mushroom compost and salt

[mountaindweller]

I used to buy mushroom compost until I found out that it contains a lot of salt.
I always wondered why my citrus trees are not growing right or die. That is because I used quantities of mushroom
compost and citrus don't like salt. (now I am picking up horse manure on paddocks my poor back!)
Apparently mushroom compost can have some nasties too.

[paquebot]

It's more than likely not salt but highly alkaline. That is, a pH of well over 7.0. Surprisingly, much of that is due to use of fresh horse manure which contains a lot of salt. Beyond that, I know of no manure compost recipe which calls for salt.

Martin

[prairiegarden]

Horse manure produced lots of volunteer mushrooms in my garden, or maybe it just encouraged whatever was around to germinate or whatever it is spores do. Whatever is in the pot with my meyer lemon also produced two mushrooms sprouting out of the drainage holes at the bottom of the pot, first time I've seen that. The plant is blooming like crazy and has a half dozen lemons starting and it's only 18 inches tall, doesn't seem like it should be doing that yet.

[steev]

Ah, Meyer lemons, Glory of the Bay Area.

I used to make a lemon pie, slicing the Meyers enough to de-seed, then blending them to a slurry, rind and all, to proceed; made a pretty zippy pie.

[eastex]

I'm curious about your recipe now, Steev. Sadly, I have yet to get my dream of a dwarf Meyer lemon. Restrictions, restrictions. Gotta find one at a garden center in one of the bigger cities.

[steev]

It was a freely-modified lemon meringue pie; I didn't do the egg-white foam, just a top crust.

[prairiegarden]

I've had some mushroom compost sitting in a bag for a couple of years, bought it then found that apparently they use all sorts of chemicals tor raise the things or at least to sterilize the substrate, not sure if true or not, but have been reluctant to put it on the garden. I had used some of it for some shrub seedlings, didn't seem to hurt them but didn't seem to help particularly either. Going to have to try bokashi again, and also replace the worms that froze when I was away for a week and the power went out.

Steev, interested in your lemon pie and the rationale for a crust rather than a meringue? Do you use whole eggs in the lemon mix rather than just the yolks? I think lemon meringue pie, well made, is one of life's little treats, so curious if your mix for the lemon curd makes it even better.

[steev]

It's been a while; I think I used whole eggs; the top crust was because the packaged crust had two sheets.