Idiot Question about Fresh Horse Manure

[Penellype]

Penellype, that's absolutely brilliant info. Thank you. Are there any things you wouldn't grow in a hotbed? I've seen that muck is supposed to make root crops fork, but I've recently read that that's a myth that has been debunked. It makes it hard to know who to believe.

Hmm, interesting question. I think it depends on when you make your hotbed. For example I make a hotbed in January and grow spinach, lettuce and beetroot in it - I have grown carrots but it was very old seed and they didn't do well. I think you would run into problems with bolting if you grew those crops in a summer hotbed. I use summer hotbeds for melons, but I have also grown melons successfully in the January hotbed following on from the earlier crops. I wouldn't make a hotbed for perennial crops as it is more to provide heat as the bed rots down, although I would happily mulch perennials with the leftovers. Similarly I wouldn't see much advantage in growing long standing crops such as parsnips, PSB, winter leeks etc in one - these are hardy crops that don't need heat and you also really want a decent turnover of fast growing crops to make the best use of the hotbed. Making a hotbed is very hard work so you want to keep it for things that need extra heat or for very early crops in spring in my opinion.

The exception I made this year was for onions, because I was sure that the horse manure wouldn't contain white rot. They grew very well in it (from sets).

Regarding carrots, I am fairly sure that what makes them fork is hard lumps in the growing medium - stones, pebbles, clods of clay, pieces of wood etc. From this point of view a hotbed might make carrots fork, depending a bit on what the bedding was. Our horse muck can contain fairly large chips of wood as well as pieces of hoof (from sweeping up after the farrier) and pieces of rubber picked up by the horses feet when they are ridden in the school. I would therefore really only consider growing round or very short rooted carrots for a quick early crop in a hotbed.

[Snoop Puss]

Thanks, Penellype. I was wondering about an early crop of carrots, Amsterdam Forcing, say, or perhaps even Jeanette, though they might be a bit long.

It sounds like you make very good use of your hotbed. Interesting to read about your onions. rary, if I recall rightly, you have a problem with white rot in your beds. Might this be a possible solution?

Plenty for us both to think about there, Andraste.

[rary]

Thanks, Penellype. I was wondering about an early crop of carrots, Amsterdam Forcing, say, or perhaps even Jeanette, though they might be a bit long.

It sounds like you make very good use of your hotbed. Interesting to read about your onions. rary, if I recall rightly, you have a problem with white rot in your beds. Might this be a possible solution?

Plenty for us both to think about there, Andraste.

I did have a problem which I thought was white rot, but someone (Martin H I think ) suggested that it was something else, and as I have harvested a good crop of onions, this year evedently it wasn't white rot. As for applying fresh horse manure to fallow ground, I would quite happily do this if I know it is chemical free, I wouldn't dig it in as I recon weathering helps mature it and leaving it on the top means you can control the weeds easier