All animal manures shold be properly composted before being applied to your garden. Next, after proper composting, is to age that manure for 12 months before applying it to your garden 90 to 120 days before harvest.

Your plans to add cardboard and paper sound ok but you will likely need more than a 1/2 and 1/2 mix. It all depends on how fresh the manure is and if it contains bedding too. If it does have some carbon-based bedding mixed in then that should be an ok ratio. You are shooting for basically 3 parts carbon to 1 part nitrogen - approximately. ;)

And the bags of leaves, mixed with the manure at about the same 3:1 ratio will make you some great safe stuff to use by spring as that is ample time to eliminate any pathogen concerns as well.

All I would add is to keep in mind the general guideline that the more diverse the ingredients in the compost the better the over-all quality.

Dave

horse manure has to go somewhere, so why not in your garden to benefit it?

I am assuming you're not want to get too deep into composting, but a bigger pile would be better if you want faster production.

Well, if you're going to age it 12 months after composting, just leave it at your friend's place and forget about it.

Question 1) Sounds fine to me. If there is bedding in with the manure, you might not need that much C added but it won't hurt it. Stirring occasionally is good idea.

Question 2) Once again if there is bedding in with the manure, not much C is needed. If there is bedding, especially a wood product, adding N might be necessary. What do you mean by cover? And once again a couple of stirs now and then helps keep it all nicely mixed.

At all times keep an eye on the moisture levels.

NOP 205.203 guidelines seem to be about the best out there that I can find for the usage of manures composted or not. I'd feel okay following them but would lean towards the composting side.

Lloyd

Disclaimer: I've never composted manures but composting is composting.

Same person says:

"All animal manures shold be properly composted before being applied to your garden. Next, after proper composting, is to age that manure for 12 months before applying it to your garden 90 to 120 days before harvest."

Yet on a previous thread he said:

"Dave stated that manure must be composted for 4 to 6 months before being applied to the garden, but I see nothng about that compost needing to be "aged" longer. I ma not sure that you need to compost manure that long as long as your properly compost that manure and when that compost is done it can then be applied to the garden. I have seen some here, as well as a few frequently quoted garden writers, state that compost needs to be "aged" before going into the garden, but I have frequently stated here that is nonsense." (my bold added)

Kinda makes me wonder sometimes. (insert chuckle)

Lloyd

Thanks for the replies, everyone.

I've added my bucket of horse manure (which had just a little bedding mixed in) to my working pile, and also found a bag of leaves I'd forgotten about that we'd gotten out of the gutters from one of our rental houses. I think it looked about 3:1 leaves:manure by volume, although I'm sure the leaves will shrink down some. I still add shredded paper, cardboard, and kitchen scraps about 3 times a week.

Dave - I hope you're right about the larger pile of manure & leaves begin ready by spring - that would be great! I guess I thought it would go slowly over our winter and not progress much until things warm up in the spring.

pt03 - I usually cover my compost pile with trash bags, an old blanket, or something to help keep the moisture in.

Thanks for the feedback, folks!

Lloyd - misinterpretation on your part I think, tho there is little to be gained by making such a big deal out of it.

It is simply that 2 different options are being offered, as is usually the case from those of us who DO compost manures on a regular basis whenever this issue comes up for discussion.

Next, after proper composting, is to age that manure for 12 months before applying it to your garden

Simply means that aging for 12 months is the next best option other than composting. It does NOT mean aging for 12 months in addition to the composting.

So either compost it for 4-6 months and then apply to the garden OR if you can't compost it then age it (stockpile it) for 12 months before applying it to the garden. But neither should be applied to the garden if there is less than 90-120 days until harvest.

Dave

"Lloyd - misinterpretation on your part I think, tho there is little to be gained by making such a big deal out of it. "

It didn't seem to be misinterpretation or a big deal. Can't speak for Lloyd, but if there is any issue, it is making absolute statements. Manure seems to raise a stink in SCM.
Mushroom growers use horse manure as a major component in their growing media -compost- and one of the requisites for such media is sterility. This is achieved in short turnaround time. Given, your home composter may not provide the attention or skill level to arrive at that, but paranoia over pathogens gets overblown...home composting WITHOUT manure can present health hazards.

Lucky veggie grower, you, for finding a source of fresh horse manure! It's a great resource.

I'd have thought that fresh horse manure could be used in sheet composting, like Lasagne gardening (books at library) or the Ruth Stout method, but maybe it's expected that meds/steroids are present in horse manure, and therefore the government stipulates those long wait periods before food crops can be grown in horse manure?

Anyway, with sheet composting you don't have to haul the compost from here to there. The composting is done right where you want to plant. I'd use wet newspapers (soaked 2 days) and wet cardboard. Do the soaking (in wheelbarrow) adjacent to where the papers will be used.

Put down the manure (no tilling or other soil prep necessary) where you want to establish a bed. Cover manure with sheets of wet newspaper; (use many sheets, one after another, not many pages together like a whole section of ten pages). Cover with wet cardboard. If you have other materials to compost, like spoiled hay or straw, throw them on top of the manure and top with newspapers and cardboard.
====

 See link for an inventive use of fresh, hot horse manure. Hope you find the ideas and pictures useful...

