Allotments 4 All

As we are getting into autumn and the time for digging the allotment over to prepare it for next year. which manure do you use on your allotment?
And which do you think is the best to use horse or cow manure? so as to be able get the best crops?

Hi - Good Question - i,m after answers to that to as it happens!

I have used both and not had problems with either.  Both seem just as good as each other to me.  I was disappointed with the horse manure due to the fact that 80% of it ended up being straw.  It has been the only load of horse manure I got and it shrunk to less than 20% of its total volume inside of 6 months!!  I usually order in next autumns load after my winter dig so that it has an extra years worth of it rotting down, maturing if you like. 

In my humble opinion,cow manure is better because you seem to import more weeds with the horsey stuff!

My view is that cows/bullocks manure is best - bovines have four stomaches so any weed seeds are killed going through them - horses have one stomach and weeds seeds can go through them and still germinate

We have a ready supply of sheep manure.  I believe they also have multiply stomachs but fat hen and good king henry seem up pop up very readily.   Though both are edible if you are desperate. 

speaking of stomachs...... I have only one  as all we humans have ......just nip down to the local sewage farm next year and you can all the tomato plants you need,....you won' t find any sweetcorn but you should find plenty of kernels!

Stomach that ;D

Quote from: Tee Gee on September 16, 2010, 22:40:39
speaking of stomachs...... I have only one  as all we humans have ......just nip down to the local sewage farm next year and you can all the tomato plants you need,....you won' t find any sweetcorn but you should find plenty of kernels!

Stomach that ;D

I wonder how many of those tomatoes end up down the market  ::) ;D

Ninny

Back to the topic.........

I do horse one year and cattle the next, have done that since the winter of 2005, last winter nothing at all. My clay soil only baked about an inch this year, no puddles and still fertile. Back to horse this winter and the same cycle till 2014, God willing.

Ninny

I use a lot of city farm stuff if I can get it.  Its a mix of everything sheep, cow, horse but with lots of smaller critters poo as well.  ;D

I'm sticking with horse. It has more matter in it which should mean it's there for longer.

Lots of interesting points.  This is my first year in my allotment (okay its someones field I rent off). and i just green manuring it - what are everyones thoughts on this? 

I keep umming and ahhing about getting some manure but the field isn't really accesible (and i have a car on finance so other half wont be happy me transporting).  What do you do?  and how much manure do you need (i know that depends on how much land i have) but if anyone has a quik simple calculation - i would very much appreciate it.

Someone on daughters site did just that Tee Gee, about 12 tonns of the stuff. The whole site stank & it was covered in flys, he was going to use the no dig method. I poor lady could only spend 5 minutes on her plot as it dumped right next to her plot. Daughter asked him to move it or she would get on to the council. She was told to do what she had to do & we'll take it from there. Sorry wrong answer. She isn't known as fluffy the rotweiler for nothing. Within hours UU had removed it, cleaned where it had been & were setting up an investigation team so that it won't happen again. Oh & the man that brought it on site wanted & got a letter saying he wouldn't be prosecuted befoe he would give them the info they needed.
I think it's Heink who won't buy tomatoes grown on it.

Perhaps we should also have the usual warning about manure.  Please ensure that manure is tested for contamination.  A test kit is simply a number of broad bean seeds and some plastic pots.  You mix the manure with soil in one pot and plain soil in the other and compare the growth.

I have used quite a lot of recycled compost but though it is quite good it is certainly not as good as manure.

Also most of the manure that I put in in the Autumn has been fine it is only beds that were manured just before planting that have been problematic.