horse manure in gardens

[radioman]

As spring is right around the corner and I'm patiently waiting for it to warm up- I been thinking about the gardens right now. This year I plan on adding horse manure to my garden to improve the clay like soil from a nearby farm that is literally 5 mins from me. The farmer says he has BOTH aged stuff and new. I plan to add the aged stuff on top of my garden this spring after it warms up and dry out and till it all in. This fall after my potatoes are harvested, I plan to scoop the dirt a foot or so deep and move it to the short side of the garden and put all the hot stuff right there on the bottom in the fall and cover it all back up and wait till spring to repeat. Any flaws in my plan? Time is not an issue for me as I can reasonably pick up the manure and spread/till/cover whatever in a day.

I also have a side project I want to do with the garden- Tell me if I am crazy or not. I would like to pick up some pallets and cut them in half and stick it in the ground with holes pointing up in the garden ,right on the edge on the long side. I want to fillup the holes in pallet with either straight aged manure or get the good stuff from the local country max store just for the carrots to plant. My soil has too much clay in IMO, carrots is just too short so I want to grow longer carrots. Anyone want to take a stab poking holes in my crazy idea? By the way - getting the pallets in the ground will not be a problem as I got a small backhoe for my tractor. I trying to keep the "good stuff contained" in the garden just for carrots and not mixed with the clay.

 

[ray66v]

Been there done that. Horse manure is great, if you like weeds in your garden. :thumbdown:

I suggest commercial compost, or cow manure. They should not contain weed seeds.

Leaf mulch, and grindings from stump grinders, are good additions in the fall.

 

[grsthegreat]

We aged horse manure for quite awhile and used it in wifes garden. Had a record crop of grass and weeds.

Unless horses diet is alfalfa only (no grass or pasture) you will get weeds.

Also i did soil test of garden after using horse manure and all values were low.

We had to kill it all and redo with aged steer manure and peat moss mixture. That workod great. Veryfew weeds, good soils test results. Great garden results

 

[newbury]

<snip> Any flaws in my plan? <snip>

Like they wrote, weeds.

I also have a side project I want to do with the garden- Tell me if I am crazy or not. I would like to pick up some pallets and cut them in half and stick it in the ground with holes pointing up in the garden ,right on the edge on the long side. I want to fillup the holes in pallet with either straight aged manure or get the good stuff from the local country max store just for the carrots to plant. My soil has too much clay in IMO, carrots is just too short so I want to grow longer carrots. Anyone want to take a stab poking holes in my crazy idea? By the way - getting the pallets in the ground will not be a problem as I got a small backhoe for my tractor. I trying to keep the "good stuff contained" in the garden just for carrots and not mixed with the clay.

Reads like very narrow raised beds. Good idea, might work. Try it, photograph it and report back.

 

[vtsnowedin]

Pallets equal nails and they will eventually rot and release those nails to your tractor tires. Deep dig and add in some well rotted compost and you can get the earth worms and microbes to fix that soil for you.

 

[sseelhoff]

We have horses and compost our manure. We use it in our raised beds with peat and garden soil tilled in. We refresh the beds with new composted manure before each growing season. We have had excellent results. Not much of a problem with weeds.

 

[bobm6996]

I take the sawdust/manure from the stalls to a pile that I keep building throughout the year and I turn it about once a month. I also have a tree trimming business dump a load or two of the ground up limbs in the pile as well. I usually have at least two piles going at a time and they heat up pretty good even in the winter months. After about six months the color and texture begins to change dramatically and it becomes some very good compost. For two years I spread a completed pile on the garden area several inches thick and each year the benefits were very noticeable. I can now take my hands and dig down 8 to 10 inches deep in what used to be very dense clay that struggled to drain well. Have not had a major weed problem, so far the benefits have far outweighed a few weeds. I also take bad hay and spread it thick in the rows to mulch out the weeds and at the end of the season take the now rotted hay and throw it on the manure pile.

 

[fishheadbob]

Horse manure has to be really well rotted to avoid a bumper crop of weeds. Either a couple of years, or like someone above does, well composted. Horses only have one stomach. A good look at a horseball can give you a pretty good idea of what the horse had for dinner the other day. Cows have 4 stomachs (technically 3); when they're done with something it's much more digested than the same feed coming out of a horse but it can still have enough seed remaining to give a few weeds.
Manure is more of a soil amendment than a great source of fertilization. Your soil will be loamier and richer, but your N-P-K won't go up that much.
I would stay away from pallets cuz of nails someday. One flat or ruined tire wipes out all the good things.

