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Manure
Lyn Plant-Wells
Posts: 338
I have obtained 4 sacks of horse manure from the Freecycle site. 
It is quite dry and fairly odourless. I know manure shouldn't be used fresh - the chap I collected it from said people either leave it in a heap or keep it in the sacks 'for a bit.'
How long is 'a bit?' ! ! 
My borders get very dry - the soil is shallow and sandy -there was all manner of rubbish/ rocks/rubble underneath when the garden had its makeover so I wanted to put it on top asap. (Many plants are half the size of the same variety I shared with my brother who lives in a different area and my roses have terrible blackspot.)
Apologies if this post is under the wrong heading!
Last edited: 14 July 2017 11:27:45
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if it's " fairly odourless" it should be ok. You need to use a bit of judgement.
If it still looks and smells like fresh manure, leave it a bit longer. How long depends on how rotted it is already. It needs to be more like leaf litter texture, and less like poo. If that makes any sense.
If the borders are dry, give them a really good soaking before adding the manure on top, otherwise you'll just " seal in the drought".
Keep the manure away from crowding the stems / crowns of plants and you should be fine.
Hosta is correct. The usual time is anything from 4 to 6 months from fresh even up to a year. Ideally it should be dark & crumbly, if there is visible woodchip or straw in it and it is pale, leave it longer. A bigger heap on soil covered over will rot faster than individual bags.
Thanks guys.
I suppose it's dry due to the very hot, dry weather here in the south. 
and just dried out where it lay until collected- from paddocks not stables so no straw. It's quite lumpy - as in the usual appearance of horse poo. Should it be wetted? I don't have any suitable surfaces for heaps of anything (see pics) as my garden is gravelled with borders/raised beds. I could put a bag of it in my compost bin and I have some very large plant containers but then I suppose that would be much like leaving it in the bags. 
if in doubt , stick it in the compost bin for a while. It'll do nothing but good in there.
OK. I can get at least one - maybe two - into the bin. The rest will have to stay in the bags. Do you think it needs damping down?
It would be worth damping down the bags to keep the bacteria alive which degrade the manure into something that is amber nectar for your plants.
Thanks for your input Mike. I don't have a large garden (what is large? half an acre?). I have 3 semi-raised beds in back garden and borders on 3 sides at front. There is very little exposed soil (ie withno plants) therefore, the manure would have to be spread amongst/between plants/small shrubs/roses etc. I am anxious to fill up the beds with organic as much as possible
( sorry - hadn't finished!)
...... as the sandy soil is very shallow. However, I don't want to risk burning the existing plants and flowers.
In a normal southern English summer, we would have had more intermittant rain but it has been very hot and dry here.
See pics of beds. Front garden (pic 1) needs attention - trying to catch up after being away all of June!
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Last edited: 17 July 2017 10:16:41
Lyn ... I use 'field pickings' ... The droppings in bags... as an addition to the compost heap ... It really helps the other stuff in the compost to break down and make great compost.
Stable manure which nowadays is more likely to consist of droppings, wood shavings rather than straw , and urine, needs to be stacked for several months in order to break down and become less acidic before it's incorporated into the soil.
However as field pickings don't contain the acidic urine I would be happy to use it on your beds this autumn
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
When I was a kid, the ice cream man had a horse and cart. Droppings were quickly scraped up and dolloped around the roses. As long as it doesn't touch fresh green growth, it is fine, the weather will break it down and worms will take it into the soil. I wouldn't let it touch the sappy green growth of bedding plants etc. If you only have a limited amount, mixing it in a compost heap is great.
Last edited: 18 July 2017 09:12:10