Topic: Horse Manure

[Monika]

My son uses loads and loads of horse manure on his veggies whilst my husband uses just a small quantity of Growmore.

We get much better results than he does and we were wondering if he is using too much of an otherwise good thing.

Is this possible?

Is he creating problems by overuse?

[Bean_Queen]

Horse manure is less of a plant feed, than a soil improver

Growmore is definitely a plant feed, not a soil improver

[cornykev]

Everyones different, but you don't need to manure every bed every year. My first few years I threw quite a bit on apart from the root bed, but now I can see an improvment in my soil I only throw some in the the spud trenches and brassica holes and a mulching around my sweetcorn.  ;D ;D ;D

[Vortex]

Are you both growing the same veg? Adding manure will change the soil ph over time so he may need to counteract this by adding lime. He should also add fish/blood/bone for the additional nutrients not provided by the manure alone.

[Monika]

Thanks for your answers, folks - all gratefully received.