Mushroom Adventures - Compost Formula

Home Page	Mushroom Kits	Dowel Spawn	Dried Mushrooms	Dried Compost & Formula
Order Form	Experiments & Photos	Instructions	Recycle	Commercial Growing
Recipes	Testimonials	About Us	Associated Links	Calendar of Events

Dry Mushroom Growing Compost Pasteurized

Many of you hobby mushroom growers have been asking us to sell un-spawned regular agaricus mushroom growing compost. We now have it available in a dehydrated format. This compost is our standard straw and manure based mushroom growing compost. The material is composted for around 30 days and then pasteurized. We then spread this compost out to air dry it and later we bag it and send it back to be pasteurized a second time.

In the second pasteurization the compost is placed in a sealed growing bag with an air filter patch. The bag and filter patch help keep the compost clean. The holes in the filter patch are large enough to let air escape when the compost is being pasteurized, and yet keep out a lot of unwanted contaminants. While the large holes in the filter patch let out the gases, when the bag is being cooked it can also let in some small spore contamination later. Be aware of this and consider it in your use of the product.

This product can be used to grow many varieties of wild mushrooms, but not all mushrooms will grow on it. Experimentation will help you find out what varieties will work. We are including with the compost a small bag of Peat Moss Casing, which can be used to case anything you attempt to grow. These items are considered raw materials for growing some mushroom fungus. To use them correctly you will have to know some of the basics of mushroom growing. This is not a do it yourself kit, but the raw materials to do part of it yourself. You will need to learn how to use this product to grow mushrooms yourself.

The dried compost will have to be wet before using it.

(Note: This is fresh and new compost to be seeded with your own mushroom spawn to grow mushrooms. It is not spent mushroom compost that mushrooms have already been grown on.)

Here are some known mushroom varieties that do grow on this kind of compost. There are many other varieties of mushrooms which will grow on this compost that are not listed here...

A. bisporus – Standard White Button and Portabella
A. bitorquis – Dense White
Coprinus comatus - Shaggy Mane
A. Subrufescens – Almond
A. Compestis, Arvenis
Blewit

Dry Pasteurized Compost $30.00 each.

Net,wt. 4 pounds = (10 lbs wet weight.) Shipping Wt. 7 pounds.
The compost price includes the shipping cost in the 48 contiguous states.

Compost Formula:

Mushroom Compost is a complicated material made from several different materials. Most of it is made from a base of straw or hay. To that is added a small amount of supplements, minerals and manure. A brief out line on how mushroom compost is made follows...

Phase 1, Agaricus bisporus Compost Formula. 1 - Three wire bale formula.
Day		Treatment to material and ingredients to add.
1	Monday	Wet down.*Wheat Straw one bale, or Stable straw with 10% horse manure, ( 50 pounds.)
2	Tuesday	Let it sit:
3	Wednesday	Let it sit:
4	Thursday	Add - dried poultry waste and Urea. (1 Pound - Dried Poultry Waste & 1.2 ounze Urea.)
5	Friday	Let it sit:
6	Saturday	Flip pile and wet down.*
7	Sunday	Let it sit:
8	Monday	Flip pile and wet down.*
9	Tuesday	Let it sit:
10	Wednesday	Let it sit:
11	Thursday	Add - dried poultry waste and Urea. (1 Pound - Dried Poultry Waste & 1.2 ounze Urea.)
12	Friday	Flip pile.
13	Saturday	Flip pile and wet down.* - Add 2 pounds - Cotton Seed Hulls.
14	Sunday	Let it sit:
15	Monday	Flip pile and wet down.* (Compost will naturally start to heat up to high temperatures.)
16	Tuesday	Let it sit:
17	Wednesday	Add - 3lbs. Cotton Seed Meal, 2 lbs. Gypsum, 1 lbs. Rape Seed Meal, 1 lbs. Peat Moss.
18	Thursday	Turn pile, water lightly.* (Keep the pile in a more compact format to allow heat to build up.)
19	Friday	Let it sit:
20	Saturday	Turn pile, water lightly.*
21	Sunday	Let it sit:
22	Monday	Turn pile, water lightly.*
23	Tuesday	Let it sit:
24	Wednesday	Turn pile, and fill containers. - Ready to pasturize at 142 degrees F. for 6 hours.

First stabilize at 132 F. for 3 hrs. , then raise to 142 F. for 6 hrs.
Finished compost has 65-70% water content.
Slowly let cool for 2 days. Slow clean air ventilation required.
Well made compost is blackish and has a light carmel type coating covering the straw. Over composting will lower mushroom yeilds.
Compost is pasturized to kill any existing undesirable fungi growing in the compost. It can then be innoculated with mushroom spawn.

* Wet down just enough to moisten the material and not enough to cause water run off. Run off washes away the added nuitrients.
Note: Compost should be made on a solid surface (concrete, asphalt, plastic, wood) to prevent the washing away of added nutrients.
The above formula was downsized from a larger volume formula. This smaller volume formula may require additional composting time.