Here is a link that might be useful: Inventive use of fresh horse manure (Swedish site)

"Can't speak for Lloyd..." Lloyd replied offline to spare fellow GWers another agonizing round of point/counterpoint.

"I usually cover my compost pile with trash bags, an old blanket, or something to help keep the moisture in."

I do as well sometimes. I also use tarps when a substantial amount of rain is in the forecast and I don't want any added moisture. Can be useful either way.

Good luck.

Lloyd

Regarding ppod's response:

"Put down the manure (no tilling or other soil prep necessary) where you want to establish a bed. Cover manure with sheets of wet newspaper; (use many sheets, one after another, not many pages together like a whole section of ten pages). Cover with wet cardboard. If you have other materials to compost, like spoiled hay or straw, throw them on top of the manure and top with newspapers and cardboard."

I have 2 large raised beds that I won't be using until next
Spring. Can this concept be used for them? I advertised on craiglist for anyone willing to let me come out and gather some manure from their farm. I have received some offers! I'd really like to just compost that stuff directly in the beds so I don't have to actually purchase so much soil to fill them next year. I dug them out to around 12 inches deep.

Does it need to be turned, or just left alone?

Gail, did you have a look at the link to the Swedish site that shows how they use a whole lot of fresh, hot horse manure? If your beds are empty of soil, could you use their method?

Note they begin the cycle in winter (which is the traditional time of year to build a "hot mattress" to keep your horse warm in winter in the stall. They take the "hot mattress" concept and uses it to extend the vegetable-growing season. They're probably in zone 5 or thereabout.

On the other hand, wouldn't it be advantageous for you to improve the soil you already have by adding manure on top of the soil and topping with dried leaves or other carbon?

What kind of manure are you getting? and how much?

I found a few threads with good information, and there're many more in this forum.

http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/organic/2003082510028156.html
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/soil/msg1122474923045.html

Some fresh manures smell strongly, such as cow/steer when piled. When old, the manures have mostly lost their punch. Cow/steer manure is very wet, as opposed to horse manure, which is formed neatly into "pears."

ÂManures leach easily when rained upon; a tarp will keep rain off, which is important.

ÂChildren should not be involved with manure at any time, and handwashing and scrubbing! with soap is standard hygiene. Footwear used around manure should never be worn inside the house.

I may not have answered you question directly, but hope the information is useful nevertheless.....

Thanks so much ppod! I have terrible, hard, clay dirt here. I just want to fill those beds with really good(free) stuff. I brought home a couple of tractor scoops of well composted horse poo, and a couple buckets of fresh. I added the fresh to my hot pile with a bunch of fall leaves. I'm going to try the lasagne method with the newspaper and cardboard. I have tons of it. I'd really rather smell nice honest horse manure any day over some of the other aromas around!!

Thanks for the tip about covering the manure. ONce I've made the "lasagna" can I just cover the whole thing up and let it sit?

"I have terrible, hard, clay dirt here."

Even your hard clay dirt can be made into fertile loam by sheet composting on top of it. Sheet composting goes by many names, Ruth Stout method, Lasagna, and probably some others.

"Ruth Stout" search
sheet composting

And, yes, use a tarp, or other strong water-proof material, to cover your piles to keep rain off, (unless the piles are dry, in which case they need water). But only so much (water), not to the point of the manure washing away. Worms don't work if the material's too dry, so the presence of worms is an indicator that everything is just fine in the water department. Too wet, and flies begin to breed in the piles, and you'll have lots of protein wriggling about, plus the piles won't heat up.

Cover the piles, but do not make them airtight. Tarp can be tied to stakes (outside the frame), some feet above ground, to let in air. Make piles highest in middle to ensure rain runs off and doesn't pool on tarp.

If rain pools, build a ridge (think 'roof' or 'tent') to support tarp.

Let tarp extend over a wider area then the pile itself (to protect from driving rains) (like the rain guard of a tent). Your piles need rain-proof cover, as well as good air circulation.

Something else: huge piles of raw materials end up being much, much smaller piles of finished compost, so you should keep that in mind if you want to fill your frames.

ÂTo end up with filled frames of finished compost:
ÂYou could temporarily extend the height of your frames (say, quadruple the height) with chicken wire attached to stakes, rebars, or other easily installed & removed supports.

ÂThen, line the inside walls with cardboard to contain the raw materials. First, cut airholes in cardboard.

ÂThen fill the now much heigher frames "to the rafters" with raw materials.

Some people say that the more varied the raw materials, the more nutritious the compost. So in addition to lots of manure(s), add your kitchen vegetable waste, used coffe grounds (Starbucks), supermarket produce waste, dry leaves, cut grass clippings, old hay and straw, etc.

Composters have redefined the term "hunters and gatherers."

Last but not least, insert old tennis balls onto rebars (to prevent accidently poking out an eye if slipping and falling, or just bending over to pick up something on the ground). Rebars are dangerous in that sense.