Honestly, I have no real knowledge about mushroom allergies. But, most allergies are triggered by a protein in the allergenic substance - the protein is the allergen. If it were me I would avoid contact with the soil as I would suspect it of possibly containing the protein/allergen. The likelihood is probably low, but there is some level of risk. The food issue is not uptake (I don't know of plants taking in soil bound proteins), but if the offending allergen is soil resident then there is a risk of food contamination from soil contact. The greatest risk would most probably be with root vegetables, then low-growing leafy stuff (lettuce, spinach, etc.), then the higher growing fruiting stuff (peppers, tomatoes). If the produce was well washed I would guess that it wouldn't be a problem, but it's a guess.

edit - meant to add. you sure are lucky to have a source of SMS. I used to live about 15 miles from a major mushroom center, and the spent stuff is incredibly good compost.

This post was edited by TXEB on Tue, Apr 23, 13 at 19:10

Let me start with this. Mushrooms are fungi (spore-bearing fruiting body part) with a nice name attached. If you have issues with fungi, I would say it's best to stay away from any type of mushroom or molds on foods like cheese. That being said, I have a strong reaction to specifically aspergillus mold; and continue to find new fungi that I now have reactions to that I never knew. After having a compost heap delivered, I found that I'm allergic to mycelium, a "mushroom" that is part of a fungus. It was short-winded experience. I'm never composting again.

Whether mushroom compost might cause an allergic reaction would depend on what allergen that person reacts to, but generally those should not be in the compost, most growers of mushrooms sterilize the growing medium after growing the fungi as well as before. Then again those of us with allergies often find that we can react to something we were not allergic to yesterday tomorrow.

A 50/50 mix of soil and compost is too much. A good mix would be enough compost to eventually produce a soil mix of about 92 to 95 percent soil and 5 to 8 percent organic matter.

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/gardening/mushroom-compost-use-carefully

kimmq is kimmsr

Sorry to hear that smnet!

The mycelium is simply the network of fungus that grows below the surface of the soil, analogous to the roots of a plant. If you had a big load of mushroom compost delivered that was still full of mycelium from growing mushrooms, I can imagine you might have an allergic reaction. Was it mushroom compost or just generic compost?

A backyard compost pile isn't quite the same thing as mushroom medium. First of all aerobic composting is more of a bacterial process than fungal, plus it hasn't been specifically inoculated with a huge load of fungal spores and incubated in mushroom-growing conditions. You know best, but I wouldn't give up composting my leaves and kitchen scraps and garden trimmings unless I actually had the same reaction to my own home made compost.

I'm aware that people can have severe reactions. There are allergies, and there are allergies. We don't know very much about smnet's experience. It does sound like more than a sinus headache, but beyond that there are no details. That's why I said smnet knows best about his/her own situation.

We also have to consider other readers, particularly beginners who are sometimes overly cautious about things that rarely turn out to be a problem.

If I had a known allergy to the commercial mushroom species, I would NOT use the mushroom growing medium in my garden because it would be LOADED with mushroom mycelia of that species.

I wouldn't worry about other mycelia, because it's not the same species.