Well rotted manure

[Bill Door]

Silly question really. I have access to fresh manure (less than 24 hour old deposits with no straw and no wood shavings, if you know what I mean). Anyway I collect it and put it with other greens and browns into plastic compost bins. All three bins have been filled and they have dropped and been topped up. I heard Terry on Jeremy Vines radio program say that he would only use "well rotted manure". So my question is what do you consider the be "well rotted"?

My thought is that I am storing it for next year anyway, but it is what happens after the summer that I have doubts over. I am interested in what others think.

Thanks

Bill

[Snoop Puss]

That's an interesting question, interesting because I have no idea. I presume I've just done what you did and had a look in the internet. It looks as if it might depend on the 'source'. What animal does it come from?

[veggiechicken]

Well rotted manure looks like soil with no obvious dollops - I think

[damian1225]

in excess of 12 months and should be nice and black, looking like compost avoid any that looks like poop, needs to be on a pile "cooking" for a while to kill seeds etc

[DWSmith]

It should be crumbly like soil and smell sweet or at least not smell like manure.

I have access to fresh manure (less than 24 hour old deposits with no straw and no wood shavings, if you know what I mean).

Humanure?

[Bill Door]

That's an interesting question, interesting because I have no idea. I presume I've just done what you did and had a look in the internet. It looks as if it might depend on the 'source'. What animal does it come from?

Sorry I should have said it was from two horses. The paddock they are on hasn't been sprayed with anything in the last three years at least. No manure has been spread on it as they don't want the horses to have good "lush" grass. The compost bins have been almost too hot to handle at times, hence why the levels have dropped so quickly. I will have to turn the bins a couple of times to introduce air into the mix.

The reason I ask is because several people have said I am very lucky as I can lay it down straight away as a "mulch". In particular on ground around courgettes and cucumbers etc. I therefore wondered if anyone else did this?

regards

Bill

[rary]

Depends where it comes from, cow, horse, hens or sheep, I have used cow manure about one month old for growing potatoes without any problem just put it at the bottom of a trench, covered it with some soil and then placed the potatoes on top,then filled in the trench, have also spread fresh cow manure along side plants to let it feed the plants and get pulled down by the worms, just make sure it doesn't touch the plants, horse manure is better ageing, as you can get weed seeds through it, hen manure or hen-pen as I know it, is a bit hot to put on fresh, but makes a great accelerator for garden compost