Allotments 4 All

Hi All
can anything be grown in fresh horse manure

The problem with growing anything in fresh manure is that it will "scorch" your plants.....needs to be well rotted in my humble opinion

hore!! manure is that from soho

How fresh is fresh?

squash types especially marrow and courgette like to sit on stuff which is fairly rich and new and runner beans do not mind it not being too well rotted either. People used to gather it from horse droppings on the road to put straight onto the rhubarb at one time.

Spread the fresh stuff over as a weed retardant and let the worms have a go at it. I think it rots quicker like that.

Avoid using it where you are growing roots and bulbs when it is not well rotted as it can make the tops flourish instead of the roots.

Quote from: N8R on March 28, 2010, 15:46:53
hore!![ manure is that from soho ]

damm,  beat me too it lol!!!  ;D ;D

Hi Zigzag
We get the horse manure for our allotments from the local city farm and i started to compost it  about  month ago.
I,ve made a compost bin out of four pallets and would like to grow something on the top of it as space is at a premium.
Thanks TOPMAN

we grew a red kuri squash in our compost bin last year, very successful, we're still eating them  ;D

Grow a pumpkin, you'll end up with a whopper if it's all manure!

QuotePeople used to gather it from horse droppings on the road to put straight onto the rhubarb at one time

When I was young a horse poop did not last long on the road.  There was a kind of understanding that if the horse pooped outside your house then the poo was yours for about ten minutes after that it was first come first served.  We used to have the job of watching the horse to see if we had a bonus day and my Grandmother would nip out with the shovel.  

It was traditional to grow marrows on the compost bin they were said to like the warmth of the rotting vegetation.

If you dig a pocket in and fill it with soil/compost, plant something hungry,like pumpkin,,,by the time the roots start spreading further your manure has started to tone down... ;)

All my squashes grew on fresh horse manure..... you couldn't do it with pig or cow but it seems oK on horse......


chrisc

Hi Chrisc, can you elaborate a bit on your planting technique.  Sounds like a pretty solid idea to me and getting hold of horse poo is no problem.  I almost drive past a stable block every day and they have mountains of the stuff.  Cheers  Lance

Many years ago, a case was reported in the Surrey Comet where 2 neighbours came to blows over a pile of poo, they could not agree as to whose house it was outside.

Was that a pile as in a load of manure, or just a stray dropping?

My grandad used to be fairly well known in his old neighbourhood for keeping a bucket and shovel in the back of the car 'just in case'.  :-X

Lucky if you can find it cheap/free now. Most of the people I know who are after it have to pay for it. We do have an industrial sized pile of cow product at work but somehow I haven't the stomach to load some into the back of the car and drive it 140 miles down to grandad. He'll just have to come up with another way to grow giant vegetables  ;D

Quote from: lancelotment on April 01, 2010, 14:06:33
Hi Chrisc, can you elaborate a bit on your planting technique.  Sounds like a pretty solid idea to me and getting hold of horse poo is no problem.  I almost drive past a stable block every day and they have mountains of the stuff.  Cheers  Lance

Dig out a 1 foot by 1 spit hole. Fill and mound up a bit with manure, for into the edges a bit. Put earth from hole on top of the manure. Cover a n area of these set up on a 1m grid with weedmulch.... find the mounds, cut through weedmulch, plant out squashes after hardening off..... Leave alone after their first watering adn they all grew well last eyar....

chrisc