogleg]

You might check:

[Pat Meadows]

everything does so well in it.

Except carrots: the carrots grew forked.

This was my fault. I knew that carrots would fork if grown in a medium with too much nitrogen and then I forgot about it when I planted them. Hopefully, next year I'll remember.

But everything else I've grown in pure mushroom soil has thrived and been extremely productive.

Pat

[Frogleg]

I've never been able to grow carrots long enough to produce forks. The earliest thinning produces a tiny bite, and of course I have to keep pulling up 1 or 2 (or 3 or 5) to check as they grow bigger. And pretty soon -- carrots all gone! I don't believe I've ever harvested one over

3-1/2 inches long. Every one delicious. :-)

[Glenna Rose]

Yup. Just like those who build at the end of an airport runway and complain about the airport noise or those who buy in a newly built subdivision next to a turkey farm and complain about the smell. In our county, both were eventually closed because of the constant complaints. Stinks, doesn't it? (no pun intended)

Glenna

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[Mike Stevenson]