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Valley Mushroom Company has been producing and shipping fresh button and portobello mushrooms since 1995.
Our goal is to provide the consumer with the highest quality mushrooms available. To meet this goal, raw ingredients are purchased throughout the Atlantic Provinces and carefully blended to produce nutritious compost for the mushrooms. Laboratory analysis and careful pasteurization ensure a productive and disease-free compost. Each growing room provides an optimum environment through the use of precise environmental controls.
All the mushrooms are hand-harvested and graded in the cropping rooms to minimize bruising. No pesticides are applied to the crop. We feel that this is important to both the environment and today's health-conscious consumer.
Our farm is located in the beautiful Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia. Most of our product is shipped to wholesalers and retailers throughout the Atlantic Provinces. We have a retail area at the farm where mushrooms and spent mushroom substrate can be purchased. We are located at 867 Randolph Road in Waterville, and are open year-round.
Spent Mushroom Substrate
When cropping is complete, the compost is removed from the growing room and sold to home gardeners, farmers, organic growers and landscapers. It is available in two forms. Directly from the rooms it is referred to as unweathered spent mushroom substrate (SMS) and is characterized by a coarse texture, brown colour and a sweet smell. It is suitable for use as a mulch or can be incorporated into the soil as any other compost would be.
The second type is weathered spent mushroom substrate. This is produced by aging the SMS for a few months after it is emptied from the rooms. It is characterized by a fine texture, black colour and an odour from pungent to earthy, depending on whether it has completely stabilized (ceased heating). The weathered material is better for greenhouse use or sensitive plants.
Both types of SMS have a pH of 6.5 to 7.5, primary analysis (N-P-K) between 2-2-2 and 3-3-3 and high water holding capacity. It is available in the original cropping bags or by the yard. Either type of SMS makes a very nutritious supplement to vegetable and flower gardens.
