There is a bark place down the road that sells mushroom compost and steer
compost. Is this stuff good for the garden? Can I use it like compost and
heap it on the ground around plants and trees?

I have a truckload of the stuff sitting out front. It looks like slightly
dried and aged steer manure, I'm not sure how much it's been "composted".
I'm guessing it might be a bit hot and should be used sparingly. Anyone have
experience with this stuff?

"Zootal" wrote in message
...
There is a bark place down the road that sells mushroom compost and steer
compost. Is this stuff good for the garden? Can I use it like compost and
heap it on the ground around plants and trees?

In article ,
"Zootal" wrote:

There is a bark place down the road that sells mushroom compost and steer
compost. Is this stuff good for the garden? Can I use it like compost and
heap it on the ground around plants and trees?

Manure should be at least six months old before use. By mushroom
compost, do you mean the medium that the mushrooms grow in? If so, that
is probably horse manure and was sterilized before it was used for
mushrooms (good to go). These are fertilizers, if I read you properly, a
source of nitrogen for the plants, not what gardeners usually think of
as mulch, which is usually worm food.

Like mulch, leave six foot radius around the tree clear, if you plan to
feed them. Most plants could do well with a side dressing about now.
--

Billy
Bush and Pelosi Behind Bars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KVTf...ef=patrick.net
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0aEo...eature=related

"Billy" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Zootal" wrote:

There is a bark place down the road that sells mushroom compost and steer
compost. Is this stuff good for the garden? Can I use it like compost and
heap it on the ground around plants and trees?

Manure should be at least six months old before use. By mushroom
compost, do you mean the medium that the mushrooms grow in? If so, that
is probably horse manure and was sterilized before it was used for
mushrooms (good to go). These are fertilizers, if I read you properly, a
source of nitrogen for the plants, not what gardeners usually think of
as mulch, which is usually worm food.

Like mulch, leave six foot radius around the tree clear, if you plan to
feed them. Most plants could do well with a side dressing about now.

It is aged, you can tell by looking at it, but there is no telling how long
it was aged. It has a fairly pleasant odor (for manure, that is) which would
indicate some aging. I think I'll go sparingly just in case...hate to fry my
plants with hot manure.

"Billy" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Zootal" wrote:

There is a bark place down the road that sells mushroom compost and steer
compost. Is this stuff good for the garden? Can I use it like compost and
heap it on the ground around plants and trees?

Manure should be at least six months old before use. By mushroom
compost, do you mean the medium that the mushrooms grow in? If so, that
is probably horse manure and was sterilized before it was used for
mushrooms (good to go). These are fertilizers, if I read you properly, a
source of nitrogen for the plants, not what gardeners usually think of
as mulch, which is usually worm food.

Like mulch, leave six foot radius around the tree clear, if you plan to
feed them. Most plants could do well with a side dressing about now.

PS - it's definitely not mulch. This is plain old somewhat aged cow poop.

In article ,
"Zootal" wrote:

I have a truckload of the stuff sitting out front. It looks like slightly
dried and aged steer manure, I'm not sure how much it's been "composted".
I'm guessing it might be a bit hot and should be used sparingly. Anyone have
experience with this stuff?

"Zootal" wrote in message
...
There is a bark place down the road that sells mushroom compost and steer
compost. Is this stuff good for the garden? Can I use it like compost and
heap it on the ground around plants and trees?


Dump it into a pyramid shaped pile. Add two steer horns and cover
with a tarp. Remove in 3 .3 decades and spread it about . The horns
should be filled with sand.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Steiner


Na just spread the shit about. You seem to be well on your way.

Bill who has a horn in water in my basement for about 30 years.

--
Garden in shade zone 5 S Jersey USA

In article , "Zootal"
wrote:

There is a bark place down the road that sells mushroom compost and steer
compost. Is this stuff good for the garden? Can I use it like compost and
heap it on the ground around plants and trees?

STEER MANU

I like the look of steer manure because as a top-coating or mulch it's
inert so retards weeds but looks like rich loamy topsoil. If properly and
fully composted it will have a good earthy smell and is totally-totally
good stuff. If it smells poopy it's not so great, though still not likely
to be harmfully pathogenic though even the slightest risk of e-coli would
warn against using it if it smells poopy or rotten eggish.

MUSHROOM "COMPOST":

Mushroom compost isn't composted mushrooms but "spent mushroom substrate"
and whatever of the mushrooms is in it is usually not even fully
composted. It's usually "steamed" before shipped for garden use but is
frequently just not authentically a composted product. Because not fully
composted it CAN leech nitrogen from soil until it finishes breaking down,
though in general this isn't an issue as it is with bark, it has enough
nitrogen of its own to unleash some of it rather than draw out the
garden's.