 

[charlz]

I get the fresh manure/sawdust mix and hot compost it myself. It gets quite hot, takes about 3 months before it is 'finished'. Nary a weed to be found in the pile of 'finished' that I keep on hand.

Takes quite a bit of water but I hose the pile soaking wet, back into the pile with my tiller and spread it out into a layer about 1 foot or so thick, hose it soaking wet. Re-stack into a windrow, hose some more. I do this about 2-3 more times over 3 months and it really cooks.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

As spring is right around the corner and I'm patiently waiting for it to warm up- I been thinking about the gardens right now. This year I plan on adding horse manure to my garden to improve the clay like soil from a nearby farm that is literally 5 mins from me. The farmer says he has BOTH aged stuff and new. I plan to add the aged stuff on top of my garden this spring after it warms up and dry out and till it all in. This fall after my potatoes are harvested, I plan to scoop the dirt a foot or so deep and move it to the short side of the garden and put all the hot stuff right there on the bottom in the fall and cover it all back up and wait till spring to repeat. Any flaws in my plan? Time is not an issue for me as I can reasonably pick up the manure and spread/till/cover whatever in a day.

I also have a side project I want to do with the garden- Tell me if I am crazy or not. I would like to pick up some pallets and cut them in half and stick it in the ground with holes pointing up in the garden ,right on the edge on the long side. I want to fillup the holes in pallet with either straight aged manure or get the good stuff from the local country max store just for the carrots to plant. My soil has too much clay in IMO, carrots is just too short so I want to grow longer carrots. Anyone want to take a stab poking holes in my crazy idea? By the way - getting the pallets in the ground will not be a problem as I got a small backhoe for my tractor. I trying to keep the "good stuff contained" in the garden just for carrots and not mixed with the clay.

There's lots of stuff on the internet on how to improve clay soil...none of it easy, but consists mainly of adding organics, some ashes and generous amounts of sulfur and/or Calcium Sulfate (Gypsum) to add some acidity. One thing I learned from experience; it works, and even if the clay is heavy, but not too heavy to till, you can still raise a fair garden with the use of fertilizer.

 

[radioman]

thanks guys! ... keep those opinions coming. I never used horse manure but I have cow manure at a different place. looks like I will nix the pallet idea unless I can find a spot that is no where near the garden where a couple years from now when pallet rots out- so I wont till it so the said nails/staples stays in the ground unless I pull up the pallets in the fall and throw it on the bonfire pile for the kids.
As for weeds- I get them every year .. bad.. no matter what I do. how about this year after adding the horse crap- Ill put down a thick layer of 2 yrs old first cutting hay that I can get from a local hayer?

 

[charlz]

I wouldn't use hay. I raise a little bit of hay to sell and get a nice crop of grass/weeds where my haystack sits regardless of what cutting. I once used old barley straw as mulch and I had an outstanding barley crop later that year I just treated it as 'green manure' (cover crop) and tilled it under before it went totally to seed.

I put down a thick layer of my weed-free compost and it helps quite a bit. Plastic mulch is a option but not really that cheap when you have to replace it every year. Some people use cardboard and/or newsprint if you have that available in quantity and can keep it from blowing away.

 

[DrRod]

Ditto on the hay. Same for straw. Whatever it was is what you'll get. I used some old straw to cover a patch of grass seed. Despite my best efforts, the grass never really took hold but I did end up with a nice cover of oats. Hey, at least it was green.

 

[phiferpharm]

I think Horse manure is wonderful, especially since two of my neighbors have been asking if they can have some from my Mount Poopmore. So far I've happily loaded up two wagon loads for each of them of my well-seasoned 10 foot high Mound. I'm hoping to have them tell their friends of this wonderful opportunity to get there very own pile of prime manure...

 

[2LaneCruzer]

If you are very industrious with your compost, turning it often and mixing it appropriately it will heat up dramatically...and kill most weed seeds; almost everything except maybe Bermuda grass roots. I also doubt it will kill the Clostridium bacteria; and it is found in horse manure in abundance. Clostridium Tetani is the bacteria that causes Tetanus...so keep that in mind if you step on a rusty nail (my Mother's bug a boo) while wading up to your knees in horse manure.