Grow Soil Health with Mushroom Blocks

February 17 , 2025

Grow Soil Health with Mushroom Blocks

What about that unbelievable , comestible mushroom cloud ? It ’ll keep on growing — soil health , that is — when smashed , mashed , and mulched . Central Texas Food Bankgarden manager Hannah Beall and Angel Schatz , co - founder of theCentral Texas Mycological Society , show how these spent grow closure can aid eat the community . “We have passably hard clay here . It really seems to help bestow some tilth to that and help air out the soil , ” Hannah enunciate . On about a third of an acre in southeast Austin , the Central Texas Food Bank gardens produced 23,000 pounds of delicious fresh yield and vegetables in the last two years . “ And that move out to our community who is experiencing hunger through our programme . We have an onsite pantry , ” Hannah tell us . “ If we have too much for that , it go out on fluid distributions to one of our 21 county that we answer in Central Texas . ”On a chilly January day between freeze , we met up with Hannah and Angel to check more . Our audio person , Robert Moorhead , is a buff of spent mushroom cloud block — harvest harvest that his married woman dries for soup stock . Director Ed Fuentes was link up by Joe Rocha on a second camera . Central Texas Mycological call for 10,000 + spend mushroom uprise blocks every workweek to share with the community . A grant last fall enable them to deliver to governing body , but they also give mushroom-shaped cloud mental block giveaway all around townspeople . Angel and Hannah showed how they mix up straw and mushroom blocks . “ And that mycelium in the mushroom-shaped cloud — the decomposer fungus – is going to carry on to give way down and speed up the decomposition process of the straw , ” Angel enjoin . “ You want to ensure that you ’ve get a lot of wet as well , because that ’s cash in one’s chips to help oneself both your plants and it help jump-start this continued rot . ”On that daytime , they mulch their ail to feed it some extra nutrients from the straw and mushroom mix . Hannah likes to use this method for long season crops to help mitigate weeds and help tip the the plants . Garlic is a perfect option , since they institute in late October for late May harvests . It ’s a proficient option for tomatoes and black pepper , too . They also smash up the bags to disperse across the land . Sometimes they ’ll even get bonus mushrooms popping up after a rain , like Robert has . That ashen subject matter is the mycelium . find out outCentral Texas Mycological Societyfor game show , events , wild mushroom cloud forays and to offer .

And find out how to volunteer at theCentral Texas Food Bankgardens , a large way to take with Hannah Beall and help the community !

Two other events : Native Plant Society Spring Symposium , March 8 . sell out for in person , but register for practical attendance .

two women spreading mushroom block onto soil in food garden