Horse manure

[Hans Mum]

ask around local stables, they have to pay to dispose of it now, so they are more than happy to give it away. Our site is lucky a local delivers it FOC for us

[OllieMartin]

I get my friend who keep horses to fill a few sacks from round the corner from the stables. When they much out, they throw it all into a trailer and it's dumped in a field nearby, so she just digs it from the back of the pile where it's most rotted.
However, this year I had a tomato plant where the leaves went all odd and spindly, after posting on the forum a handy grape advised that it was likely a virus carried from the horse manure. Fortunately it was only a small part of one plant, but my understanding is that it can affect whole crops.

[bobleponge]

I use a mixture of horse and cow manure, although since the horse left, its now predominantly cow manure, which comes with straw.

Once mine gets dropped in the garden, I shovel it all into a big compost bin. It then stays there until the end of the growing season, when it gets shovelled into a smaller bin, turning it over and checking on rotting etc.
It then stays in the second bin until the end of the following growing season, when it then goes onto my raised beds, into the spuds etc.
It can take almost 2 full years before the fresh stuff goes into my garden. But thats now.

When I first built my raised beds, I just filled them directly with horse manure from the stable, wouldnt have been more than 3 months old, filled the raised beds nearly to the top and then added general purpose compost/soil to a depth of a few inches and left it over winter. I then dug it all over, and added compost/soil again to a depth of a couple of inches and planted in it.

[OllieMartin]

Did you experience any problems with using such fresh manure bobleponge?

[bobleponge]

To be honest Ollie I didnt. From being freshly delivered (its a family forum) to having veggies planted in it, was about 6 months give or take a few weeks. I didnt grow root veg, but grew fantastic toms, cabbage, lettuce, and other bits and bobs, and didnt appear to have a problem at all.
I suspect (although I believe there is no ACTUAL proof of this) if I had put carrots/parsnips etc in, they would have forked and given me Esther Rantzen type veggies, which is why I didnt do it.

[OllieMartin]

Yea, I heard not to put rootcrops in manure ever, but I understood that was because of the acidity rather than the freshness.
I thought it was necessary to let manure rot for at least a year before using it, but was never told why. Maybe it's not true, or only true in certain situations.
I'm informed that chicken...stuff...should be left for 2 years, but again, don't know why.

[bobleponge]

Chicken manure is very high in something (nitrogen I think??), so rich that it can burn seedlings/plants. When I kept chickens I used to put the hen house cleanings straight onto the compost heap and let it rot down.
I think conventional wisdom is to leave horse/cow manure long enough to be crumbly and so that it no longer smells, but I had nice raised beds, and nothing to put in them, so took a chance.
Worked out ok for me, and the following year I grew carrots and parsnips on that bed without a problem, and it had had a covering of 2 year old rotted manure on the top as well.
Now I get my twice yearly delivery of cow manure it rots down nicely over 2 years before it goes on the veggies, but at the time I was desperate.

[frias]

My neighbour in Spain definately uses fresh cow manure on his oranges. Phew! It's OK once it dries though. My dad used to grow marrows directly on a horse manure heap and put fresh manure in the water butt to water the tomatoes. If the manure is from a field it will have a lot of weed seeds in it and even from a stable will have some as some things don't get processed by a horse. I would leave it in the compost bin to rot down for at least a year before putting on my garden.

[WrexTheDragon]

I am a big fan of cow slurry, moved away from horse manure a few years ago.

I mix mine with compost before putting it on.

I found that chicken manure is far too rich in nitrogen and killed more plants!

[Sanjo]

I get my friend who keep horses to fill a few sacks from round the corner from the stables. When they much out, they throw it all into a trailer and it's dumped in a field nearby, so she just digs it from the back of the pile where it's most rotted.
However, this year I had a tomato plant where the leaves went all odd and spindly, after posting on the forum a handy grape advised that it was likely a virus carried from the horse manure. Fortunately it was only a small part of one plant, but my understanding is that it can affect whole crops.

If you google (or search on this site) for AMINOPYRALID it may give you the answer. Personally, I will not use manure unless there is a gurantee that it is aminopyralid free. Often the stable cannot give this guarantee because the feed merchant/farmer may not have passed on the information on whether the hay was made from grass treated with the herbicide. The consequences of contaminating the soil are too long term and drastic.

[leicestershirelass]

just wondering how you collect cow manure ??? isn't it a bit sloppy? (the cows near us don't seem to do cow pats)

any thoughts on sheep dung?

thanks for advice about horse manure .. worth noting for the future and checking out before using

[WrexTheDragon]

just wondering how you collect cow manure ??? isn't it a bit sloppy? (the cows near us don't seem to do cow pats)

Ask a friendly farmer, and bring a spade and buckets.

cow slurry is a liquid.

[glallotments]

I get my friend who keep horses to fill a few sacks from round the corner from the stables. When they much out, they throw it all into a trailer and it's dumped in a field nearby, so she just digs it from the back of the pile where it's most rotted.
However, this year I had a tomato plant where the leaves went all odd and spindly, after posting on the forum a handy grape advised that it was likely a virus carried from the horse manure. Fortunately it was only a small part of one plant, but my understanding is that it can affect whole crops.

OM: Check the photos on my website at Manure Menu
These show damage after using manure contaminated by aminopyralid. Like Sanjo I won't be letting manure anywhere near my plot for quite a while after my experiences and those of others. If you really want to use manure just make sure that you ask the right questions.

I've tried to help by posting some suggestions here
Manure 7

[WrexTheDragon]

Our local council are looking ro recycle the garden waste and sell it back to anyone who is stupid enough to buy it.

I am sure they will not have any quality control over what is in this. It could be a nice mixture of weedkillers and dangerious plants. I do not think that they have the time for this to be rotten down, but ground or mulched through a milling machine.

And to think I have always blamed my watering ability for plants dying. Perhaps not now.

[glallotments]

Our local council are looking ro recycle the garden waste and sell it back to anyone who is stupid enough to buy it.

I am sure they will not have any quality control over what is in this. It could be a nice mixture of weedkillers and dangerious plants. I do not think that they have the time for this to be rotten down, but ground or mulched through a milling machine.

And to think I have always blamed my watering ability for plants dying. Perhaps not now.

Apparently last year one major retailer recalled compost that used green waste as an ingredient due to contamination issues. They now call it grey waste. It would be impossible to know what people put in their green waste bin and the composting process doesn't remove or kill all harmful substances.