Topic: Edible mushrooms

[Cool Carrot]

Can any one shine some light on how to make the compost for growing button mushrooms??
I keep on buying grow your own mushrooms kits from Wilko's & gardening centres. To not bad sucess I might add. I've  tried contacting the local mushroom growers & got a response of they have just retired or ask someone else. Even tried searching the net but there is not much info on the subject.

Regards
CC

[Palustris]

I have a vague recollection of reading something about this in one of my old gardening books, Something to do with bales of straw and lime. I will have a look, but it may take some time, we have an awful lot of books and if it is not under Mushroom Growing it may be hard to find.

[Palustris]

Would you believe it, the first book I looked in, had a chapter entitled Mushroom Growing.  ............................
But since the part of the chapter on making the compost started with make a heap of manure from corn fed horses and went on to say ..no less than 5 feet high and a six by six feet base, and then went on for another 12 pages I am not going to type it out. Will keep looking for a more succinct version.

[Hugh_Jones]

This is a shortened version of instructions given in 1930:-

A quantity of fresh horse manure sufficient for a heap 4 to 6 ft wide, 6 ft or more long, and 2 - 3 ft deep should first be well shaken out and then turned every two days for about 2 weeks, and then made up into the heap, preferably with a slight slope on the surface and well trodden down. Take the temperature daily about 7 or 8 inches below the surface, and when this reaches 75 – 80 deg F the spawn can be sown in holes about 2 inches deep and about 8 inches apart. The heap should then be covered with 2 inches of well sieved sandy loam (old garden soil is quite unsuitable for this). The soil should be just (and only just) moist enough to hold together when squeezed by hand, and should be beaten firm with the flat of a spade. The soil should then be covered with either a deep layer of straw or with some other material to exclude all light.

Little or no water should be given until the mushrooms begin to come up, but once they do start to come up a little tepid water may be given once a week, and it will be found that a little common salt or saltpetre will be beneficial.  To preserve the health of the bed the mushrooms should be twisted off (not cut) as near the base as possible, and all holes in the bed thus resulting must be filled immediately with soil.

This is contained in a book by 3 Curators of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, so it should be pukka, but I take no responsibility.  The instructions relate to outdoor growing in summer and autumn.  For winter and spring growing protection in the farm of (at least) cold frames is required

[Palustris]

Found half a dozen recipes for mushroom compost, all pretty much the same as Hugh's piece. From what I have read I think it is probably easier to keep on with the Kits.

[Hugh_Jones]

Eric, in keeping with your previous precedent, should you not now change your pseudonym  from Palustristo Felis cum petasu

[MagpieDi]

Or even................felis fatuus!!!  ;D ;D

[Hugh_Jones]

You`re Cruel, you are, young Di - bet Eric`s busy now trying to translate "drunken Santa Claus" into latin

[budgiebreeder]

Like get your Wellies out Cool Carrot and start digging.

[MagpieDi]

You`re Cruel, you are, young Di -

Not as cruel as you tho'..... young..ish Hugh !!  ;)

Not too hot on the conjugation these days   :o  ::)  ( re Latin verbs !! )  ;)  ;D ............but gotta be pater, christi and ebrius in there somewhere!!

Alternatively.....best I can do is........ ' sine tibia '  ::)   ;D

[Hugh_Jones]

I`m afraid that one was too intellectual even for me, Di. What has a missing shinbone got to do with it?  Oh, sorry. Got it now. But if we accept shin as leg, then surely it is sine tibiae to be completely legless.

Nearest I can get is sanctus Nicholas ebrius or perhaps sanctus Nicholas temulentus but nominally not quite correct even if historically so.

[MagpieDi]

OH!!!.....please sir........give me a break.......I am going back almost 40 years!!!  ::)   :'(  
Total improvisation!!.........as my old school dictionary fell apart ......just before I did!!!!   ::)   ;D

Well done with Saint Nick and the plural ending!

I was trying to recall words relating to Father Christmas!!   ;D

btw...Hugh ...where's your Xmas profile pic  ???

Would you like to borrow a snowman?? ;)  ;)

[Doris_Pinks]

Ohhhhhhhhhhh Di, you are awful.......................but I like ya!!   Hehehehe   ;D
Yes Hugh, where's the snowman?  ;)

[Hugh_Jones]

You`re only going back almost 40 years?.  Madam, I learnt latin in the days when it was drummed in through the seat of the trousers by a size 12 gym slipper (the senior classics master was also an enthuiastic amateur cricketer), and once learnt that way it`s never forgotten.

You`d think Eric would want to display his erudition in this, wouldn`t you?

P.S. A person of my gravitas has to remain above such frivolities.

[MagpieDi]

P.S. A person of my gravitas has to remain above such frivolities.

HO!!   HO!!  HO!!  

[Palustris]

Sorry, but not having had the benefit of a classical education (Some of us failed the 11+ (twice in my case)), most of this conversation has gone over my head. I did learn Hellenistic Greek and Aramaic at College, but Church Latin was not considered necessary as we did not study The Vulgate. Since then I have successfully forgotten everything I learnt. Botanical Latin (of which I know but little) I use for convenience. And I thought fatuus meant fatuous so there. As for being erudite I never touch the stuff, gives me chronic wind. (I did win Chambers Dictionary by completing The Mephisto Crossword in the Independent on Sunday Colour Supplement once though, does that count?)
::)

[Hugh_Jones]

Sorry Eric, but having on several occasions seen postings from you using phrases such as "If you know any latin", or "For those who know any latin" I assumed that you too had had a classical education. My apologies!

[Palustris]

Heavens was I so pompous,sorry. Would love to have studied Latin, biggest regret of my academic life really. Would not have minded the size 12 either, all we had was 4 foot of bamboo. You pick a bit up here and there, but is not the same. (Wasn't being touchy or miffed by the way)

[Hyacinth]

...had this friend who said that one could only properly argue a case in Latin;there was the discipline of logic..for me, tho, the benefit was that of reading tombstones in churchyards...I just love churchyards and tombstones  ;D