Mushroom compost nutrient content is unpredictable because the content of
the spent substrate can be extremely varied. Typically it's a mixture of
such ingredients as straw, horse manure, chicken manure, peat, bark, and
lime. The lime can have effects on soil not planned for, many plants
declining due to alkalinity, far fewer plants loving alkalinity.

Commercial compost workers have also been documented to suffer severe
respiratory disease from organic mushroom compost dust exposure. Garden
use would not have such a risk but it is wise to wear a mask during
application, and not use it in arid gardens where winds might stir up dust
and spores enough to effect lungs of pets or gardeners. Never apply it if
it's dried and powdery; wet it down to 50% moisture which makes it easier
to spread and nixes potentially dangerous dust.

If it stinks of ammonia or poo, that's cuz it's got raw sewage or manure,
bad, bad. All these caveats sound like it is invariably be rotten stuff
for the garden, but it's by and large okay, and mainly you have to
consider the issue of it having lime in it and it has to pass the stink
test and should smell more like autumn leaves than crap. If you're lucky,
the variety of content means it has the best array of micro-nutrients such
as manganese and iron and whatnot.

BARK:

Bark is terrible for sucking nitrogen out of soil. It's fine once it's
completely broken down and bark's a totally reasonable component of fully
composted product, but as chunks of bark uncomposted, the guarantee it
will subtract nigrogen from the soil has to be considered. A little bark
will encourage beneficial fungus and some shrubs such as vacciniums or
dogwoods really like the extra fungus; huckleberries in particular even
prefer the lowered nitrogen in favor of heightened fungus. For most
gardens it's a poor choice of mulch since depleting the nitrogen slows the
growth of most perennials and annuals. If there's reason to WANT the soil
to be poor for growing (because nothing will ever be planted there) then
these points won't matter.

My favorite of the three is definitely well-composted manure (steer or
dairy or chicken or zoo doo), the steer being generally cheapest and
having many positive points and very little against it. Chicken manure
has twice as much nitrogen as does steer manure, and steer has more
nitrogen and potasium than dairy manure, but as a top-coating at least
it's all the same as it is fairly inert unless mixed up with soil at which
point manure composts feed the microorganisms that produce the nitrogen
and other nutrients.

-paghat the ratgirl
--
visit my temperate gardening website:
http://www.paghat.com
visit my film reviews website:
http://www.weirdwildrealm.com

In article ,
"Zootal" wrote:

I have a truckload of the stuff sitting out front. It looks like slightly
dried and aged steer manure, I'm not sure how much it's been "composted".
I'm guessing it might be a bit hot and should be used sparingly. Anyone have
experience with this stuff?

"Zootal" wrote in message
...
There is a bark place down the road that sells mushroom compost and steer
compost. Is this stuff good for the garden? Can I use it like compost and
heap it on the ground around plants and trees?


Take a look at
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/Pubs/foodnut/09369.html
You probably don't want to use it on anything that you'll be harvesting
in the next three months, if it hasn't been commercially composted, i.e.
done in very large lots to generate the heat needed to kill pathogens.
--

Billy
Bush and Pelosi Behind Bars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KVTf...ef=patrick.net
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0aEo...eature=related

"Zootal" wrote in message
...
There is a bark place down the road that sells mushroom compost and steer
compost. Is this stuff good for the garden? Can I use it like compost and
heap it on the ground around plants and trees?

Yes.

"Billy" wrote in message
"Zootal" wrote:

There is a bark place down the road that sells mushroom compost and steer
compost. Is this stuff good for the garden? Can I use it like compost and
heap it on the ground around plants and trees?

Manure should be at least six months old before use.

I disagree strongly with this. I use manure pretty fresh and always have.
It just depends on where you use it.

I think that the taboos about manure stem from old books (mostly from
Europe) which all talk about "aged manure". I suspect that most people
believe that without ever having tried it really fresh.

"Zootal" wrote in message
"Billy" wrote in message
"Zootal" wrote:

There is a bark place down the road that sells mushroom compost and
steer
compost. Is this stuff good for the garden? Can I use it like compost
and
heap it on the ground around plants and trees?

Manure should be at least six months old before use. By mushroom
compost, do you mean the medium that the mushrooms grow in? If so, that
is probably horse manure and was sterilized before it was used for
mushrooms (good to go). These are fertilizers, if I read you properly, a
source of nitrogen for the plants, not what gardeners usually think of
as mulch, which is usually worm food.

Like mulch, leave six foot radius around the tree clear, if you plan to
feed them. Most plants could do well with a side dressing about now.

