The dirt that I bought for my herb beds was a mixture of regular dirt with mushroom compost. Anyone ever use this type of compost? It has a slight ammonia smell to it. Does that mean it's high in nitrogen and I should adjust accordingly? I'm on my way to making my own compost, but this year I've got to buy some. (missed last year gardening season). Think this stuff is ok? I've put off putting it on the veggie garden, but I'm going to have to add something to the dirt. The garden is uncontained raised beds on a slope and I'm pretty sure that alot of the nutrients have been used up or washed away. Jay, do ya think this kind of compost could hurt the earth worms in the soil now? Thanks!

-- Annie (mistletoe6@earthlink.net), March 09, 2002

Answers

Hi Annie, I use it by the pickup load,if it is not steaming just broadcast it over the dirt and rototill it in, water it good and let it sit for a few days. It hasn't hurt my worms and the plants go wild. Sometimes you get lucky and get a flush of button mushrooms too. Daryll

-- Daryll in NW FLA (twincrk@hotmail.com), March 09, 2002.

Thank you Daryll!!! I was hoping someone who had actually used the compost would respond. Perfect. Dave's going to love this job....hee hee

-- Annie (mistletoe6@earthlink.net), March 09, 2002.

Annie -- mushroom compost should not have an ammonia odor. The manure should have been broken down before it was used for growing mushrooms, and should be dissapated before it gets to you. If there is ammonia smell, there is still something going on in there, and the 'regular dirt' probably has something else in it. A slight ammonia problem seems to indicate only a slight amount of excess nitrogen -- which is where the ammonia smell comes from, excess nitrogen as opposed to carbon.

I bought mushroom compost a couple years ago that was lovely -- now it is very popular, and the companies are 'extending' it with other ingredients. I opened a bag this last summer and out wafted the fresh scent of pine. Nice in a floor cleaner maybe, but not what I was expecting from a bag of mushroom compost. In adding it to water, I would say that it might have been as much as 50% fresh pine bark.

I returned it for a refund. I can get chipped pine for free, so I wasn't about to pay money for it.

Since you're working on a slope, you'll probably continue to have washout problems. If you are low on organic materials, you might think about building raised beds to contain the valuable soil out of old hay or straw bales. As they break down, they will contribute a lot of equally valuable organic matter.

-- julie f. (rumplefrogskin@excite.com), March 12, 2002.