7 replies to this topic

[Gentoolain]

A FOAF has about 9 jars ready to be mixed into some horse poo, coir, verm and straw. She wants to know what other some ways to sterilize the poo and straw, other then putting boiling water in a cooler and holding it down for 3hours. :D

[TastyBeverage]

What you're talking about is pasteurization, not sterilization, which would be done in a pressure cooker.

You can pasteurize in the oven provided you properly hydrate your substrate material before hand. Place the prepared substrate into oven safe bags or some other oven safe container, place a thermometer in it (tip of the therm goes right into the center of the sub material) and then into the oven it goes. Bring the internal temp of the sub up to 165 degrees and then keep it there for a while. I like to go at least 75 minutes, but sometimes 90. In the winter when there are less endospores floating around in the air, i can get away with 60.

Good luck!

[Gentoolain]

Thank you very much, tasty.
How long do you need to hydrate your substrate beforehand?
A quick dip or a nice 30 minute session?

[TastyBeverage]

It depends on what you're using in your substrate mix. I use a coir/poo mix so just do the boiling water tek with my brick of coir. Put the brick in a big pot and pour boiling water over it. Put the lid on and then come back after a half hour or so and fluff with a fork. Bagged poo doesn't need more hydration out of the bag, but properly composted horse poo from the ground or a stable will need to be hydrated. Vermiculite absorbs a lot of water so you'll need a more detailed tek for that. We have a whole vault section just for verm. :)

[roc]

Give it a thorough soaking and then let it drip dry... finished results would be to squeeze a hand full and only get a few drips. Damp but not runny wet.

[Freaky]

If you mix any straw with other materials, you'll want to chop it with scissors or shred it up somehow and soak it to hydrate. For 18-24 hrs.

Then take your wet straw and mix with your other bulk ingredients or coir or verm. Then pasteurize that mix together.

[groovy-uv]

i use a bucket pasteurization tek; it works great for my hpoo/verm/coir substrate. never tried straw tho.

i add:
5L of crumbled hpoo
1.5q of verm
1.5c of gypsum

to a 5 gallon bucket and put the lid on and shake it. after the dust settles, i open it, wipe down the sides w alcohol, then add 325g of crumbled coir to the top (325g is half of a 650g block, the standard size i get).

i then pour 5L of boiling h2o evenly over top of the bucket's contents. put a lid on it w vent holes, cover w a towel, and let sit overnight (around 24hrs actualy) to cool. once cool, i put a clean lid on, shake it like hell (its really heavy at this point and can be mixed with a clean hand if shaking is too difficult) and i've got perfect sub every time.

this tek is about as easy as boiling the water.

[Gentoolain]

thank you everyone. my FOAF will use this knowledge!