dung processing

7/29/2019 Dung Processing

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Using poo 101

A document describing the task of obtaining and processing dung.

1. Sourcing the poo:

poo comes from animals bottoms. recommended poo types for mush

cultivation are cowpoop and horsepoop, though a few other types get

mentioned, like deer, rabbit and elephant. its gotta be an animal with just

the right kind of digestive system, to tickle spores awake but not too much

death-inducing acids in its stomach. basically, a vegetarian animal. veggie

human poop is no good though, so please dont try for your self-respectssake!

so where do you get it? well, if youre in the countryside, this should be no

problem - the great outdoors is an enormous toilet! riding stables, farmyards,

use your imagination. get dried out poo in the warmer months and stock up

for the wet season. old half-dried turds are best (see below).

in town, theres always parks (sometimes your local cops might have

horses...ask them for some for your flowers) or you have to try some shop-

bought stuff in a nursery or garden center. test a small amount out to see if it

will work for you...and make sure it doesnt have fungicide listed on the bag.

remember, its horse and cow manure you want, and some brands will work

better than others.

feeling courageous? you could try shirley knotts policehorse-poo tek 1.

follow police horses around the public park. have plastic bags in a pocket -

several small and flexible bags (like those for veggies at the supermarket, or

even better the plastic gloves free at petrol pumps) and one opaque and

heavy duty bag; 2. when horses shit, hang around five minutes (to avoid

appearing odd) then use a small bag to pick up poo and place in the big bag;


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3. repeat until big bag heavy; 4. poo is great for growing roses and

vegetables

You want the poo free of ammonia, and ideally completely dried out. aged is

easier, as nothing needs doing to it - leaching out ammonia is unnecessary,

and its easy to pick up! dont stress too much about it - if you just take off

across the pasture picking up whatever you come upon until your bag is full,

youre okay. mushrooms can grow on some fresh poo magnificently! but if

you can get the older stuff, it has another advantage - the older stuff is also

often full of a friendly white bacteria: you know how aged dung starts to turn

white? that is not just the dung you are seeing: very fresh dung dries

brown/green. the white is the bacteria youre wanting, and where the poo is

white, it is strongly established. its called firefang (actinomyces).

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2. leaching and drying the poo (if fresh)

if its fresh poo, it needs to be leached and can also be dried. pick off any

rocks and foreign matter whether fresh or dry: leaching is just soaking out the

ammonia from animal urine - some farm animals have worse manners thanrugby fans, and will piss and shit down their legs with gay abandon. You dont

need to bother with old poo, as itll have probably been leached by the rain.

Soak the poo in water for about 24 hours and then drain it good.

some dry it out on a tarp in the sun/air, and some even use a box with a fan.

dont use an oven - think of the people who share the oven! its a good idea

to break the poo up as it dries. To speed up the drying, you could break it up

into small pieces at least the size of a golf ball, and break a few open every

now and then to check to see what the moisture level inside the poo is like.

when the poo is dry, whether it was born a day or a year ago, you can store

it, or use it rightaway! wanna skip the drying stage? okay, thatll work

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3. preparing the poo for spawning

mix the leached poo (dry or wet!) into your desired recipe, and pasteurize it.you could add some vermiculite to cow shit, if its too runny! theres plenty

in the faq already about pasteurizing, which is basically heating it to hot (but

not boiling) for 90 minutes or so. this is where straw comes in!

cow poo probably needs to be mixed with straw, a great additive to a

horse/cow manure mix, to bulk it up & give the substrate more aeration &

paths for myc to colonize along. you dont have to add any straw to the horse

poo, but most growers do use a straw: poo mixture, anywhere along the

spectrum 99% straw to 99% poo. shirley recommends 90% straw. you canpasteurize the poo together with the straw if you like

after pasteurising, drain it, squeeze and drain it some more, fluff it up, and

mix it with your spawn. some compression might be a good idea for this

stage. let it all colonise, just as if you just mixed spore solution into the

substrate in your jars. when its all white, youre almost there


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dung processing

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