I read it should be left to cure for at least a year but today I "looked into it" , smelled it and it's totally ready!

What do you say ?

what can happen,really if pathogens are left in the compost?
what should i worry about?

While chapter 7 is devoted to pathogens and such, I'd read the whole thing, it's free, very informative, seems to be very accurate and there are good points throughout the book.

Lloyd

Lloyd

we used ours after about 7 months, so can't see any issues, we had composting worms working ours for that period. ours from a dry composting toilet system, not far removed from the humanure system.

any left over pathogens will be controlled by the earth worms and other bacteria in your garden. and then the only way you can be affected is from hand to mouth/face before washing your hands, or if you were to irrigate with it over the plants and then not wash or cook the plants. how plants take up nutrients would make it virtually impossible for any pathogen to affect the plants edible material.

len

to sense
..

to sense
..

(But again I ask ... what's the worst thing than can happen? :-) diarria? )

Thanks for all of your answers...

there is no doubt one of the many e-coli's and other illnesses mentioned, effect someone each day somewhere around the world, but how did they pick up the bug in the first instance? teh real reason not a hyped reason.

know of a case where someone went to a doctor with a tummy bug, when asked by the doc' what they had done the day before? the patient said visited my sister in the country and drank tank water, well it was like winning the lotto for the doc', he blamed listeria, but the patient omitted to say that around a dozen or so other people had been visiting as well and none of them had gotten sick.

last i heard a family upheavel was in oder as littigation was hinted at, this is what un-substantiated fear hype does, ruins relationships and makes money for lawyers.

len

True, but those people are infants, small children, elderly, immuno-compromised, etc. The average healthy adolescent or adult will get ill, but won't die, even from a virulent strain like E. coli O157H7.

I cold-compost only, so I don't use manures, but imagine that humanure has minimal risks as does other forms of manure. Keep in mind people get food poisoning ALL the time, but it's not likely to be from produce harvested from their gardens. The more likely sources are from fecal bacteria on raw meat that is brought into the home or from improperly cooked food. Occasionally sources like fecal bacteria that is cross-contaminated to fruits or veggies in the field.

Interestingly, the kitchen sink is the germiest place in your average house (mostly bacteria from raw meat/meat juices) - people always think it's the toilet bowl, but that doesn't even make the top 10.

I've heard some people reporting that they will bury their pet waste directly into the garden. Since I occasionally dig in the garden, I'd rather not come across anything like that. For my money, I think such things are far better off being composted before anything else. I just take more care when composting such things and I think it is in everyone's interest that care is taken when we do so.

I wouldn't say don't do it, I would say don't do it in windrows next to a watershed.

to sense
..

You'll need to do some squat exercises first for a few months if you don't have good squat muscles.

And yet people routinely bring raw meat into their house which has a good possibility of being contaminated with fecal bacteria from the excrement of slaughtered animals. Then possibly cross-contaminate their sink, counter-top, cutting board, or utensils. In 2007 Consumer Reports reported that 83% of chickens tested positive for salmonella or campylobacter.

People are okay with animal poop as fertilizer or coating the food they cook, but human poop is somehow scary and gross...?

Oh, wait.

the only common sense needed is that gardeners like shoppers and others should wash their hands at the end of their adventure. as for common sense saying something is dangerous don't do it that won't work take a look at road trauma.

we used humanure for 6 years with not a single issue, we gave excess vege's away and again not a single issue, have never heard of a single genuine fully proven case of anyone getting ill or worse. and that is in all the years i have been involved in this group and this matter has been discussed.

len

I saw mainly brown ,wonderful non smelly stuff thay lookes a lot like composted sawdust.. I thought it would look more like regular compost - when I can't really see what was inisially put there..
But the sawdust is still quite visible...

Tell me,len, how long have you waited before using yours on the garden?

Batya - thanks.. I'll contact them..

And here it is all spread out on the garden ready to plant cabbages in.

len

and as there is so little humanure used in our western gardens it is never going to be the cause of any illness, as we have found from using it, recycling all your rottable and human waste makes environmental sense, just pushing a button and letting some other body of people look after your personal waste is not at all responsible mangement of your waste, and i'm not talking about people who are in situations where they can't consider this, that is another story.

good mangement of pesonal wastes should be promoted, ok if? and it is a big if? someone has hard evidence of someone suffering fataly and it is with absolute cetainty what caused that then we need to look at what went wrong and where it went wrong before we critisise the process. no one can make anything foolproof, i have said before the fool will circumvent any safety measures.

look at your mowers with all the safety features especially the one where you shouln't be able to reach under the mower when it is running ie.,. long handles, dead mans grip lever the second you let it go the engine stops rapidly employing an electro magnetic brake. yet people are still injuring their fingers and toes, how? don't ask me, i'm no fool, but do we see fear hype about the dangers of mowers? when there is going to be clear iriffutable evidence.

how do we set things up to beat the fool we can't, it all comes back to common sense, i've used a mower all my adult life haven't never come close to injuring myself, oh! don't take this anywhere please but over here our mowers don't have mcuh if any of those um! safety features, why? you tell me, i make no judgement.

len

Bpgreen, yes municipalities are already making it into fertilizer, except doesn't the human waste get mixed with all the other waste that people put down the drain, not to mention lots of fossil fuels were used in the process. Composting on site seems most efficient to me - honestly I don't even know if my town/state would allow it.

yes compsoted human humus waste is used in all sorts of garden supplements bought in plastic bags wherein pathogens can multiply because these bags often stored in the sun, hence the legionaires type disease problem associated with using potting mix's of moderner times(which in my gardening life i have used tonnes of the stuff and never gotten sick).

what goes into the sewerage before it gets to the sewerage farm all human wase, hospital waste including chemo' therapy residues and radioactive material, and light grade industrial waste, then it is treated (their terms) and the wate is filtered and recycled back for drinking, the solid is somewhat composted on site then it gets added to that composted waste created at you local refuse centre,which gets up to meduim grade industrial liquid waste added in, then the finished product is onsold to gardeners in various compost and potting mixes all blenders use it.

do i use those products? yes i do i just don't use anymore than i actually need. prefering to add my own slected mulch/composting materila to break down and add to our garden mediums, just have to use potting mix from time to time.

so if more houseowners managed their own waste onsite there would be less for the local council to handle and less wate to recycle for drinking, as good (advisedly term) does not get wasted on flushing loo's. so less opportunity for some of the above to happen as well.

len