Topic: Is a veg/fruit plot sustainable without manure?

[twinkletoes]

Well I feel much happier now.  I think fewer trips to the council waste facility.  So, compost all - if in doubt, lay suspect weed(s) in sun to kill off then toss in the compost with its old mates.  (Big sigh!).  Thank you all.  ;D  ;)
twinkletoes

[calendula]

for composting have as many bins as you can - a couple for the really long term stuff and the rest for everything else - but it can take time to rot down in bins and often isn't ready when you want it or in the amounts you need it so I use manure only for spuds and any bed that wants it rich but I reckon i could go a year or even 2 without it but then it would begin to show i think as my allotments are quite intensively used

another idea is in autumn onwards I take all kitchen waste (except spuds, j. artichokes, parsnips) and tip it into small trenches on beds that need it and are empty - fill it in make another, do the same etc and it is incredible how quickly it rots down, improves the soil and bulks up the bed - great  :)

[allaboutliverpool]

Although I have seen muck spreaders squirting wet stuff onto fields, I am not aware that farmers regularly manure their fields.

They obviously use chemical fertilizers whereas I do not need to, but what about the soil structure?

http://www.allaboutliverpool.com/allaboutallotments_compost.html

[GrannieAnnie]

If Im worried about weeds growing in the compost I simply lay them on some black plastic for a few days so the sun kills the roots then I compost EVERYTHING.  :)

that's what I'm trying this year also.

[growmore]

Quick answer is yes, You can grow good crops by using growmore or
blood fish and Bone.
 I have always used a lot of farmyard manure on my plots, usually put on in
autumn and rotovated in after a while ... But the recent experiences of some with the hormonal weed killers still being active in the muck they have been getting makes  me really wonder if I will continue to do so ..
As for structure of soil on some farmers fields is this a consideration?
I think the soil is just  seen as a medium for the crop to grow in. All the nutrients the plants need don't come from the soil. They are spread on from bags of fertilizer through the spreader specifically made up for what ever crop was sown ...  
Farming now seems to be done more in the lab than on the field..
It seems  a sad state of affairs  when you can't use manure from animals grazed on grass because their droppings contain weed killer ...

[Crystalmoon]

Thanks Growmore I was hoping I could avoid manure for at least a year while more is discovered about this hormone weed killer problem. I will use bonemeal, chicken manure pellets & growmore etc next year. Plan to grow some winter green manure crops & my own compost bins should be ready to use next spring too.

As you say it is shocking that we cannot use manure without worrying about contamination...I knoe all the reports are saying the animals themselves will be ok but I really dont trust this company now...Im wondering if animals who have eaten this weed killer will end up on our supermarket shelves  :-\

[jjt]

Of course they will. They already have I'd guarantee it. Sometimes I'm quite glad to be vegetarian. There's graffiti on a wall in Exeter: people cannot be eaten- they contain too much DDT.

[Vortex]

On one of my plots, which I'm still clearing I have a couch/bindweed/globe artichoke problem, so I turned my 200 litre square composter into a drying bin, by putting a piece of heavy gauge wire (from freecycle) between the upper and lower halves. The lower half stays empty and all the roots go in the top section to dry. It gets pretty hot in there, even with only an hour or two of sun on it.
If you get hold of Geoff Hamilton's Organic gardening book it has pictures of all the common perennial weeds.

[Garden Manager]

I always remember the oft repeated phrase; 'Feed the soil and not the plant'.  Compost or manure is the best way to do this.