A manure powered heated raised bed propagator - will this work?

[Samuel1988]

Morning all,

Recently I acquired lots of wood which I am using to make raised beds.

I also have around 4-5 of those plastic corrugated roofing sheets (which need a bit of a clean to allow more light to come in).

I will also be getting a huge load of horse manure.

So I am thinking of doing this:

Make the raised beds, put some stakes on the inside/outside, put in the manure, put in some trays of seeds i have sown on top of the manure/just above and put the corrugated plastic on top of the raised bed and weigh down.

I hope this will generate heat for what ever I am going to sow in the seed trays, whilst eventually provide some nice organic material to use in 6 months within the raised bed.

Will the raised bed need to be X deep by X wide to be sufficient when filled with manure to generate some heat?

Thanks for your advice,

Samuel

[Nicos]

Here- have a look at this site...it may give you some ideas for alternative types of raised beds!

Hugelkultur

[mothhawk]

That's a really interesting link, Nicos, thanks.

[Bill HH]

It will be so cosy they might find you fast asleep in there.

[chris]

You're describing a hot bed in essence samuel - but would rather be planted directly in.