When we moved here the farmer next door and the people here, had recently spread mushroom compost on their land. The soil here is acid and MC is alkaline so helps to 'sweeten' it. For several years, when we walked over the fields, we were able to pick lovely field mushrooms and know that they were safe to eat. A big plus!
While we're here, can we talk about home-made compost. And slugs. Isn't it pretty much a given that slugs live and lay eggs in home compost (and are part of the decomposing process). There seems to be a feeling that we shouldn't use it as a potting or seed mix, which makes sense. But surely, if we are battling slug activity so hard in the garden, there is some contradiction in happily spreading home made compost full of slug eggs all over the place. I have a small garden, and sluggy bins, so I am direct transferring them from bin to bed without passing go. I love making compost as much as I love baking. Thoughts?
My understanding is mushroom compost is a sterile compost containing chalk which is why it is recommended for acid soils, so presumably has no inherent goodness in it. It's usually recommended merely as a mulch to retain moisture in the soil. I'm sure though that there are more knowledgable gardeners on here who could explain better.
Good home-made compost has little risk from slug eggs. Or at least as much risk as your normal garden soil has. If anything the compost bin should produce as many slug predators as it does slugs and you'll be spreading the slug predator eggs around.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
@Mary370, I do have a Hotbin and was wondering if I should put all my compost from my other small dustbins should be "sterilised" in the Hotbin at 60-70oC. Normally bins would have to be more than a metre cubed to get hot.
It seems that general bins that get hot, stay high hot for a fairly short time, while the bacteria are ferociously working. Once it's calmed down, it will all cool down quite quickly.
I think you would have to be very 'on it' to prevent any slugs finding nooks. Don't you?
I have been turning over my new raised beds and spreading home-made compost, I always leave newly sorted dirt for a day at least so my birds can remove all the unwanted eggs, invertebrates etc. Its a deal we have, I give them seed they get the protein from my veg bed but NO veg! Mostly it works except for the pigeons who are a bit slow, but the robin (who is currently preventing me from getting in my shed) is working overtime so I expect nice clean dirt tomorrow for my little leeks.
"The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it." Sir Terry Pratchett
@Mary370, I do have a Hotbin and was wondering if I should put all my compost from my other small dustbins should be "sterilised" in the Hotbin at 60-70oC. Normally bins would have to be more than a metre cubed to get hot.
It seems that general bins that get hot, stay high hot for a fairly short time, while the bacteria are ferociously working. Once it's calmed down, it will all cool down quite quickly.
I think you would have to be very 'on it' to prevent any slugs finding nooks. Don't you?
I think only fresh material gets that hot in a hotbin. I like to store my finished compost in 1 ton builder's bags for a year before it gets used. I put them in the sun and turn them a few times to encourage weed seeds to sprout. I imagine I get more slug eggs doing that than from the initial composting actually.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
I'm too impatient to wait for compost to finish cooking, so spread it over my veg bed in the fall and top with grass/mowed leaves as a winter duvet.. and new this year, I trenched the winter collectings in the spring down the middle of a raised bed. No solution for the slug issue, other than eggs will last for years in the soil until there are favorable conditions for hatching. You could make your own nematode brew for watering your compost heap in the weeks prior to spreading, in the hope of reducing numbers in your bin.
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