Have i messed up using mushroom compost?

[nilly71]

I mixed mushroom compost in with the clay soil for my potatoes. I also bought some potato compost bags from 99p shop and planted a single maris peer in one of them. Today i had a rummage around in the 99p one and there were quite a few potatoes just under the top soil(about an inch), but none were found a hands depth in the main bed that had mushroom compost added :(

Have i messed up using mushroom compost ??? or are the main potatoes further down?

Neil

[nilly71]

[chriscross1966]

Mushroom compost has a lot of lime in it, potatos don't like lime much....

If you did get a crop it would have a lot of scab I'd have expected. Better to use shroom compost before brassicas.....

chrisc

[flowerofshona2007]

We put 3 ton of mush comp on our plot and have wonderful spuds, try digging 1 root up they are prob down much deeper :)

[Deb P]

I've also used a lot of mushroom compost for spuds the past few years on my heavy clay soil, on son's plot we used it to make some lazy beds from a previously very overgrown plot and they are doing very well.

[landimad]

I too have heavy clay soil. I find that if I use a product called Perlite in the ground the spuds will come up better as the perlite opens the soil up and holds water for them as it dries out.
As stated earlier in the thread mushroom compost has a certain amount of lime in it which spuds do not care for.
King Edwards, Pentland dell, and Wilja all doing well on this and follow up crops have benefited from this way of improving the soil.
Bags of this from E Bay are £16 for a 100 Litres and this is fine to put on the soil and dig in with a fork. I used it on my lawn and the drainage works better here too. ;)

[nilly71]

Thanks for the replies.

I'll dig one up soon as the flowers are just dieing off.

Neil

[Unwashed]

It's very early to be looking for main crop, have a look in September.

[chriscross1966]

I've also used a lot of mushroom compost for spuds the past few years on my heavy clay soil, on son's plot we used it to make some lazy beds from a previously very overgrown plot and they are doing very well.

A heavy clay soil will eat up a lot of lime without becoming noticeably higher in pH so mushroom compost would work well for it anyway. Instead of raising pH the lime is causing the clay to "flocculate" ie form larger clumps of particles.... the action of the organic matter should be doing that too... it's a win-win on clay......

chrisc

[nilly71]

It's very early to be looking for main crop, have a look in September.

I have earlies growing in pop-up bags as well. I'll have a look later to see how they are going.

Neil