Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
designed to keep fungi spores out of your lungs. Things like dried-up chicken guano can really cause you
huge problems if you inhale it. There are some nasty fungi that like to hang out in dried bird and bat poop,
so wear your mask anytime you mess with it. Please get a good mask, as many of the things you will be
mixing, like perlite, can be hard on the lungs without having anything to do with fungus. A higher quality
mask is a must have, and the slightly higher cost will seem negligible when you realize how dangerous
such things can be. In my opinion, the painter/surgical-mask type is not good enough.
Manures
Manures are great for TLO growing. I love to use steer manure in the lower areas of my containers mixed
with coir, perlite, and crushed oyster shells. As with bird and bat guanos, you always want to use hot com-
posted manures, as using fresh manure can easily kill your plants. Hot composting kills any evil microbial
life that may be lurking in barnyard manures and wild manures especially. Regular slower styles of com-
posting are all good, and normally just fine, as long as you know the animals who donated the manure are
very healthy. Still, it's better to be safe than sorry, so always hot compost if possible!
Sup R Green chicken manure by Stutzman Farms is a favorite manure of mine
Shredded bark mulch
This is a very important part of any living soil mix, period. Avoid anything from a walnut tree here, and
cedar bark is still questionable to me for indoor use. Always try to locate composted bark mulch, prefer-
ablyshredded,because itwill cause theretobelessdecomposing ofthatmulchandwill therefore preserve
some of the nitrogen that would otherwise be temporarily unavailable to the plant. I make it a practice to
sprinkle some blood meal on top of the soil mix, just before adding the bark mulch. This gives both the
plant and the microbial life a rich source of available nitrogen so they won't compete so much for it. Also,
make sure your bark mulch is in its natural state, with no dyes or paints added for esthetic value.
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