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Calculating manure

DogmumDogmum Posts: 96
in Fruit & veg
I’m looking at growing some runner beans and maybe some squashes next year and thought I should start the preparation now.   I have very heavy clay soil and will be cutting a new bed into an old lawn for the plants.  I need to open the soil under the turf up and thought some rotted manure would be good for this but how do I calculate how much to buy?  Is there a standard weight of manure per meter squared of soil?

I've seen the bags at the garden centres but then I’ve also see adverts for rotted manure by the ton, I’m a little scared of ordering a ton though as it sounds like a lot and I have visions of this huge pile of manure and having far too much.
Tomorrow is another day

Posts

  • PosyPosy Posts: 3,601
    Absolutely agree! And a ton isn't nearly as much as it sounds. Those bags go nowhere. Remember, if you don't use it all now, you can use it for mulching later on.
  • StephenSouthwestStephenSouthwest Posts: 635
    edited November 2021
    I put over a ton of manure on my bean and squash bed last year, and I'll be topping it up again this year...
  • nick615nick615 Posts: 1,487
    Dogmum  Your first thought is the right one - start preparing now.  If you have somewhere to store it, dig out a 12 inch deep hole, three feet in diameter, and put the excavated clay to one side.  Lay newspapers all over the bottom of the hole to hold moisture, and round the sides to repel invading weeds.  You now have the basis of a site for runner beans, into which any compostable material can be put in readiness for next April but, as others have said, you can't have too much manure.
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    I buy 40 x 75L bags of manure most years for my garden (I get mine from CPA Horticulture) and I always seem to need more.
    I have 3 x 1cu metre compost bins and get about .75 cu m from them per year too.
    As said above, there's no such thing as too much.
    I dig out a trench for my beans and put down 2-3 75L bags then replace the soil I dug out.
    I use 4-5 bags in the greenhouse for my tomatoes and the rest goes on the flower beds and some for the veg beds

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • Allotment BoyAllotment Boy Posts: 6,774
    Actually you can have too much manure, especially if it's not fully rotted.  I agree once had a large delivery, I still had a spare pile so I thought pumpkins are heavy feeders. So I put a frame down and a few pockets of soil to plant them in. They were the worst pumpkins I ever tried to grow.  At the end of the season the roots had barely spread out of the soil pockets. The manure was just too wet and heavy. 
    AB Still learning

  • DogmumDogmum Posts: 96
    Thanks all, looks like I just need to take the plunge.
    Tomorrow is another day
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