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shwowsh
growologist

Registered: 07/29/03
Posts: 236
Loc: Deep in the Heart...
Last seen: 8 years, 8 days
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If horse poo is aged, how absolutely dry does it need to be?
#5582640 - 05/02/06 07:04 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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Hey everyone. Earlier today I went to a stable to get some horse poo, and I got some. This came from a giant mound of manure that they freely give away to whoever wants it, so I just helped myself to a couple trashbags full.
From the looks of it, the pile was big enough that the backside hadn't been touched too much in a long time, making me think its been aging for a while, and so i shoveled from that side. The stuff looked like pretty composted lawn clippings (what i remember lawn clipping compost looked like when we had one), with some occasional straw sticking out, and what not, and I couldn't tell if it was leeched enough.
Can anyone tell me how I can for sure tell that its been leeched enough? Also, I just went to my car (its in my trunk in plastic bags) and squeezed a handful from the middle of the bag, and the heat coming out of there is kind of throwing off my judgment as to whether or not its completely dry. I squueze, and no moisture seems to come out whatsoever, and my hand doesn't really feel wet at all, but at the same time this hot compost makes me think its kind of moist.
Last clue to go by, is my trunk doesn't particularly smell bad, but there is definite aroma of compost. I'm guessing thats the "earthy" smell people refer to, but I want to make sure its what i'm suppose to to have, because its definitely not what I would call odorless (not being able to smell it at all).
I might be paying way too much attention to details that don't matter, but i've never messed with horse poo before, and I don't want to force leech it if I don't need to.
If it seems pretty well composted/aged, and smells like compost, and is for the most part dry (no moisture residue on hand when squeezed) can i just go ahead and pasteurize? Thanks everyone.
and just as a lost note, do people prefer pasteurizing in a big pot, or using oven bags?
-------------------- ------------------------------------------------- We're all children here, so could we please start acting like it?
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Holydiver
Stranger



Registered: 03/19/01
Posts: 5,156
Loc: The midnight sea
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Re: If horse poo is aged, how absolutely dry does it need to be? [Re: shwowsh]
#5582674 - 05/02/06 07:13 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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Howdy. I don't quite understand why you're asking about the moisture content--that matters not, unless you are trying to store it. In that case, it needs to be bone dry. You'll bring it up to the correct moisture content when you go to pasteurize later on, by adding water.
If the stuff is black and looks like soil, don't use it. Been there done that with manure that sat in an unturned pile. Looked and smelled great, but not worth a damn. You want this texture:

I prefer pasteurizing in a bag on the stovetop.
-------------------- To find a place to live between the negatives and positives.
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splifner180
Student


Registered: 03/24/06
Posts: 1,288
Loc: USA, East Coast
Last seen: 1 year, 3 months
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Re: If horse poo is aged, how absolutely dry does it need to be? [Re: Holydiver]
#5582921 - 05/02/06 08:14 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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In my experience properly dried horse manure is (a) odorless and (b) has the consistency of peat moss.
splif
-------------------- First Grow: Ecuador -> LC -> HPoo/Straw -> Monotub Build a Do-It-Yourself Magnetic Stirrer in thirty minutes with no money.
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satori85
Stranger

Registered: 03/08/06
Posts: 221
Last seen: 17 years, 3 months
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Re: If horse poo is aged, how absolutely dry does it need to be? [Re: splifner180]
#5583159 - 05/02/06 09:02 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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If you go to a place that has a huge pile and it looks like dirt but has black peices in it, what should be done with the black peices? Also it smells.... a little so i added a lot of water and then im going to let the water drain out and put a tarp down for it to dry out on (after i let water go through). Im doing like 200 pounds so i cant exactly use a single pilow case.... dont no what to use.
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Cryogenicz
what?


Registered: 07/01/04
Posts: 2,421
Loc: Oregon
Last seen: 4 years, 8 months
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Re: If horse poo is aged, how absolutely dry does it need to be? [Re: splifner180]
#5583164 - 05/02/06 09:03 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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I get my horse manure pretty fresh from my supplier. I take it and lay it out on a hot sunny day and it drys in about 2-3 days (it gets pretty dry but not 100% dry. Then I just shread it with a mulcher and throw it in a trashcan with the lid on for a few weeks, then once I see white firefang going through it I start to use it. It really doesnt have a shit oder after that.. smells mainly like soil. but the texture is coarse. Basically if your worried about urea, an easy way to know if your dung has too much piss in it is if you can smell it. If you can smell piss, then it will inhibit mycelium growth.
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shwowsh
growologist

Registered: 07/29/03
Posts: 236
Loc: Deep in the Heart...
Last seen: 8 years, 8 days
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Re: If horse poo is aged, how absolutely dry does it need to be? [Re: splifner180]
#5584064 - 05/02/06 11:26 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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well thats the thing, I'm not sure that i'm smelling piss. People keep saying it should smell odorless, but in my experience there are very few things that have no smell whatsoever. I might just be getting confused about what they define odorless as. Like i think odorless means i can't smell anything, where as some people might consider odorless to mean not smelling bad, ie. not smelling like horse shit/ piss and instead having a slight smell of earth/soil. i think my poo selection smells like earth soil.
My only trouble is, there is this association i'm making between the smell of my horse poo, and where i got it from, a stable, which is a combination of horse poo smell, and earth/soil.
Does anyone here think that if I just spread out my poo on a tarp or something, let the hot composting nature of it settle down a bit, that i can better determine if its urea smell free?
-------------------- ------------------------------------------------- We're all children here, so could we please start acting like it?
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shwowsh
growologist

Registered: 07/29/03
Posts: 236
Loc: Deep in the Heart...
Last seen: 8 years, 8 days
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Re: If horse poo is aged, how absolutely dry does it need to be? [Re: Holydiver]
#5584115 - 05/02/06 11:37 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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holy,
I'm not asking about moisture content for spawning, I understand that I'm adding water to it when I pasteurize it, I was only mentioning water content because everything i've read says that the horse poo i collect needs to be dried out in the sun. I was just wondering if the dry aspect was more important because thats a good sign that its been leeched properly, or what.
Like, if there was properly aged/leeched poo, that happened to get rained on, I was asking if that poo can be collected anyway, because its fine and just happens to be wet prior to pasteurizing.
-------------------- ------------------------------------------------- We're all children here, so could we please start acting like it?
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Ordinarius
Stranger

Registered: 03/22/09
Posts: 4
Loc: Australia
Last seen: 14 years, 10 months
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Can old, previously dried, but rained on horse manure be used? [Re: shwowsh]
#10035167 - 03/24/09 08:00 PM (14 years, 10 months ago) |
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RogerRabbit, Roadkill or anyone who is an expert on horse manure;
All the instructions I've seen say to collect DRY horse manure. But Shwosh and I would like to know this: Can old horse poo that had been dried, but is recently rained on be used?
Thanks
Edited by Ordinarius (03/24/09 08:06 PM)
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