Captain Dirty
Platinum Member
Let me divert it again. I once had tour of a mushroom farm--a multi-story, multi thousand sq. ft. windowless building in which pallet-sized beds of mushrooms in manure-rich media were stacked on pallet racks in the dark. After harvesting the mushrooms, the expended soil was deposited in a heap from which the locals could and did help themselves. The farm manager stated that the efficiency specialists concocted the media so that the growing mushrooms extracted all the nutrients leaving none in the compost. The only benefit to the locals was that the compost might improve the friability of their soils but added no nutrients (although Eric_Phillips indicates his compost was well-consolidated); the benefit to the farm was reduced disposal costs and the neighbor's good will.