chicken manure pellets ok to feed all sorts of veg?

[josie33]

i have very alkaline soil with not a great deal of nutrients. ive applied chicken manure pellets and sulphur a week before plantig carrots, leeks, onions, strawberries n raspberries. can i also apply as a feed through the year? i plan to use it for garlic, onions, brassicas, potatoes?

[chris]

You'll want to feed your leafy veg (brassicas, salad crops I guess too) with chicken manure. It's high in nitrogen - which is good for leafy growth.

Fruiting crops - such as your spuds, tomatoes, etc benefit from a feed that is high in potash.

Unless your ground is very depleated you won't need to feed them all year around - unless your're growing for the show bench/largest veg compeition?

[chris]

Similar thread: http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...der_77994.html

[Kristen]

i have very alkaline soil ... ive applied ... sulphur a week before planting ...

Not something I know much about, but my recollection is that Sulphur is very slow acting, so you might need to apply it in the Autumn perhaps? or maybe "little and often" throughout the year.

How Alkaline is your soil? Quite a lot of veg prefer soil that is a bit Alkaline.

[josie33]

when I did the pH test the alkalinity was about as high as it could get!

[rustylady]

Are you absolutely sure the test was accurate Josie? What sort of meter did you use?

[Kristen]

Was a tester with a Probe? I've heard that "cheap" ones of those can be very unreliable - at the very least they need calibrating before use (e.g. with a sample of known pH - and I don't think the soil ones work with liquid, so you can't just use distilled water or somesuch).

If you have used a Probe one perhaps confirm the result using a cheap test-tube type kit?

[Two_Sheds]

i have very alkaline soil ... ive applied chicken manure pellets

You've made your alkaline soil even more alkaline then.

You're also more likely to get scabby spuds on alkaline soil

[josie33]

Oh right, I thought the pellets would improve the soil condition, and the sulphur would increase its acidity. I have the potatoes in sacks which will have vegetable compost in, although I was going to apply some manure pellets at some point for a bit of a boost.

The test I did was using tubes and powder, and I wouldnt have considered it a cheap one. I tested the pH, nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous all of which were crazy low. I did use water from the butt as it recommended not using tap water.

I did the test as we moved in to this house last year, and some things, e.g. our leeks were pretty pathetic - more like spring onions, and garlic bulbs were also poor. Pretty much the only things that did well were courgettes, peas, peppers.

[josie33]

I wanted to apply manure at the end of last year, but I was recommended to wait for a period of 7 dry days. Im yet to see one of those! so didnt do it. Now I regret it as I am anticipating poor results again.

I have a general liquid feed although I am abit sceptical about using this for onions etc as I hear that carrots and co. do not respond well to high nitrogen.

Its all rather confusing.....although I hope I get 10 points for effort!

[Kristen]

10/10

is your liquid feed a high nitrogen one? If it has an N:P:K ratio on it then if all three are similar numbers it is "balanced" and only "High Nitrogen" is the first figure is getting on for, say, double the higher of the other two.

I still think it would be worth testing a sample of your soil by some other means, and also testing with your meter. If they agree then you are good-to-go, if they don't then you won't know which figure to believe but then a third test (send a sample away for Lab testing perhaps?) would arbitrate conclusively.

I would think that "Off the scale" alkaline, or acid, would be a pretty rare phenomena

[Bill HH]

When we had a poultry farm the manure was an embarrasment, tons of it everywhere, we bought more land soley to have somewhere to chuck it (Why oh why didnt we investigate making and selling pellets) anyway in my garden at the time i had one rule, if it doesnt like poultry muck i wont grow it. I cant think of anything I didnt grow for that reason.

[darcyvuqua]

I used CM pellets heavily on my brassica bed last year I didn't really know if it was a good or bad thing but there were old boys on the site getting really p'd off about how good my brassicas were!

Beginners luck/manure pellets/bit of both??

We will see this year

[3 allotments]

Hi josie chicken manure is good for all sorts,potash is great for onions and garlic and most types of fruit, but not blueberry as it likes acidic soil,spuds dont like potash or lime,.Darren

[Kristen]

spuds dont like potash or lime

Potash is very important for Potatoes:

PDA leaflet 15: Potash for Potatoes - page 1

Alkaline soil gives them scab ... but you peel that off (although perhaps preferably not on New Potatoes), so not that much of a problem, although worth avoiding specifically liming the area where spuds are planted.