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Sat, Feb 4, 12 at 13:33
| I have an unlimited supply of hoss manure oh about a 90 second drive from my house. Anyway about early October or so I gathered a few buckets full of the stuff that was piled up behind the barn. (It was literally a mountain of poop!) What I probably got was half "apples" and the other half was non-apples and was probably in the early stages of breaking down into compost. I put all of that (including a small amount of chicken coop litter) into my composter that already had some partially composted yard waste/kitchen waste based compost. I turned it here and there through the remainder of October but it never really heated up. My guess was the manure was not as fresh as I thought (plus it had rained pretty good on the huge pile). That compost has sat since then and I checked it and it does not look like pooh anymore and has a slightly earthy smell. Was wondering if enough time has passed on this passive manure compost to use without the fear of it burning seedling roots? I really want to add some of it to my homemade potting soil. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Personally, I like to incorporate horse manure in the fall. It shouldn't hurt the crop the next year then. In your case....my guess would be that a small dressing well distributed would work ok. |
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| I am in agreement with Wayne (not uncommon) but would add the caveat that you really don't want to add any more than a little chicken litter, because of the very high N content. Blended in small proportions with your compost, it should be fine. I regularly use horse manure as a compost ingredient, and for some crops am not unwilling to spread it unmixed in my beds, but for the most part I prefer to let it break down in the presence of lots of carbon matter. Horse manure will retain its' shape - those apples you mention - well into the composting process, but finished compost will typically be crumbly and moisture retentive and will smell as you describe. My low-tech approach to evaluating the readiness of compost is whether or not I'm willing to pick up a handful and smell it, an act I'm reluctant to perform with manure. My other "tell" is if I see seeds beginning to sprout in the compost, that indicates to me that the process has gone on to a point where it can be used, though it may not yet have reached an ideal state. Because I have the luxury of space and access to a lot of organic matter, I have a lot of compost in various stages of completion. I build an entire pile, then stop adding any more material to it, so that the decomposition is uniform. Adding manure to a pile that has already heated and cooled may not cause that pile to re-heat for a variety of reasons, and is not necessarily an indicator that the manures' comparatively high concentration of N is therefor safe for your plants, Finally, the manure most likely best for your needs is going to be deep in the pile. If it has been accumulating for a significant time, what you should find at the bottom of that "mountain" will be crumbly and dark and full of worms, and, though possibly less rich with N, an excellent addition to your garden and potting mix. |
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| That the manure, even with the chicken coop litter, did not get the compost to heat up might indicate too low Nitrogen levels, or a too wet mixture, or too old manure, or too little manure to vegetative waste, or a combination of those. Whether it is "safe" to use depends. Since all manures, potentially, have many disease pathogens you need to think of adding anything containing manures to you garden no sooner then 90 days for above ground crops and 120 for root crops. This is not because the manurte might hurt the crops but that the manures might hurt you and others that eat those crops. Any manure, properly handled, is good for your soil in combination with vegetative waste because the Soil Food Web needs more then just manure to live on and the vegetative waste can help hold the soluble nutrients in the soil so your plants growing there can utilize them. |
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- Posted by earthworm73 WA z8 (My Page) on Sun, Feb 5, 12 at 12:53
| The composted manure would only be used for ornamentals like flowers, tropicals and palms. |
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| Why not make easy compost tea with a shovelful in a bucket? Then water your container with it. That shouldn't be too strong either way. I have had drainage problems with adding compost to container soils because it compacts over time. If planting annuals it's less of a problem, but by last fall I had some puddling when the rains came again. I haven't dug up the large pots yet to see what happened. The pots have attached saucers, so it might have just clogged up. |
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