Garden Manure ?

[wedge40]

Wedger, Did that horse manure have saw dust in it?? If so it robbed the nitrogen from the soil..

Here's what happened, lived in country and neighbor had horses. Spring comes along and Dad is getting the garden ready to plant. He forgot to get fertilizer, so he decided to just get "fresh" manure from the neighbor. Not sure how much he got, but there wasn't any sawdust, just straw. Put down a good layer on the garden and tilled it all in. Planted everything. Stuff came up, but I think they said fresh manure has too much nitorgen which is great for green, but not too good for fruit. Now the following year after things had mellowed a little the garden was GREAT.

Wedge

 

[Duffster]

Here's what happened, lived in country and neighbor had horses. Spring comes along and Dad is getting the garden ready to plant. He forgot to get fertilizer, so he decided to just get "fresh" manure from the neighbor. Not sure how much he got, but there wasn't any sawdust, just straw. Put down a good layer on the garden and tilled it all in. Planted everything. Stuff came up, but I think they said fresh manure has too much nitorgen which is great for green, but not too good for fruit. Now the following year after things had mellowed a little the garden was GREAT.

Wedge

Yup, manure needs time to break down, but it then is a perfect fertilizer because it is slow release. This is one of the main reasons for applying it in the fall.

 

[forgeblast]

My friend has alpaca and llamas. They soak the manure over night in water and spray it on the garden, it doesnt burn the plants and its pretty amazing the yeilds they are getting.

 

[MrZukerman]

wow thanks guys. Lots of info, looks like I need to get started now and decide what i'm going to do for next season.

 

[PA hayseed]

Like others have said, let the manure break down. In PA, alot of people cover their gardens in the late fall and let it sits there all winter. In spring, it then gets tilled in.

Not all maures are the same. Chicken manure has lots of nitrogen.

I hope you live somewhere rural , if not, spreading manure in some parts of the country can run into nuisance lawsuits.

The big box stores sell bags of composted manure for large sums of cash. that stuff is much safer to use immediately. As someone else said, there are methods you can use to break it down faster, like liquifying it. I like to put it in the old compost pile.

 

[magicheater]

I use horse manure because I have free and nearly unlimited amount available from a near by horse farm. It works VERY well. I do two things. I add a big heap about 3-4 yards to my compost pile in the Summer and add to that any green stuff, old hay, shredded leaves as the season goes along. I let that compost until next gardening season and spread it out before the Spring tilling. Also in the Fall after all the crops are done I spread about 3-4" of horse manure on the garden and till it in. It is always slightly composted before I get it plus it sits in the ground for about six months. We have had great results considering our top soil is so rocky that I have lost count of the number of tons of rocks I carted out of the 25x90' garden.

edit: On top of all that I rotate crops and cover any exposed dirt with grass clippings or hay (if available) I get the discarded square bales from the above mentioned farm. So all this good stuff is free not counting my effort. I'm a lucky guy.

Yes you are to have all that so close to you. I follow the same practices more or less and it works well for me also. My horse manure has sawdust in it but I let it compost for a few years before using it. I also do a compost pile with layers of weeds, manure and grass clippings and then till it in the spring, building soil is a hobby.:thumbsup:

 

[Transit]

You can hasten the breakdown by adding composting bacteria and adding green to the mix. Keep the stew hot and don't let it become aerobic, no oxygen or it will stink for sure. I use a 55 gal drum on its side, keep rolling it every few days to keep it mixed. In about two weeks it is ready to go.

 

[ustmd]

We use horse manure (from my wife's 3 horses).

Generally, we mound up and cover it with black plastic to speed the process. Works great.