Wal-Mart has mushroom compost!

I looked at the site, and have a question. Since mushroom compost includes straw from horse stables (with manure I presume), hay, poultry litter, ground corn cobs, cottonseed hulls, cocoa shells, does this count as 4-5 sources of compost as Mel suggests, in one product??

During the growing season, I like to add bits of compost to the garden. If you think about it, you don't like to eat just once every season and plants are kind of like people. They like to eat during the growing season too. And just like you should have a varied diet, so should plants......which is why we give them five kinds of compost. But while they are growing quickly and producing the veggies, a little extra boost here and there never hurts. Think of it as an energy drink for your plants with a few extra vitamins and minerals thrown in.

Something I do with my garden is grind up some of the daily peelings etc. from the kitchen in the blender. Then I dig a small hole in one of the squares and pour the stuff in and cover it up. It is like a "protein shake" if you will. Sometimes I make a hole in the middle of a square and just bury some banana peels, apple cores, etc. Worms come from all over. In just a few days most of the stuff is gone and the worms have aerated the soil and left their castings behind. It is just composting in place. Told you I was lazy.

Gwynn

Old Hippie wrote:If you think about it, you don't like to eat just once every season and plants are kind of like people. They like to eat during the growing season too.

Sometimes I make a hole in the middle of a square and just bury some banana peels, apple cores, etc. Worms come from all over. In just a few days most of the stuff is gone and the worms have aerated the soil and left their castings behind. It is just composting in place. Told you I was lazy.

Gwynn

HA! Brilliant!!

MasonGarden wrote:I looked at the site, and have a question. Since mushroom compost includes straw from horse stables (with manure I presume), hay, poultry litter, ground corn cobs, cottonseed hulls, cocoa shells, does this count as 4-5 sources of compost as Mel suggests, in one product??

I counts as one type of compost.

Old Hippie - I think that was Ruth Stout's method of garden mulch - just throw everything there and let it mulch/compost itself. My cousins used to live next door to her in Connecticut. Supposedly it worked for her.

This is an excerpt:

"My no-work gardening method is simply to keep a thick mulch of any vegetable matter that rots on both my vegetable and flower garden all year round. As it decays and enriches the soil, I add more. The labor-saving part of my system is that I never plow, spade, sow a cover crop, harrow, hoe, cultivate, weed, water or spray. I use just one fertilizer (cottonseed or soybean meal), and I don't go through that tortuous business of building a compost pile."

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/2004-02-01/Ruth-Stouts-System.aspx

I count it as one compost also, but I used one from a nursery. Hope its better.

Our Lowe's has mushroom compost, too. I've only found that and manure, and since I don't have my own compost system yet, it looks like I'm going to have a two ingredient mixture, unfortunately.

tkdtara,
Were you able to find more than one type of composted manure? Chicken, Horse and Cow all count as separate types of compost.
Even in my little town of 700, I can find three types of composted manure (just outside the local grocery store). But, in order to get at least five types of compost, I do have to drive to a larger town.
Other possible sources are Farm and Tractor stores, Feed stores, Grange, Nurseries, Wal-mart, Home Depot, some of the larger grocery stores even have a gardening department.
I would try to give places like this a call rather than running from one end of town to the other. You may save yourself a trip and find another type or two.

jumiclads wrote:The reason I was wondering about this is beacause on the compost bags it always tells you how long the nutrients are good for when in use, which on most is about 5 or 6 weeks. So we obviously need to keep adding compost between crops.

What happens then if its a crop that takes months to grow and uses up all the nutrients before it is harvested. Does the plant start to show signs of missing something.

I can see that the crop rotation is still a necessary thing to do because different vedge uses up and also puts back into the soil different nutrients. Also diseases etc. never show up till it's too late to do anything and then you wish that you had done some sort of crop rotation. So Ander217 I would stick to what you have had pounded into you.

Mick:

Compost will last for years. I think the "how long it lasts" that is on the bag is a method of getting you to buy more. As long as you have a good mix of various composts there is no need to add more between harvests.

God Bless, Ward and Mary.

WardinWake wrote:

jumiclads wrote:The reason I was wondering about this is beacause on the compost bags it always tells you how long the nutrients are good for when in use, which on most is about 5 or 6 weeks. So we obviously need to keep adding compost between crops.

What happens then if its a crop that takes months to grow and uses up all the nutrients before it is harvested. Does the plant start to show signs of missing something.

I can see that the crop rotation is still a necessary thing to do because different vedge uses up and also puts back into the soil different nutrients. Also diseases etc. never show up till it's too late to do anything and then you wish that you had done some sort of crop rotation. So Ander217 I would stick to what you have had pounded into you.

Mick:

Compost will last for years. I think the "how long it lasts" that is on the bag is a method of getting you to buy more. As long as you have a good mix of various composts there is no need to add more between harvests.

God Bless, Ward and Mary.

Mick, you can top dress your long growing, heavy feeding plants with
fresh compost and get the nutritional benefit to the plant roots with
watering.