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Are you as "green" as me?

Correct me if I am wrong, but I heard that we do not want to use any animal waste that comes from omnivores or carnivores. Only use the stuff from animals that do not consume other animals. Waste from cats (house or wild) dogs, humans, etc. should not be used. The only way this kind of waste can be used is if it has been treated to kill off certain organisms that are present.
 
MrArboc said:
Have you ever used any commercial soils? In that case - I have some bad news for you... ;)
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LOL, I'm drinking now... don't make me puke. But seriously, manure is just that... shit. 100%, pure, decomposing shit. Fly heaven, the stuff maggots dream of. Stinky stuff. Commercial soil might have small amounts of it (yes, I believe it's impossible to not have any shit of *some* kind in dirt, especially on farms where most of this stuff probably originates), but at least it's not primarily, purposely, the main ingredient (if you could call it that). Hell, I need a car wash. Birds shat all over it (yes, I hate those damn things too for multiple reasons, including that one...), yet it spends its time parked in the street. So yeah, I know, you can't 100% avoid shit. But I do avoid manure, the pure stuff.
 
UltraZelda64 said:
LOL, I'm drinking now... don't make me puke. But seriously, manure is just that... shit. 100%, pure, decomposing shit. Fly heaven, the stuff maggots dream of. Stinky stuff. Commercial soil might have small amounts of it (yes, I believe it's impossible to not have any shit of *some* kind in dirt, especially on farms where most of this stuff probably originates), but at least it's not primarily, purposely, the main ingredient (if you could call it that). Hell, I need a car wash. Birds shat all over it (yes, I hate those damn things too for multiple reasons, including that one...), yet it spends its time parked in the street. So yeah, I know, you can't 100% avoid shit. But I do avoid manure, the pure stuff.
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Fresh manure(pure stuff) will definitely kill your plants so definitely avoid that but what do you think farmer's use for fertilizer. I guess I can understand a city person not wanting to play in poo, but I personally find that aged manures and/or composts are the best things you can ever add to improve your soil. You just have to mentally get over the fact that it comes from something's ass
 
Aged horse shit fertilizes well but be prepared for lots of weeds. I prefer cow poop just because of the multiple stomach thing leading to less weeds
 
Horse pooh is easier to get for me...that and chicken....but the chicken I have to work at to get ina decent quantity because they scratch it up so bad.

As for being green....no.....although I work as an 'environmental (erosion control) inspector.......I would like to be for cost sake, but don't have the time or resources. Next year Id love to use more compost and use what I waste more so than I do....but from a cost stand point, not because Im trying to save the world or feel warm and fuzzy.
 
My wife and I throw away less than one garbage bag a week, usually less than half. All food scraps get recycled in my compost bins, including meats, and all recyclable things get recycled. Not as green as you but pretty damn good for round these parts.
 
Millman I didn't think you were supposed to compost meat scraps.

I'm afraid I'm probably the least green among the folks here. I try to use organic stuff for the peppers but do little recycling. I do compost my yard waste and bark at my kids to finish their plates.
 
Most places only say no meat because of the varmints that come and dig up your compost pile. I have a huge colony of Black Soldier Fly larvae in the bin and they eat anything that gets put in front of them, 1lb of meat gets completely eaten in a few hours.
 
UltraZelda64 said:
LOL, I'm drinking now... don't make me puke. But seriously, manure is just that... shit. 100%, pure, decomposing shit. Fly heaven, the stuff maggots dream of. Stinky stuff. Commercial soil might have small amounts of it (yes, I believe it's impossible to not have any shit of *some* kind in dirt, especially on farms where most of this stuff probably originates), but at least it's not primarily, purposely, the main ingredient (if you could call it that). Hell, I need a car wash. Birds shat all over it (yes, I hate those damn things too for multiple reasons, including that one...), yet it spends its time parked in the street. So yeah, I know, you can't 100% avoid shit. But I do avoid manure, the pure stuff.
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Manure of any flavor w/o the word, "composted", preceding it should never be used on your plants and once composted properly, has been transformed on an atomic level into an earthy smelling matter of a different sort. Once a compost pile reaches temp, no fly will approach its surface and many existing organisms in the heap will be exterminated, including fly eggs or any maggots present.

Yep, impossible to avoid shit in dirt as well as converted and transformed into just about all matter on this planet, since organisms have been dumping excrement on this planet for millennia. :)
 
millworkman said:
Most places only say no meat because of the varmints that come and dig up your compost pile. I have a huge colony of Black Soldier Fly larvae in the bin and they eat anything that gets put in front of them, 1lb of meat gets completely eaten in a few hours.
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So a bin full of maggots is a good thing? Yeah, I suppose it could be. Don't they make your bin smell though?
 
Not at all, smells like food scraps for less than a day after I add them then smells like dirt. Never had a bad smell from them.

Watch this. All this happens in 5 hours.

[video=youtube;qaoVBlS8iVA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaoVBlS8iVA[/video]
 
I'm not a greenie by any stretch of the imagination but I'm finding that not having as much money as I would like I save a bunch by making my own compost and tea and aged horse manure. The season is still quite young but the HM I used in the raised bed has not caused any weeds. It also had no smell at least not one that was noticeable. That may be because it is at least ten years old!

All of my plants I don't sell or give away go in the compost pile (two 3'x2.5' sections). If the grass gets tall enough to make it worthwhile, I rake it up and add that. When I mowed the rye grass last month, it also got added, along with a couple of bags of leaves I had saved from last fall.

All the food scraps get ground up and added to a bucket upstairs, covered lightly with dirt and watered. Helps me to collect a couple of quarts of tea a week. This year the only ferts I have used, both in hydro and the garden has been Tomato-tone. The raised bed does not seem to need anything yet, though I will add a bit of compost tea to each plant next week.

Mike
 
BSF are also a very good source of food for fish, chickens and reptiles. My little gecko loves them. They are sold in the pet trade as phoenix worms.
 
Silver_Surfer said:
Man MW, those soldiers are like earth based piranha. Cool vid. :)

A fine example of super fast cold composting.
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Yup, then you can worm farm that stuff or put it into a regular composting bin and have some super good stuff.
 
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