F+ Sheep Manure Grow!! Updated - Mushroom Cultivation

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TrippinTeddy
Lost Voyager

Registered: 06/07/04
Posts: 18,461
Loc: Returning Video Tapes

F+ Sheep Manure Grow!! Updated

#7177900 - 07/15/07 04:34 AM (17 years, 11 months ago)

OK everyone, this all started when the place I got Hpoo from decided to start using cedar wood shavings in their stables. Cedar is a natural fungicide and made the Hpoo I was using useless!!! So I sought out alternative bulk manure.

I found that my local nursery carried Sheep Manure. So I investigated it and it turns out that Sheep Manure has almost the same nutritional value as cow manure and horse manure. So I decided to take a stab at growing with it.

Here is what the bag looks like.

Before I start I want to address a few things. New guys out there, do not make a first attempt with sheep manure. It is very hard to get the consistency right! I had a hard time with it and I've been growing for years! On the bright side, everything I do here can be applied to just about any bulk sub. This is almost EXACTLY how I prepared my Hpoo.

Second, sorry about the shitty pics, all I have is a cellphone camera

Now lets get started.

First I lay down a black trash bag that I have cut in order to use as a tarp on my kitchen floor. Then I gathered all the materials needed to get this job done.

Here is the consistency and texture of the Sheep Manure right out of the bag.

Its very similar to the texture of Cow Manure, but it does have a bit more fiber to it and it does seem to be a bit airier.

Here is the tin I use for mixing. Its a galvanized tin that I bought at Home Depot for around 15 bucks. One of the best investments I've ever made

I started by adding 40 cups of sheep manure. I soon found out that the bag contained rocks in it. Also a note, it smells nothing like ammonia or anything at all for that matter. It is odorless just as the bag states. So I spent about 20 minutes breaking up the manure and picking out any rocks I felt.

Here is a photo of some of the rocks I found inside.

After removing all the rocks and getting the manure nice and broke up, I decided to add about 10% coffee to the mix, which was 4 cups. This will be added nutrients for the mycelium.

Note: I'm not using coffee to up the N levels here as most do in Coir grows. I'm simply making a complex substrate, which mycelia loves.

I get my coffee grounds from Star Bucks. They have them conveniently packaged for you and leave them by the door. I didn't even have to ask for them, they are just there. Gotta love that.

After I finished adding the coffee, I wasn't satisfied so I decided to throw in some worm castings for even more added Nutrients! Like I said Mycelia loves complex substrates. Think of it as having your meal with all the fixings.

I added about 20 cups to the total mix around 20% or so of the sheep manure.

Then I felt the mix needed some Vermiculite to fluff it up. The place I get my verm from was out so I had to resort to Lowes verm and it was much smaller than what I'm use to using, so I had to add a full bag. It was around 20 cups.

I also had some left over 50/50 casing mix (50% peat moss/50 % Vermiculite. It was already P.H. balanced to 7.5 so I tossed it in the mix as well. It came out to a little over 6 cups of the stuff.

Here is what 50/50 casing looks like

After this I decided to add some Kelp meal to the mix. Kelp meal is full of trace minerals, and is said to give the mushrooms a potency boost. To the total substrate I only added 4 1/2 table spoons of the stuff. You are only to add it at the rate of one teaspoon per five pounds of substrate.

Now I added 10% of Gypsum to the total substrate. Which was about 8 cups. Gypsum adds calcium and sulfate to the substrate, it also acts as a long term P.H. buffer and helps deliver nutrients to the myceilum.

After mixing all the ingredients together for about 10-15 minutes to make sure it was nice and evenly mixed. I hydrate the mixture. Sheep manure is kind of muddy when hydrated just like cow manure. This is why I ended up using a full bag of vermiculite to get it to a nice airy fluffy consistency. It was very difficult to reach Field capacity, as it is such a muddy texture. I ended up using around 8 quarts of water to hydrate it. It wasn't what is considered a typical field capacity, since only a droplet of water came out when squeezed very HARD. I was happy with the moisture content though and think it will be fine. This is one of the reason I don't think sheep poo is for unexperienced growers.
Next time I'm going to add coir to the mix to fluff it up more and give it a better texture. Coir and sheep manure would mix nicely I think.

At this point I tested the P.H. levels and got an initial P.H. of 6.0. I added Hydrated lime and test until I was getting a P.H. of around 7.5. It ended up taking 6-7 tablespoons of lime to reach this level!!! Thats an insane amount. I think this was due to the Peat Moss and the coffee. If you use hydrated lime add it in small portions and wait and then test. Its powerful stuff.

Now that I have the moisture and P.H. where I want it, I need to pasteurize in order to kill off any bad bacterial/mold spores in the mix.
In order to do this, I add my mix into turkey sized oven bags. You can buy them at any store. I place the bags into a regular ice cooler. And load them till they are evenly filled and hold one another in place, due to the fact that they have totally filled the space in the cooler.

Then I heat a pot of water to 160 degrees. I use a candy thermometer in order to test the temps. Once the water has reached 160 and NO MORE, I dump the water into the cooler and place the lid on it and let it sit for two hours to fully pasturise.

Since I'm doing this grow via Mono tub. I take this time to prepare my tub while I'm waiting for the substrate to pasteurize.
My mono tub doesn't have a clear top. So to solve this I use painters drop tarps. You can get them at any Lewes or home depot in the painting department. I use 1 ml thick plastic. This stuff is great! I use it in the bottom of my tubs to help with removal of the sub later on, for dunking, or for tossing. Its way cheaper than trash bags, and you can cut it to whatever size you like. 2 dollars of the stuff will go a long, long way.

Now that the poo mix is finished pasteurizing I need to let it cool to room temperature in order to spawn. I don't know about you, but I don't have hours and hours to wait for this SHIT to cool down. So here is what I do. I dump all the hot water from the cooler and add cold water, then I dump all the ice in my freezer on top of the bags. I put the lid on and in about 15 minutes its nice and room temp and ready for spawning.

The way I spawned this, was I put down about an inch to an inch and a half of the poo mix and then added a jar of colonized Winter Wheat Berries to it then repeated this until I had a substrate of about 4.5-5 inches. This grow took 6 jars of wheat grain. I wanted to insure fast colonization.

Winter Wheat Berries fully colonized

Now after I have gotten the desired mix from my wheat berries and substrate I like to make sure that the top of my sub is as even as possible, to help with pin set down the road. They way I do this is I take a bunch of quart jar lids and clean them and lay them across the top of the sub. Then I take a fork and use it to fluff and even out the substrate as much as possible. That way when I go to case it will be easy to achieve a nice even casing layer.

OK now that every thing is set, I need to ad the lid to my mono tub. I take another piece of the painters drop that I've cut to the size of the top of my tub and stretch it across it, then use duct tape to tape the sides down. After that I put the lid over it and store it away in the closet to colonize.

Here is the tub 48 hours after spawning. So far everything is looking good.

The tub 4.5 days after spawning.

Edited by TrippinTeddy (07/19/07 09:29 PM)

Extras:

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