Manure... now or later

[stv]

Hello all,

I have access to great big piles of horse manure, which is a mixture of straw and bark, and wanted to know what peoples thoughts were as to digging into my plot over the coming weeks. Should i wait a while so the nutrients arent all lost, or should i just keep on composting it and use in spring for humus or mulch.
Also can i mulch with rotted manure if so what plants would benefit the most? i am tempted to try mulching the onions to try to keep the weeds down...?

thanks in advance for any thoughts
Stv

[kentish girl]

General feeling on our lotties is to dig, manure & cover with black weed suppressant & leave for next year except the carrot beds apparently they don't like manure

[ugly gourd]

If its still got straw and wood shavings in I would stack it for a year to go nice and black to remove some of the heat out of it you can grow squashes around the base of it

[NOG]

Depends what your soil is like. If you are on London Clay like me dung it in now. anything to berak up the clay.

What part of london are you STV?

[nick the grief]

If it's really fresh you can make a hot bed with it & use it to raise seed !!

[stv]

My aollotment is in South London - Rosendale Road - fantastic, lungs of the city!
http://www.rosendale-allotments.org.uk/

Nick - "raise seed" - can you expand that a little?

I kind of like being referred to as The germinator...

[nick the grief]

Hi STV,

It's not new, the victorians were masters at it.

As you have acces to lots of it what you do is get a large quantity ( about a cubic metre is really the minimum) & stack it. You want a good mix of horse doings & straw/shavings etc. Put a coldframe on top & a layer of soil then you can either sow direct in this or stand your seed trays on top & use the heat from the fermenting manure as a propogator.

It works a lot better if you can stack it in a wooden bin as this will help retain the heat.

The more you can stack the better it will be then at the end of the year you spread the contents on you beds.

[dexterdoglancashire]

Nick - that sounds interesting! I haven't got to that bit yet in my Victorian Kitchen Garden. With my access to free pony poo that sounds a good idea. Do you mean you can do this now, or is it better to wait until the spring? I rather fancy having a go at this! DDL

[nick the grief]

Well, You gcould do it now & sow some quick matureing Carrots (amsterdam forcing or that type) or you could do it after Chrimbo & start you other seeds of & use it as a propagator.

They are really under used these days - I guess because we have had reasonably cheap energy up till now. But my dad used to build these on his allotment years ago & he raised his Chrysanths & dahlia cuttings un them then he got flash & installed a solid fuel boiler in his greenhouse