When is the best time to order farm manure ??? bearing in mind my local farmer is selling (and very cheaply too) what I would call quite fresh manure. :P
Now at £20 I think that is about half price around here, it is delivered in a massive trailer, no idea of weight, is it a bargain? will it rot down enough to use next year? I have still got a fair pile of the stuff from February although it still looks a bit fresh deep down. :-\
Roy
You are soooo lucky as where my plot is no farm or commercial vehicles will reach.
£20 sounds a good deal.
Shouldn't you always compost the manure for 12 months to deal with any little nasties lurking in the faeces?
Having read the DEFRA articles/Notices about horse manure and how it's only supposed to be transported by "specialists" - again because of the little nasties aforementioned, I'm definitely not going to use the manure I've stashed for at least a year...
But at £20 -- Go For IT...
Roy The farmer will deliver when the ground is hard so his trailer doesn't sink or when he doesn't get mud on his tyres or he will be fined for leaving a mess on the road. So ideally when there's been a hard frost. Mine was delivered in February :) I didn't leave mine to rot - didn't have time and still using it. I used it for no-dig spuds beds, courgettes, squashes, runner beans and corn and they are romping away on it. Have eaten loads of the spuds (washed rather more thoroughly than if grown in soil ,which does take some of the skin off the new pots - which is best left on - but you can't have everything) The courgettes have done brilliantly. I put quite a lot of the manure in a dalek for it to cook to get rid of weed seeds and some of it is still under cover with a wasps nest in it so I can't use it til they've gone :)
So if the farmer is able to deliver now as the ground is very dry that would give me nearly 7 months for fresh manure to rot, will that be long enough? ??? ;D
It doesn't have to rotted to be useable :) We were discussing this point tonight on the plot and me and my lotty neighbour who had muck delivered at the same time both used it fresh and he said he'd not scrubbed all the skin off his new spuds grown in unrotted manure and he and his wife had suffered no ill effects. I had lightly washed spuds tonight (3 of us) so if we get dodgy tums I'll let you know.
If the ground is hard and the farmer will deliver I'd go for it Roy. I'd put it on some sheeting and cover it over. If it gets dry it's a pig to shift :) When you need to use it, eg next summerish it will have had time to mature. You could put it in your daleks to heat up and kill off weed seeds and speed up the rotting process :)