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Mixing horse manure and leaves
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Posted by tifbee 7 (My Page) on Tue, Feb 9, 10 at 11:46
In a follow up question to compost_pete-grower picture posting. I have a similar compost bin but I used chicken wire and wooden stakes; I have two that I use to make leaf mold/mulch. I have access to a large amount of horse manure that will need to be aged. Can I mix the manure and leaves together to compost (3 parts manure to 1 part leaves)? I am concerned that it might heat up too much and cause a safety problem.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Mixing horse manure and leaves
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- Posted by pt03 3 Southern Manitoba (My Page) on
Tue, Feb 9, 10 at 12:31
| One question first, does the HM have any bedding in it and if so, how much and what kind? Lloyd P.S. I guess that's actually more than one question, sorry. |
RE: Mixing horse manure and leaves
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I'm not sure what kind of bedding is mixed in. I would guess straw and some wood chips. The supply is coming from a private stable.
Are you suggesting that if it is already mixed then I don't need to mix with leaves?
I was considering the leaves to serve as more of a wall between the manure and the garden wire I used to make the bin. |
RE: Mixing horse manure and leaves
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| Most horse barns have a mix of straw or wood chips mixed in with the manure. Wood chips take a little longer to breakdown than straw. One thing you may want to watchout for is weeds in the manure. If it gets hot enough (131'F for a couple days) the seeds will be killed, if not you may ammend a mess of weed seeds into your garden. Ask or look to see if the horses are on good grass pasture and look at the hay to see if there are a lot of weeds in it. Horsetail, foxtail, lambs quarters, johnson grass and pig-weed can be a B%$#. Also look at the pile and make sure blown in volunteers have not seeded the pile itself. I know this all sounds picky but one batch of weed-seeded manure can make a lot of extra work. I keep my leaf-ucg compost separate from my manure compost and do a trial in a small area to see how many weeds pop up in the manure compost. One year I got a large load of manure and placed rings of it around a bunch of fruit trees, later that spring I had johnson grass popping up all over--NOT GOOD. At least I could mow and weed eat to get most of it knocked back, but that stuff still comes back every year. Back to your leaf-manure question, I would just make a leaf pile and add non-seed containing greens to get it to heat up(Grass clippings work well!!). The horse manure probably already has plenty of carbons(browns) in it already, and the risk of weeds is a concern. |
RE: Mixing horse manure and leaves
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- Posted by pt03 3 Southern Manitoba (My Page) on
Tue, Feb 9, 10 at 15:00
| If there are other bedding materials mixed in then the C:N ratio is already high enough to inhibit high heat. Mixing in leaves will take the C even higher reducing the potential of high heat even more. If you're using the leaves as an insulating blanket then they won't have much effect on the ratio. Leaves do make a great insulator and they can also help with odour absorption (think carbon filter). I'd probably not mix the leaves in myself, but the argument can be made that they do add some nice micro-nutrients to the 'post so I'm in a bit of a quandary. Lloyd P.S. Having said all that, I have never composted any manures so, grain of salt kind of thing. |
RE: Mixing horse manure and leaves
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| That mix should be 3 parts leaves to 1 part horse manure. Horse manure, or any manure, does not need to be "aged" before composting, but does need to be composted before being used on the garden. |
RE: Mixing horse manure and leaves
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| It will not heat up too much and cause a safety problem. It's an excellent plan. |
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