Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Beetroot Queen on April 09, 2014, 12:15
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Ok so next week I will have a pile of both. Well rotted manure. Last year I made the mistake of putting compost on the spuds. Lesson learnt.
So I think I know what I am doing, spuds and cabbage manure ( blueberries) thats the one I am unsure about.
Beans ????? Strawberries ?????
Fruit bushes
Is there a magic rule that even easy for mums with baby brain to remember.
What likes mushroom compost.
Also homemade compost is that acid or neutral and is there anything that would object to an application.
Ok so I thought I knew what to do but now I have just confused myself. I need a three lists, compost, mushroom compost and manure, thats how simple my head needs it
Carrots they dont like manure but do they like mushroom compost.
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What happened when you put compost on the spuds last year?
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spuds got scab due to the liming effect of the chalk in the mushroom compost is my guess?
It's probably not 100% true but most fruiting crops prefer slightly acidic to neutral conditions. So depending on what your soil's ph is to start with adding mushroom compost may not be the best for them. I assume it has chalk in it right? (the compost that is)
blueberries def don't want mushroom compost as they like acidic conditions.
most other things should be fine though.
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Hmm, I'm confused about the compost on the spuds too - I always line a trench with compost when planting, and this usually makes for cleaner tubers when I lift them (my soil is heavy clay)
What likes mushroom compost.
Mushroom compost can be very coarse (it depends on how you get it - the stuff I got was full of straw and hard clumps) so ideally best dug in autumn to rot down, and with the lime, turns clay soil into the best working soil ever come spring (and maybe a few mushrooms too)
Therefore you need lime loving plants that include brassicas (cabbage, sprouts, calabrese, turnips, swede etc) and beans (even peas I'd imagine)
As for any manure or compost, it's purpose in the soil is more about improving the soil structure than what crops they benefit the most. Compost can go anywhere, manure is best dug in autumn so that it can work its magic over winter ready for spring planting - but avoid growing carrot or parsnip in the first year it is down.
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Sorry I meant mushroom compost on my spuds, scab wasnt that bad but it was a thing I kicked myself about.
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Ta for the clarification - guess what I put on my spuds last weekend? Yep, mushroom compost....I'll put some seaweed on them this weekend and see if that counteracts it - no reason why it should but it can't do any harm...
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I would put all of manure in the spud bed. And all of the compost I'd use to mulch around the brassicas.
I wouldn't dig it in, as brassicas like firm soil.
If you rotate crops, I'd do the same every year. Heavily manure the spuds, and heavily mulch the brassica bed with the compost. Within a couple of years you will notice a difference in soil structure. Better to do that than spread either thinly over all beds IMO.
Totty