franz_see
Active Member
Has anybody tried using tortoise poop for vermicasting? What are your experiences? How long do you age the tortoise poop? Do you mix anything else? Is the output any good?
Thanks!
Thanks!
Large sulcata poops are pretty firm. I have a manure pile (because I used to have horses) that's about maybe 100' long and 8 or 10' wide, along the street side of my house. There are trees and shrubs planted in front of it so it doesn't offend the neighbors. I learned that horse manure (fecal balls) breaks down in a couple months, but sulcata poop stays looking like sulcata poop forever. If you want it to break down, you have to break it apart - too much work for me. So I toss it in the green waste garbage barrel.
About once a year I scrape away the top layer of the manure pile and dig out the good dirt underneath. It is really good planting soil and I use it a lot in my gardens and tortoise yards. And since tortoises basically eat the same things that horses eat, I see no reason why tortoise poop wouldn't be good for composting. But you have to give it a head start by breaking it up.
Chop it up with the shovel?
Chop it up with the shovel?
You can certainly give it a try. All I can say is I have clearly identifiable Sulcata poop sitting in my manure pile and I haven't put any out there for over a year.
@Yvonne G , i am really newbie in this. can't really understand it. but i am curious.
If i collected my sulcata poop and his left over food (leaves and grasses) and put it all together for like 6 months without adding any thing at all. i can use it as a soil then?
Hmmm...i used to throw my Russian, and my baby sulcata' s poopie into my vermicasting pile. I never had any issue with anything NOT breaking down....
But I was always taking the time to shred everything I tossed in there, and regularly tilled the soil.
Hmmm...i used to throw my Russian, and my baby sulcata' s poopie into my vermicasting pile. I never had any issue with anything NOT breaking down....
But I was always taking the time to shred everything I tossed in there, and regularly tilled the soil.
I haven't had to deal with sulcata poo in some time, and when I did, I would just toss it in the green bin, given that it would never break down. Oak leaves would break down before the sully poo. I wonder if soaking the poo would be an easier way to break the stuff down. I know that when my margies bathe and poo, their poo tends to break apart after a soak. But they aren't consuming the enormous amount of grasses that typically composes the sully diet, so maybe not.
T.G.
For me, oak leaves would break down in my compost in about six months time, so long as I was turning the stuff regularly. Sully poo, with it's matted grassy consistency, generally wouldn't break down in that time unless it was already shredded. I would have some of the stuff linger for a year or more, if I remember correctly.
T.G.