PS - it's definitely not mulch. This is plain old somewhat aged cow poop.

Then use it now and dont' let the nutrients escape into the ground in a non
useful place. Don't put it around the base of lettuce or parsley but
anything that will be harvested from above the level of the poop will love
it as will your worms.

"Billy" wrote in message news:wildbilly-
"Zootal" wrote:

I have a truckload of the stuff sitting out front. It looks like slightly
dried and aged steer manure, I'm not sure how much it's been "composted".
I'm guessing it might be a bit hot and should be used sparingly. Anyone
have
experience with this stuff?

"Zootal" wrote in message
...
There is a bark place down the road that sells mushroom compost and
steer
compost. Is this stuff good for the garden? Can I use it like compost
and
heap it on the ground around plants and trees?


Take a look at
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/Pubs/foodnut/09369.html
You probably don't want to use it on anything that you'll be harvesting
in the next three months, if it hasn't been commercially composted, i.e.
done in very large lots to generate the heat needed to kill pathogens.

Sunlight and soil biota are also good destroyers of pathogens.
http://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/liv.../cwa01s11.html

"FarmI" ask@itshall be given wrote in message
...
"Billy" wrote in message
"Zootal" wrote:

There is a bark place down the road that sells mushroom compost and steer
compost. Is this stuff good for the garden? Can I use it like compost and
heap it on the ground around plants and trees?

Manure should be at least six months old before use.

I disagree strongly with this. I use manure pretty fresh and always have.
It just depends on where you use it.

I think that the taboos about manure stem from old books (mostly from
Europe) which all talk about "aged manure". I suspect that most people
believe that without ever having tried it really fresh.



I agree. I live in the midst of cattle country and we run horses as well.
Manure from either can be used within a few weeks of date of plop when it has
dried somewhat.

Manure from birds (chickens, turkeys etc) is another matter altogether as the
content of nutrients is much higher. It must be diluted and/or composted
and/or aged before use. I prefer diluting and composting in with other plant
material as these help to retain the nutrients as just leaving it lying in a
heap will allow the soluble nutrients (especially nitrogen compounds) to leach
away. This usually results in great growth of grass downslope from the pile
which may not be what you want.

As for the neccesity of hot composting and sterilizing I think the risk of
picking up a pathogen from the manure of a herbivore is greatly over
estimated. Sure there are E.Coli and other pathogens that can live in humans
in their guts but we all live in a microbiological soup. The air, the water
and every object we touch is covered in microbes by the gazillion. Living
isn't something you can do sterile.

There are a great many people in the western world who live in big cities who
are horrified at the thought of anything that has come out of the arse of a
living creature. [I always knew that a boiled egg is the work of the devil]
I have had people ask me "where do the horses go to the bathroom?" When I
replied "where ever they please" they were horrified.

You have only to look at the vast market for fancy surface cleansers, coloured
stuff to put down your toilet etc, most of which is entirely pointless, to see
how this fear is reinforced by vested interests. Much of this squeamishness
is based on the fear that one spot of fecal matter on ones skin will
automatically result in an illness. You wash before eating don't you? You
have an immune system don't you? But you are a bad parent whose children
ought be taken away if your whole bathroom isn't sprayed with Zeppo Ultraclean
daily.

I would say changing the dirty nappy of an infant is far more dangerous (not
to mention unpleasant) than spreading barrows full of not fully composted cow
manure.

David

"paghat" wrote in message
news:gardenSPAM-ME-NOT-

and steer has more
nitrogen and potasium than dairy manure,

Why do you say that? Do they have greatly different diets where you are?

David

In article
,
"FarmI" ask@itshall be given wrote:

"Billy" wrote in message news:wildbilly-
"Zootal" wrote:

I have a truckload of the stuff sitting out front. It looks like slightly
dried and aged steer manure, I'm not sure how much it's been "composted".
I'm guessing it might be a bit hot and should be used sparingly. Anyone
have
experience with this stuff?

"Zootal" wrote in message
...
There is a bark place down the road that sells mushroom compost and
steer
compost. Is this stuff good for the garden? Can I use it like compost
and
heap it on the ground around plants and trees?


Take a look at
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/Pubs/foodnut/09369.html
You probably don't want to use it on anything that you'll be harvesting
in the next three months, if it hasn't been commercially composted, i.e.
done in very large lots to generate the heat needed to kill pathogens.

Sunlight and soil biota are also good destroyers of pathogens.
http://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/liv.../cwa01s11.html

If given 3 - 4 months of warm summer days ;-)
--

Billy
Bush and Pelosi Behind Bars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KVTf...ef=patrick.net
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0aEo...eature=related