Kitchen Garden Forum

Have just got hold of some mushroom compost, intend to mix it with tops soil and home made compost for my raised beds.......is this a good idea? What do others use it for?

The only word of warning from me is it can have a bit of lime added so may effect the pH levels,

Other than that I have used it in the past to good effect.

HTH

Jerry

Thanks Jerry

Anyone else used this stuff before?

Comps

Hi Compo,
it's basically a bag of very well rotted manure with a capping of usually peat and lime which the spore get sown into so use it for anything that you would put rotted manure round.If you're worried about the lime then scrape off the top layer.

Hi Compo,






I have 8 raised beds (4x4x 9inches deep) and they were all filled with mushroom compost to within a couple of inches of the top and then topped off with my own garnden compost. I have sown and planted direct and hsd no problems, I,m in my third year of raised beds and each year seems to get better. You will find that over time the level of the compost will drop, no problem simply mulch with more compost, mushroom or your own garden compost. I also grow my spuds and toms in containers and when they are finished I use the compost (multi purpose) as a mulch on the beds. Go for it Compo

Hopalong

We had sackloads of mushroom compost for months and paid for it. We gave up when we realised that if you left it in the sack for about 6 months it rotted away to almost nothing and as we hadn't paid almost nothing we stopped buying it. So have it if it's free but don't depend on it for bulk, if it has to be paid for then look elsewhere.
Allan

We've just had a load delivered. Interestingly, we bought some from a different supplier several years ago and the texture was very different. I suspect the original lot had a lot of sawdust in it; this is much more the texture of well-rotted stable manure. Does anybody have any thoughts on its feeding properties? My assumption is that the mushrooms will have taken most of the goodness out of it, and its main value will be as a mulch to retain moisture, aid soil texture. If it still has a lot of feeding potential, I don't want to put it around plants that don't want that. e.g. I could dig some in an area planned for carrots to improve the soil texture, but don't want to over-feed.