Mushroom compost

[Tmann]

The kits seem expensive to me. Not sure it is worth spending $30 on a kit when you can almost get them just as cheap at the store. Other than the satisfaction of growing your own. I have thought about it for a few years now.

 

[starshinesis]

I read one time about using mushrooms to help compost the manure from pigs. I can't find the article any more. I was wondering if any of you have heard of this? My brother is a hog farmer and is interested in being environmentally friendly so I would love to share the information with him.

 

[zigs]

No reason you couldn't use pig manure, it'd still need to be sterilised if you were growing for human consumption, you'd then impregnate it with spawn for the species you want to grow

 

[starshinesis]

I wasn't thinking of growing for human consumption but as an environmentally friendly way of taking care of hog waste. Its a pretty big deal for hog farmers what they do with the waste so it doesn't end up in the water. There are lots of government regulation about it. I wonder what species would work best to break it down. He lives in Minnesota so I wonder if the cold winters might also be a factor in choosing a species.

 

[zigs]

Ahh, not a problem then.

If it's stacked, preferably with some woodchip, then the fungal spores will find it.

They're omnipresent in the atmosphere so when the spores find a good place then they'll produce a mycellium

 

[starshinesis]

What do you mean by stacked, zigs? Like mixing it together with woodchips? Is there a way to buy certain spores to get them started? Do you know what kinds of mushrooms might work best? Probably the most prolific growers. My brothers farm is in Minnesota so they get some pretty cold winters. Do the spores survive through the winter or would they need to restart each spring? Thanks.

 

[zigs]

Usual way of rotting it down is to pile it in a heap around something like a drainpipe and then take that out to let some air into the heap.

 

[DancingLady]

I think the closest thing I've seen to that was mushroom growing kits, which I have never done because I don't really like mushrooms that much. Even if I got a mushroom growing in compost from a mushroom farm, I think I would be afraid it could be a different kind that got contaminated in there when I took it home. I am way too afraid of mushrooms to ever eat one that I didn't buy in the store.

 

[headfullofbees]

Ahh, not a problem then.

If it's stacked, preferably with some woodchip, then the fungal spores will find it.

They're omnipresent in the atmosphere so when the spores find a good place then they'll produce a mycellium

Do you mean ubiquitous, or is God a fungus?

 

[starshinesis]

Dancing lady I can understand your concern in a way. I know people that go out in the woods and find all kinds of mushrooms. I would be too afraid to eat any of those. Too many poisonous ones out there. I don't feel like I know enough about mushrooms to trust my life to it. What I'm looking for to share with my brother, though aren't mushrooms to eat but to break down hog waste faster.

 

[zigs]

Do you mean ubiquitous, or is God a fungus?

Good title for a book there Bees