Came home after a week of running and found mushrooms growing in the tumbler pile of compost. I did some reading and found a bunch of different opinions. Just to be on the safe side, I pulled all the shrooms and tossed in the trash but I think that the spores might have already spread. Is this gonna compromise my pile? Thanks.
[quote name='"suicidebonger"']Dude why are you talking about the safety of you compost on a cannabis forum hahaha wtf[/quote] This is the growing section? Wtf?^^^ OP the compost should be fine. Fungi are decomposers and will be present. And in order to grow mushrooms spores were in the compost to begin with All is good
Haven't seen you in a while DDD!! I'm by far no mycologist or expert on composting, but I believe it may show your compost has the perfect N level for that specie of mushroom to thrive. When I compost, I usually get about a 30% green, 70 brown ratio from my yard litter. I've never had a problem with souring like so many compost people complain of. I have seen compost mainly comprised of grass clippings and manure do this same thing. At a certain point in the season mycelium can be seen throughout and it starts to sling shrooms. Maybe adding more leaf litter to air it out and lower the N ratio will stop. BTW, what does the compost smell like right now Dumdum? Sour or earthy?
You're obviously new so welcome. We talk about everything related to our grows here because we know that our plants are only reflections of whats in the soil. Stick around we both might learn something.
Thanks Poppy, that makes some things fall into place that I was wondering about. I had some mycelium growth in various spots a while back. I added browns and green at ratios that were closer to 60/40 browns to greens. Then I upped my greens making it closer to 50/50. The reason being that from what I read, people dont go so heavy on the greens in order to keep the odors down (this is my first compost pile by the way) so I added some lactobacillus to my water when I wet it down. After adding the lacto, the odors completely vanished for a time and now it smells earthy.
Mushrooms are just the reproductive part of some kind of fungus that's in your soil. Interesting that they are shaped like penises. Just don't eat the mushrooms, many varieties can kill you outright, so don't chance it.
Well, this is my mushroom story for this evening. When I was a tenant in a respectable, well kept mobile home park some 20 years ago, my landlords decided to give composting a whack. They were semi-absentee landlords who were pastor and women's couselor of a large church one state north. Long story short, they trucked in truckload of field cow manure and dumped it on top of where the lawn clipping pile was at the very back of the property. After several weeks of daily rains the cubensis crop they unknowingly cultivated could have supplied the original Woodstock festival for a full day. And that's all I gotta say about that before I get myself in trouble LOL!! Anyhoo, I got off track there. I think when a rapidly decomposing substrate hits that sweet spot of N levels, all it takes is for the spores, temps, and moisture levels and Whammo!! It's usually a very short lived thing though, because a booming mushroom population will eat itself out of house and home ver quickly.
Hey DDD, as long as your compost doesn't smell funky, the shrooms are just fine. I'd be encouraged by the fact that they found it to be a hospitable environment.
What do you all do with the shrooms when they bloom? Do they eventually die back or do you pick them and discard?
They will eventually die back. I'd just leave it alone. Unless there is a bad odor and something is clearly off, just consider it all a part of the normal composting cycle.
Sounds like a plan! I was kinda dreading the task of picking them whenever they show themselves. As I was picking out the ones in the pics, I noticed alot more that were underneath the surface so I started diggin around to try to get to them. Lots of bugs and such in there too.
Those look like amanitas. Panaeolus subblateas (sp?) grow in very fertalized areas and are considered to be a "weed" to gardeners and legal growers. They are active and grow all years around, a long as it is above 33-34 degrees. They grow every where pretty much. Each mushroom has its faux.
Yeah, that compost pile was littered with them at one point and they all died back. My current pile has none at all. Plenty of other stuff growing in there though .
I'm attempting to start a large compost heap for my moms garden. What's all do I need and howling before I have viable compost?
Im still fairly new to composting but its really pretty simple once you get passed all the math and what not for C:N ratios. I learned from a local farmer that the rule of thumb is to simply have a bit more "brown" material than "green" material. So for me what I do is layer my stuff. One layer of old leaves, shredded card board and paper then a layer green stuff like grass clippings and food scraps like veggies and fruits and coffee grounds and I also use horse poop from a local ranch. Then another layer of brown stuff (more leaves etc) keep doing this until my tumbler is roughly 3/4 the way full. I also add a little non-chlorinated water in between the layers....not alot just enough to have it damp. Let that sit for a few months...turning the tumbler every few days. In a few months, you got compost...you'll know because its dark rich and looking like soil . My current pile that IM using was started back in Nov/Dec time frame of last year. Thats just the way that I do it and it works just fine. There are alot of other methods used by people everywhere and lots of internet links to get you started. There's also alot of stuff that I might have left out too. Try this link Composting: a guide to making compost at home, using compost tumblers, bins & other composters | Eartheasy.com. Feel free to ask any questions .
I found the exact same type of shrooms in my compost pile and was going to ask. The work is already done for me here! Glad to see all is well in my bin DDD- did you end up using the compost and notice anything abnormal?
Nope...nothing abnormal in the bad sense but yes abnormal in the way of actually seeing how much better my plants responded to good compost rather than the stuff i was buying. Just good dark dirt .