On 11/11/13 11:04, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Sun, 10 Nov 2013 17:43:13 +0000, David Hill
wrote:

On 10/11/2013 16:32, Let It Be wrote:
David Hill wrote:
My ground was grazed by horses for at least 30 years before I bought
it, but I've never seen a single mushroom on it.
I've started buying mushrooms that have the full stalk and have
compost and mycelium on the base, so I am cutting this off and
lifting a bit of turf and putting them under.
My question is.
How deep should I plant the stems an inch below the surface or deeper?
David @ a bright, sunny side of Swansea Bay.

And there's me trying to rid the lawn of the bloody things!


Your comment reminds me of when I was a youngster in Hastings, the
council in their wisdom top dressed The Pilot Field which was Hastings
Uniteds pitch with spent mushroom compost, turned out not as spent as
they thought,
David

Years ago I saw a large rhododendron bed at a NT property that had
obviously been heavily manured with mushroom compost and was sprouting
a good crop of mushrooms. I was very surprised to see it, because
mushroom compost is usually heavily dressed with chalk to make it
alkaline. Perhaps the compost was lime-free in this case. How the
rhodies fared, long-term, I don't know.

Even compost which is not chalked should be more alkaline than neutral
for Agaricus bisporus.

One good compost BTW is spruce litter mixed with chalk.

And of course, there *are* alkali tolerant rhododendrons, but I suspect
the gardener...

--
Rusty Hinge
To err is human. To really foul things up requires a computer and the BOFH.