Well rotted manure... Weeds started to grow on it... Should I use it?

[Russel Sprout]

Hi again

I have a local supply of well rotted manure. It's from a horse sanctuary and there's an absolute mountain of the stuff! The fresher stuff gets put into bays, and from the bays it eventually goes and joins the mountain.

The mountain is completely covered in grass, nettles and thistles. The first time I went, I chose a section, removed the grass, nettles and thistles, and have since been digging down in the same spot when I visit. Some of the stuff from the last visit I made is still in the sacks I brought it home in, and today I noticed lots of weeds starting to grow in situ.

Could I potentially be introducing a nightmare situation to my garden? If the weeds will go after a couple of good weeding sessions, then I'm fine with that. But if it is going to cause an ongoing weed crisis for eternity, perhaps I should reconsider!

Any been in a similar situation or have any advice on what I should do?

Many thanks in advance, and hope everyone has been enjoying the sun

[burnie]

Weed seeds will be every where I have bough Multi Purpose Compost and used it in the greenhouse and still had weeds in it. Have you read this with regards to using horse manure on edibles
https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...ng-safe-manure

[ameno]

They're weed seedlings, so as there's only a finite amount of seeds in there they will peter out after a while as long as you pull them out before they set seed.
I had a ton of a weed I didn't recognise germinating in manure I got last year, but I pulled it all out and only had half a dozen of them come up this year.

[Russel Sprout]

Thanks burnie, I wasn't aware of that at all and it's the first time I've even heard the word Aminopyralid. Obviously that thread is quite old now, so is it still a problem nowadays? I'll do some more reading about it before I use the manure, although one load has already gone onto the garden. Yikes!

Regarding the weed seedlings, that all good news then. Thanks to you both for the re-assurance.

[burnie]

If you can find out what feed the horses have, it could be that the dung is not contaminated, have a chat with the owner, I was offered free dung a few years back, but the horse owner was very unsure as to what might be in it, it's fine for your Roses, just have to be careful regarding edible crops.

[Nicos]

As an aside -one reason I prefer cow to horse manure is that less weed seeds which could germinate make it through a cow's digestive tract.

[Nicos]

Oh...and it's not just horse hay which needs checking out, some horses eat their straw bedding too

[ameno]

In all probability, if it has so many broad-leaved weeds germinating in it then it isn't contaminated, as if it were they either wouldn't germinate at all or would grow obviously distorted.

If you want to be sure, just test a batch with some broad bean or pea seeds. Grow some more in normal compost for easier direct comparison.

[rary]

As ameno said it has weeds growing as the weed killer was used to kill off the weeds and let the grass (hay and straw) grow and I take it you have used some of the manure already, so if everything looks OK use it, as for weeds in the manure when I use manure I generally remove any white strands of root not very sietific but works as I have no pernicious weeds in the garden