Mulching autumn raspberries

[littlemoney]

I have some 6 month old horse manure and I want to mulch my autumn raspberries to help keep moisture in and weeds down.

It's been so cold I haven't done it yet as I thought I should wait for the soil to warm up a little otherwise I was keeping the cold in. Did I need to wait or not?

The raspberry bed like all my garden is well watered with all the rain and will it be OK to apply the mulch in the next week or so or should I wait for the soil to dry a little before mulching?

I'm still learning so need to ask questions. Thanks.

[nickdub]

Assuming you don't have an night frost you can get on and do it any time now.

BTW you don't say how the manure has been stored, but for the sake of anyone who is or is thinking of doing something similar, its important to put some sort of cover over the manure heap if its outside, particularly in winter time. The reason is that a lot of the plant nutrients in the manure are soluble and will get washed out over time by rain.

PS if you have a bit spare you have the ideal medium for trying to grow a few mushrooms :-)

[muck lover]

I think raspberries would like that. A blackcurrant bush would really love it as well.

[littlemoney]

Assuming you don't have an night frost you can get on and do it any time now.

BTW you don't say how the manure has been stored, but for the sake of anyone who is or is thinking of doing something similar, its important to put some sort of cover over the manure heap if its outside, particularly in winter time. The reason is that a lot of the plant nutrients in the manure are soluble and will get washed out over time by rain.

PS if you have a bit spare you have the ideal medium for trying to grow a few mushrooms :-)

It has been stored in bags undercover.

According to one weather forecast the lowest overnight temperature for the next two weeks will be 6 degrees and little or no rain.

[nickdub]

Excellent - sounds like that, unless you get a bad back, dodging getting on with it any longer is going to be trickily :-)

[ESBkevin]

Don't be too prompt. I mulched mine back in January when I had muck, leaf mould and compost.
It was great for giving the birds a natural food source in the winter, but I have to keep raking it back onto the rasperries from where they have scratched it.

Just my experience.

[nickdub]

You're always going to get a bit of bird action - they're looking for food. As it is there's no precise right time, but you want it on after the frosts have mostly gone, but before the weather warms too much and the soil starts drying out. I've just done mine with some old hedge prunings which had been rotting down for a couple of years in a rubble bag.

[It never rains..it pours]

In dry essex on autumn raspberries fine, but here they are about the only thing Im rather cautious about using a relations horses output on, as on wet soils in wet areas manure increases root rot in susceptible varieties (mainly summer ones). So I add it undergound in a trench and plant them above.

[devonuk]

There is an ongoing issue over hormonal weedkiller residues in manure (though more acute if you are growing annual vegetables rather than perennial fruit): Manure and poor plant growth

Briefly, all pasture is liable to dock infestation, and the standard treatment of the problem in non-organic systems is hormone-based weedkiller which can persist in hay/haylage/silage and in the output of the horse which eats it. Most horse owners buy in hay or haylage and have no reason to know very much about its source.

[littlemoney]

There is an ongoing issue over hormonal weedkiller residues in manure (though more acute if you are growing annual vegetables rather than perennial fruit): Manure and poor plant growth

Briefly, all pasture is liable to dock infestation, and the standard treatment of the problem in non-organic systems is hormone-based weedkiller which can persist in hay/haylage/silage and in the output of the horse which eats it. Most horse owners buy in hay or haylage and have no reason to know very much about its source.

Hopefully this will be Ok as it was from horses that had been out to grass all summer and this had been collected from the field, but thanks for the warning.

[littlemoney]

Excellent - sounds like that, unless you get a bad back, dodging getting on with it any longer is going to be trickily :-)

Probably will have a bad back by the time I have finished. I will make sure I have lots of hot water for a long soak in the bath.

[littlemoney]

In dry essex on autumn raspberries fine, but here they are about the only thing Im rather cautious about using a relations horses output on, as on wet soils in wet areas manure increases root rot in susceptible varieties (mainly summer ones). So I add it undergound in a trench and plant them above.

Essex is a county of extreems. With my clay soil it can quickly go from very wet to very dry which is why I am trying to get the timing just right before it starts to go too dry.

[littlemoney]

You're always going to get a bit of bird action - they're looking for food. As it is there's no precise right time, but you want it on after the frosts have mostly gone, but before the weather warms too much and the soil starts drying out. I've just done mine with some old hedge prunings which had been rotting down for a couple of years in a rubble bag.

I didn't think hedge prunings would rot. How did you manage it?

[nickdub]

I didn't think hedge prunings would rot. How did you manage it?

Left them in a 1 ton builders' bag for almost 3 years - there's still a lot of woody bits in the mixture of course, but as its acidic and will form a surface barrier of sorts, the raspberries seemed like the obvious place for it. We'll see how it goes.

[littlemoney]

Left them in a 1 ton builders' bag for almost 3 years - there's still a lot of woody bits in the mixture of course, but as its acidic and will form a surface barrier of sorts, the raspberries seemed like the obvious place for it. We'll see how it goes.

Perhaps you can let us know how it goes.