we use mushroom compost (fresh from the farm) to start our gardens with and to top up when needed, but we also feed the medium by adding all rottable scraps under the mulches we use. the mulches are green type spoilt hay mulches so there is nutrient being added all the time. no matter what migh be in mushroom compost it is all we can access as those mixed soils from the suppliers could contain all sorts of undesirables as well, but in the end you have to use what is economically available. we don't till/dig gardens the worms do that free of charge and effort. len Here is a link that might be useful: len's garden page

I do use mushroom compost, but not bagged stuff. We have a very large commercial mushroom producer in town and you can get the stuff in bulk for very cheap. I read the article. It makes some good points but also makes assumptions that are not universally true. He compares shroom compost unfavorably to peat moss and to straw - are you kidding me??? Peat moss and straw have no nutritional content, which is what he disses shroom compost for. Peat moss is harvested unsustainably, through what amounts to strip mining or mountain top removal mining. And peat moss is bad for your soil here in the summer-dry Pacific Coast. It repels water in summer, and makes the soil waterlogged in the rainy winters. Straw? he can't be serious. Straw is a mulch, not a soil amendment. Shroom compost has the advantage of being thoroughly decomposed organic matter, which is exactly what our soils need. Maybe in other places that's not so critical. Our soils are recently glaciated and have very little organic matter. My garden soil has only the organic matter that I add - when I did a particle analysis on moving in, there was no measurable organic matter. His point about the pesticides used in mushroom production are good points if valid. (since his comparisons to peat moss and straw are not valid I have to question everything else too.) I've never asked the local company just what, how much, and how often they use pesticides. I'm not trying to be certified organic. But if I were, it would be good to know that mushroom compost may have pesticide residues. Keep in mind that these things do break down over time! especially in a high organic matter environment. High pH, again, is not a problem in our area since our native soil is very acid. In alkaline areas people don't use things like cow manure due to pH problems, and cow manure tends to be a major ingredient in shroom compost. Kayli, please note that the author of the article doesn't say that mushroom compost contains all these pesticides. All he says, is that commercial shroom producers are licensed to use them. He does not say that they do use them, or how much, or how often, or whether he's had shroom compost tested for residues, or anything. I do give him points for honesty but it requires a careful parsing of his text as he's really trying to persuade without out and out lying. His conclusions may be valid but he doesn't present data to allow us to draw our own conclusions. In my area, roses and plants in general love mushroom compost. There's nothing in this article that persuades me not to use it as an amendment to add valuable, thoroughly composted, weed-free organic matter. In other areas, it would depend on the quality of the source and the characteristics of the native soil. I don't use it for winter protection as it is too soggy for our conditions. I've lost roses to canker when I've tried it that way. In colder drier winters it is probably fine.

Isn't Bloodmeal the organic form of nitrogen? Not sure what you would use for the potassium. There is a version of Osmacote which is high in nitrogen--like 19--and low in phosphate and potassium--like 4 or 5, if I remember correctly. It is one of the time-release fertilizers. Read the panel on the back to get the right version. Kate

Yep, just fine to compost. If they weren't, everything would eventually become toxic, which of course it hasn't. Somehow Nature has ways of sorting things out. It's almost like magic! It sounded to me like the only reason you were asking 'poisonous or not' was in terms of composting rather than eating. But I second ericwi's advice if you are looking for edible ones. There are some excellent resources online. My state conservation dept. actually put a fact sheet with several dozen edible types that grow here. I don't rely just on that but online resources like mushroomexpert.com will give you all sorts of tests so that you know 5 ways to Sunday that a shroom is safe to eat.