COMPOST
Pre-wet straw on aerated floor.
Straw bales placed on pallets after dipping for natural aeration.
bales. A mobile oxygen meter is a handy device to check this. The oxygen content in these wet straw bales is obviously very closely related to the concentration of goody water and how tightly the straw has been baled. It is also important not to stack the wet bales too close together: leave some space between the bales to encourage a natural ventilation pro- cess (the ‘chimney’ effect). One of my clients places the bales on pallets for natural ventila- tion. Another client places dry straw bales in a bunker with an aerated floor and wets the straw with goody water sprayed from overhead noz- zles. This enables simultaneous aeration and spraying. Some companies need two to three days for the dipping process of the same batch because of its volume. Dipping a batch for such a long time gives a very heterogeneous start and is far from ideal. Dipping straw bales in large bat-
16 MUSHROOM BUSINESS
ches is therefore not advisable. The bales can be loosened two or three days later, depending on the development of the straw temperature, and immediately after loosening placed in a tank of goody water using a loader. The wet straw is then removed on the same day and piled into a windrow. When building the windrow, as much water as possible is normally used to start the fermentation process as homogeneously as possible. After the pile of straw has been left to drain for a day, chicken manure is added and mixed the next day using a windrow turner The advantage of this system is that the correct amount of chicken manure can be distributed over the entire windrow. The chicken manure is applied evenly over the surface of the windrow which allows quite accurate dosing. In this situ- ation, it's best to turn and mix chicken manure with the turner at least twice. Shortening the
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