conditions. The straw in the green area is further long in the decomposition process and will lose its waxy layer more quickly. The orange circled bale was rotten before composting. Treating each bale separately is impossible, but by sorting the straw regionally, you can try and achieve the best results. The quality of straw and therefore how straw is treated depends on the region it was cultivated in and the local weather conditions. In short, the drier the cultivation conditions, the drier and harder the straw, the longer the pre-wet time.
Horse manure The horse manure (photo 07) plays an even big- ger role in straw quality. Because stables usually buy their own straw bedding, the quality of the horse manure can fluctuate considerably. So assessing the horse manure should be given top priority at the composting company. In general, a trailer loaded with manure visible about the container and with a low loading weight is the best. A trailer with a high loading weight, but with manure not visible above the edge of the container should be looked at closely: this kind of horse manure lacks structure. By establishing a system of standards, you can ’educate’ your manure suppliers and the stables. Mixing poor horse manure with good horse manure will never improve the quality. The same principle applies here as with pre-wetting: the harder the straw in the horse manure, the longer the pre-
paration time is. This is more complicated to assess with horse manure than with straw.
Spaghetti
If the compost structure appears to be too short, the immediate response is to reduce the pre-wet period. But is this always sensible? Wouldn't it be better to ask yourself why the compost is so short? If you take a handful of compost while filling the spawned compost in the growing room, does it feel over-decompo- sed? If you squeeze the compost and a soft ball is left behind, then the pre-wet time must be reduced. But suppose you squeeze the compost at filling and are left with a dry ball containing with many hard, yellowish blades of straw, but the filling height is still too low. A shorter pre-wet time will not have a positive effect. The cause of the short structure is not over fer- mented straw, but precisely the opposite. If the straw is still hard when it is fed into a mixing line, the hard blades will break, resulting in a too short structure. Straw that is sufficiently decomposed - with no waxy layer - will have less tendency to break. Compared it to spa- ghetti, it breaks easily before cooking, but softens in boiling water.
If you want to learn more about composting, follow the live training session Mushroom Signals Essentials on 8-12 June 2020. For more information, see
www.mushroomoffice.com
The quality of horse manure
sold by stables can fluctuate considerably.
Photo 07: Horse manure. PADDESTOELEN 35
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