Horse manure

[Scoot]

Couple of questions.

Firstly, how do you get it to be "well rotted"? Do you just leave it in a bucket for 6 months and then it is ready to go on the garden?

Secondly, If I got some at the end of the summer/autumn and dug it into my soil then, would it be ok for plants to go in there the following spring?

[Bigmallly]

Hi Scoot, manure rots down over time up to 18 months but 12 months seems to be the average. Personally I use it part rotted & luckily have had no side effects.

[roitelet]

Well rotted means well composted. When it looks more like soil than horse poo. It needs to be left to rot down for about 1-2 years with for preference the straw bedding from the stable which contains the urine which helps in the rotting process
. The stuff I get is straight horse poo so that goes on the compost heap as an activator.

I would be disinclined to dig it into the beds unrotted as horses do not have a very efficient digestive system and therefore it produces lots of weeds.

[Scoot]

Little stumped here then, as I don't have any room for a compost heap. I was hoping to just hoy some in a bucket and hope it kind of rotted down ready for the next year.

[Bigmallly]

You could rot it down in a bucket but you're not gonna get a lot. A dalek would be better.

[Penellype]

Last year I brought home a large plastic sack of fresh horse muck (mucked out of the stable into the sack), intending to add it to my hotbin. I added a bit (along with lots of other things) to test what happened, but found that the balls of poo didn't really break down that well, and neither did the wood shavings. I left about half of it in the bag and sort of forgot about it. I found it again about a year later and it had rotted quite well in its bag. So I don't see why you couldn't put some in a compost bag and leave it in a corner somewhere for a year or so, a bit like some people make leaf mould.

[chilli_grower]

Last October I manured my plot with some manure that was allegedly around one month old - So yes it still looked like Poo.

However, I planted straight into this in April, and everything is fine for me.

To be honest, it seemed to rot down very quickly indeed....

[Scoot]

Last year I brought home a large plastic sack of fresh horse muck (mucked out of the stable into the sack), intending to add it to my hotbin. I added a bit (along with lots of other things) to test what happened, but found that the balls of poo didn't really break down that well, and neither did the wood shavings. I left about half of it in the bag and sort of forgot about it. I found it again about a year later and it had rotted quite well in its bag. So I don't see why you couldn't put some in a compost bag and leave it in a corner somewhere for a year or so, a bit like some people make leaf mould.

I'll give that a go I think cheers!

[Scoot]

Last October I manured my plot with some manure that was allegedly around one month old - So yes it still looked like Poo.

However, I planted straight into this in April, and everything is fine for me.

To be honest, it seemed to rot down very quickly indeed....

I reckon that's what I will do as well. I'll try and rot some down in a bag of some sort and dig the rest in at the end of this year.

Thanks for all the replies people.

[chilli_grower]

Yeah, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

I will be doing exactly the same this year...

[Potstubsdustbins]

One more very important point. Make sure the manure is safe, check that the field where the horse's graze as not been treated with weed killer. Try to find out where their bedding comes from for the same reason. If necessary do the 'bean test'.

The is one weed killer that will pass through the horse and kill every plant you try to grow, for the life of me I cannot think of its name but another grape will kindly post that for us.

[Martin H]

The is one weed killer that will pass through the horse and kill every plant you try to grow, for the life of me I cannot think of its name but another grape will kindly post that for us.

Aminopyralid ?

[Potstubsdustbins]

Thanks Martin, I can't even say it never mind spell it.

[Scoot]

To be honest, where I will be getting my manure from will be from horses which just graze on meadows full of buttercups and wild grasses etc. Doubt there will be weed killer used on there as it's not used for anything other than horse grazing.

[marchogaeth]

^^^^^ Yes but if you are getting muck and straw bedding you will need to ask about the straw, too. If you are just picking up the lumps you will need to mix in some other fibrous material to get a good break down - bean stems/sweet corn stems/shredded cardboard. If I pooh pick from my horses, I only collect really fresh stuff, so it' still really moist and stick it in a darlek/plastic bag with lots of mixed waste or I put put it in a bucket with water and then water the slug onto the beds as an immediate feed. The fibre in the muck then sits on the soil and rots in over the season (I don't do this much - prefer the first method).