What is spend mushroom compost?
This refers to the used growing medium that is produced from the commercial mushroom growing industry. It can also be referred to as spent mushroom substrate, mushroom soil, recycled mushroom compost, or simply mushroom compost. Call it whatever you would like, it all means the same thing.
Mushroom compost is made of the following ingredients:
Bulking Agents - The most common bulking agents are straw, hay, horse manure, corn cobs, and cottonseed hulls. If you notice, most of these bulking ingredients act as a significant carbon source for the composting process.
Nitrogen Additives - These include poultry manure, corn cobs, cottonseed hulls, urea (synthetic), and blood meal.
Other - Several other ingredients are necessary when making mushroom compost, including water, gypsum (a source of calcium and sulfur used to regulate pH levels), and recycled leachate from previous piles of compost (helps to re-capture lost nutrients and prevent runoff into nearby waterways).
These ingredients are combined, and composted for approximately 3-4 weeks. Almost all commercial mushroom growers use thermal composting principles to create their growing medium. This means that they allow their compost to heat up to at least 150 degrees Fahrenheit, and then turn it as often as required for 3-4 weeks. This compost is then steam sterilized (killing some of the wonderful microbes), topped with peat moss (and lime), and used for production.
After production, mushroom compost is considered "spent", because it has already been used as a growing medium, and is no longer needed. Once again, it is steam sterilized, and sold. When you purchase spent mushroom compost, this is more than likely what you are getting. Some suppliers like to compost the spent growing medium again, however, most will offer it up for sale at this point in time.
Mushroom compost is made of the following ingredients:
Bulking Agents - The most common bulking agents are straw, hay, horse manure, corn cobs, and cottonseed hulls. If you notice, most of these bulking ingredients act as a significant carbon source for the composting process.
Nitrogen Additives - These include poultry manure, corn cobs, cottonseed hulls, urea (synthetic), and blood meal.
Other - Several other ingredients are necessary when making mushroom compost, including water, gypsum (a source of calcium and sulfur used to regulate pH levels), and recycled leachate from previous piles of compost (helps to re-capture lost nutrients and prevent runoff into nearby waterways).
These ingredients are combined, and composted for approximately 3-4 weeks. Almost all commercial mushroom growers use thermal composting principles to create their growing medium. This means that they allow their compost to heat up to at least 150 degrees Fahrenheit, and then turn it as often as required for 3-4 weeks. This compost is then steam sterilized (killing some of the wonderful microbes), topped with peat moss (and lime), and used for production.
After production, mushroom compost is considered "spent", because it has already been used as a growing medium, and is no longer needed. Once again, it is steam sterilized, and sold. When you purchase spent mushroom compost, this is more than likely what you are getting. Some suppliers like to compost the spent growing medium again, however, most will offer it up for sale at this point in time.
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