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Abstract: The regular practice of filling compost seven to fourteen days after it has started composting and of using one ton of compost for one hundred and fifty to two hundred square feet of bed sounds impossible to the mushroom grower used to the composting system accepted as standard for many years. Yet this system is used regularly by several of the largest and most successful mushroom growers in the United States. It is such a radical departure from the standard system that most growers will not even risk trying a rick, to say nothing of converting their whole operation to such a procedure. The experimental basis on which this system rests started over ten years ago in an attempt to discover why compost made at the Pennsylvania State College Laboratory would produce larger crops consistently than could be obtained by the growers in the State. Two lines of research were started. One consisted of two-quart jars aerated in an incubator. These had controlled air inlet which introduced air at the bottom of the jars and allowed it to flow through the compost. The effluent air was analysed for ammonia and for carbon dioxide and at the end of the experiment the compost was analysed for loss in dry weight and for loss of particular constituents as well as its ability to support growth of mushroom mycelium. Thus the effect of varied air circulation was evaluated.
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