Topic: Manure!!

[boydzfish]

 :D Bit of a striking subject but one that is close to my allotment heart!! Just a quick question though. Last year I sourced some free well rotted manure but this source may have dried up now. However there is another place but they clean out the stables daily and put the fresh stuff in bags - you just take what you want and return the empties. I know it would be fine to put this in with this years compost to rot down but would it be ok to spread on the allotment and leave it to weather over the winter or would it affect the balance of the soil too much?

[BarriedaleNick]

I have done this for the last couple of Winters - I dig it in come Spring.  It works fine for me but one thing is grass seed - the last lot I got was infested with the stuff and come the start of spring it was germinating all over.  It's not too much of an issue as you are going to be digging it in but if you have planted something through it then it can be a real issue trying to weed..

[flattyre]

better to add to compost heap and cover if you can to stablise the nitrogen - otherwise all the goodness gets washed away...!

[Ophi]

At the beginning of the season this year we had to think hard as cirumstances had not allowed us to do regular work on the allotment to prepare it for the summer crops.

A nearby stable puts their stable sweepings in big piles and you can help yourself.  So my other half volunteered to collect 4 huge containers of sweepings on his way home from work each evening so that we could cover half the plot and then would only have to weed and dig the other half.

We removed the more vigorous weeds and covered the area in quite a few inches of sweepings.  We then made holes filled with compost and planted squash, courgette, and tomato.  We had already prepared a small area of well rotted manure for planting 9 Jerusalem Artichokes.

We had a very good crop and my storage and preserving challenges have been fun.

It looked like this in late July


00056 by Ophidianoir, on Flickr



00058 by Ophidianoir, on Flickr



00057 by Ophidianoir, on Flickr

We picked out the weeds as they grew but did not have too much work.  The only problem was our local Blackbird families who were really enjoying the fresh easily gathered worms.  So we had to pop things around the roots to keep the plants in.  Did put sweetcorn in but they were dug up so regularly that we gave up with that idea.

We are now in the process of incorporating what is left with the clay and removing the wonderful snaking white couch roots.  If only you could stir fry couch roots and we would have yet another tasty meal.

[brown thumb]

i have to day been offered horse poo( no straw etc added to it scraped daily from the grazing field to keep it clean so no weed killer etc as been applied ,about  two  wheel barrow a day is removed )this available to me just for the price of petrol delivered to my plot. will this be ok to use and can i spread it on the plot as it comes?there is no limit to the amount i can have as some has been stock piled

[BarriedaleNick]

If it is fresh unrotted poo with no straw etc then it can be a bit "hot" for seedlings and young plants so best to pile up and compost a bit...On out of season or fallow beds should be fine.

[brown thumb]

The stuff that has been heaped for a while i am planning to save. The fresh stuff  i thought about spreading over the beds during the winter,  will  that be ok as the beds are empty

[Digeroo]

 I still think it is worth a quick bean test before you splash it around too much.

There are a number of people who have been adamant they have not used weedkillers yet their manure still causes problems.

I am still convinced that is arrives on feed and not just hay. 

[ceres]

If only you could stir fry couch roots and we would have yet another tasty meal.

Worth a try?

[brown thumb]

yea i think the only problem would be  any sprays that comes with in food stuff  as know she  wouldnt use any on the paddock may be i will do a test before spreading it

[sunloving]

Hi yes i always in the winter dig over beds and weed then put fresh manure on then cover with polythene so that the ammonia is not lost to the air. In spring there is hardly any left on the top due to the worms doing great work over winter.
I do this in the greenhouse to it doesnt need the cover as theres no rain. Had mega tomatoes this year as a result
Last year i was late and did a bed like this in early feb. It was ready for planting beans in may so its not to late.

x Sunloving

[chriscross1966]

You can put fresh field tailings straight on the soil, it's the wee in stable manure that makes it a bit hot... horsse digestion isn't all that efficient  so the manure isn't strong in the way say a pugs is... Avoid putting it where you're putting carrots or parsnips, it tends to cause forking... Bean test first though, I've had issues with aminopyralid this last year from areas I know haven't been sprayed, it's come in on hay being used for winter feed....