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There is little use for peroxide in preparation of compost. This is because compost is by nature not a sterile substrate. Properly made compost should have a tremendous diversity of microorganisms in it, even after it heats up to temperatures high enough to kill insects and weed seeds.

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Generally, the best growers use manure sucessfully by using spawn, because as the passage alludes to, its impractical to sterilize large quantities of manure or compost.

Spores alone innoculated in manure may take, but the competition with other organisms would be high. Using already flourishing mycelium, however, means that the mushrooms will likely overpower competitors in a reasonably clean environment.

And so, our ingenious growers will, for example, sterilize grain in a pressure cooker or autoclave, then carefully introduce spores. the result in some weeks is that they have now a dense mixture of the desired mycelium which they then mix in with the manure/compost/whatever to give it more in space and nutrient potential.


Peroxide has been used successfully by large scale growers to combat invaders on the compost/manure/whatever casings. A common one is cobweb mold, which if caught early enough, is destroyed by the peroxide, and the stronger mycelium survives. however, peroxide does stunt the growth of or even damage it, and it certainly shouldnt be used too much unless you have to. Most good growers stay away from using H2O2 at all with spores, and i concur that this is probably the most favorable of routes, although its actual effects are to my knowledge unknown.