After doing a lot of reading today it seems as though this must be fresh mushroom soil. I have a large vegetable and flower bed that I am putting in in my backyard. I covered this new bed with about 2-3" of the mushroom soil and have started to work it in about 6-8" down. My soil is heavily clay in some places and I thought this would help with the soil structure.

I had planned on planting vegetables and flowers in the bed and then mulching it with more of the mushroom soil. However since this is fresh soil, I am not sure this is the best idea. Do you think I should be able to do this without burning up my plants if I keep the mulch a little bit away from the new plants?

Also I planned on top dressing part of my lawn with the soil. From what I have read though it seems as though it might be better to pile up the rest of mushroom soil in my backyard, add some compost tea, and let the soil age until the fall before I use it on my lawn. If I do this, how do I keep weeds from germinating in the pile? Is there a certain frequency with which I should turn it over? I hadn't planned on covering the pile and the pile will probably be around 5 cubic yards. I have never had a compost pile before and I am not exactly sure what I am doing. I know Mother Nature will always eventually take its course but I would like to help her as much as possible with as little effort as possible. Any input you can provide would be very much appreciated.

Besides learning about the risks of pesticides, potential for high salt levels, and the disputed lack of active organisms in mushroom soil, my greatest lesson learned today was to ask a lot more questions before buying anything!

Thanks for your help.

Anyway if it's steaming hot, it's going to be risky as a soil amendment and mulch. I would go easy with it. It might not take all summer for the pile to finish and cool off though.

You can always ask whoever you got it from for advice on how to use it and what stage it's actually at in the process.

It is spent as far as mushroom production is concerned. I once brought home a 1/2-ton of SMS and put it a compost bin for storage. In less than a week the temperature had gone to 120F and mushrooms were appearing on the surface.

Unless you know the quality of the SMS you bring home, I would only use it as a mulch or compost it further until it's stable. The stuff I have access to is a good source of "browns" if I run out of leaves. At $5 for a small 1/2-ton load, it's reasonably priced.

Spent Mushroom Soil or Spent Mushroom Substrate are the same terms. Whether one is more corrector then the other is a matter of semantics.

Like structure and texture eh?

yes fresh mushroom compost is hot as it has not yet decomposed, we use it in the fresh state and plant in it almost straight away, keeping seedlings well watered and unmulched so the heat does no damage, generally about 2 weeks later all heat has gone so we can then start using mulch.

currently local prices pick up are $5AUD per 1tonne bag, they no longer seem to use those smaller plastic bags any more.

would suggest just lay it around existing plants leaving about 6" clearance, then in a few days mulch over it, we do no digging so we don't support the digging effort.

len

yes it is unfinished but we use it, and it is mushroom compost.

len

Kimmsr I'm confused as to how the sms would be compost if no shrooms have been grown in it, yet somehow be unfinished compost after growing mushrooms. Does growing mushrooms in it turn back time?