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Fri, Feb 22, 13 at 23:17
| I have an opportunity to pick up quantities of this horse manure. The fresh I can add to my compost pile The straw included manure is older, would that be able to be used as a compost item now? Or does all horse manure need to age in a compost bin ? thanks Jimmy |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| All animal manures are better properly composted, with 3 parts of vegetative waste to 1 part manure, before being put into your garden. Allowing animal manures to sit around and "age" is a waste of valuable nutrients since they either excape to the atmosphere or are washed away with the rain. I have composted horse manure with both straw and sawdust used as bedding and found little difference in how the compost pile works, as long as it is properly constructed with just enough , and not too much, moisture. Manures do not need to be "aged", they need to be composted. |
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| Manures that are aged do not lose all their nutrients. They will lose maybe 50% of nutrients if outdoors all the time in rain, but the organic matter is still great. |
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| This will be my third season for my raised beds. The first yr when setting it up, I tilled up my hard clay soil some, then filled the beds about 2/3 with aged horse manure from a neighbors barn, So I figure it has straw too. It was aged enough that most of it was crumbly with little odor. They use a tractor and just shove it over into a big pile. I did this in the spring. First yr had a good garden, last yr we had somewhat drought conditions, and I was traveling a lot, so garden did poorly. So last Fall I had it tested. The results came back with everything right where it should be. In fact the county extension agent said she hadnt doen any testz with such good results. Now this Spring, I plan on amending all the beds and adding more with a good amount of the aged manure. Another thing to check into is to look up the free video online about "back to Eden" gardening. I love the results they are getting by just piling on free wood chips from local tree services. one thing they did warn about was NOT mixing in the wood chips, just piling them on top and letting them rot down. I am also considering the method found on youtube for quick composting, see link below. Tammy My garden: http://www.tammyinwv.blogspot.com/ |
Here is a link that might be useful: Quick composting
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