No-one mentioned that manure should be well-rotted before use (except for roses that seem to like it fresh) as it can burn your plants with the nitrogen content in the urine.
Generally, as I remember from college, Chicken manure has the highest nitrogen content, then farmyard (usually cow or pig, but may be a mixture), and horse has the least.
Horse manure can be the best soil conditioner as it has lots of bedding mixed in with it, but it depends on where you get it. If picked up from the field or from a bare floor, it is pure and rots very quickly. The quality of manure from a heap varies greatly, depending on what the horses are bedded on. If straw, it makes a great addition to your soil or compost heap, but not many people use straw now. Wood shavings are far more common, and manure with this in takes much longer to rot down. If you use it too soon it can rob nitrogen from your soil. However, if you can get manure with shredded paper, shredded straw, paper pellets, (LIke cat litter), or Aubiose (shredded hemp stems), these are all excellent.
I know all this from working with horses, BTW, and always try to get manure when I can. Most stables will let you take away as much you would like to, as they have to pay to have it removed unless they have a local farmer who will use it on his fields. If you do go to get some, take it from the middle of the heap, as this will be lovely stuff, dark and crumbly, and not smelly, but it may take a bit of work to find. Personally, i find it much easier to go and muck out selected horses at the local stables! I choose the horses with the bedding I want, put it straight into bags and the build a heap at home, add some to the compost, and some to the bottom of pea trenches. I get my 'horsy fix', that way too!
Farmyard manure will usually have straw in it, too, but farmers are far less fussy and more economical than horse owners, so it will be more manure and urine than horse manure, and rots very quickly to a nice conditioner. You may be able to find a farmer who will deliver a lot of well rotted stuff, but you'll probably have to pay him for it.
My landlady and friend who lived here before me (vegetarian, and went off to marry a beef farmer-huh!), kept chickens here in a 16'x10' pen. I turned it into a rasp cage 4 yrs ago, and WOW. The combination of muck, their scratching and eating everything gave me the cleanest, most fertile, weed and pest free soil ever! What crops I had from yr 1, and no weeds until this yr (my 4th)! My biggest problem has been thinning the canes!
Who says I'm full of s***!!
I would love to know more about using comfrey and nettle feeds. How to make them and how to dilute them, and which plants each is best for.
And I heard somewhere about using LISTERINE, yes, you heard right, Diddy, against some pests, I tnink it was. Will get back to you on that, if I can find it.
Like gardenjeannie I would like to know more about nettle and comfrey
can you mix the two and how long can you keep it. also seaweed how do you make this stuff
seaweed is £10.00 for 500ml but the next time I go to the coast I would like to pick some free seaweed and make the tea so come on how do you make this mix
Thank you for all of your valued information GJ however for those who wish to be organic listerine would be of no use.When in my younger years i.e 17yrs when we mucked out the shippings it went straight into the muck spreader and at the end of the week ig got splattered over the meadows.this was never an issue over nitrogen being robbed from the feild.
I found this item on what to compost and what not to.
'Greens' or nitrogen rich ingredients
Urine (diluted with water 20:1)
Comfrey leaves
Nettles
Grass cuttings
Other green materials
Raw vegetable peelings from your kitchen
Tea bags and leaves, coffee grounds
Young green weed growth ??? avoid weeds with seeds
Soft green prunings
Animal manure from herbivores eg cows and horses
Poultry manure and bedding
'Browns' or carbon rich ingredients - slow to rot
Cardboard eg. cereal packets and egg boxes
Waste paper and junk mail, including shredded confidential waste
Cardboard tubes
Glossy magazines ??? although it is better for the environment to pass them on to your local doctors??? or dentists' surgery or send them for recycling
Newspaper ??? although it is better for the environment to send your newspapers for recycling
Posts
I think you have been working a little to hard addict and paula.I'm all of a dither here now pmsl
No-one mentioned that manure should be well-rotted before use (except for roses that seem to like it fresh) as it can burn your plants with the nitrogen content in the urine.
Generally, as I remember from college, Chicken manure has the highest nitrogen content, then farmyard (usually cow or pig, but may be a mixture), and horse has the least.
Horse manure can be the best soil conditioner as it has lots of bedding mixed in with it, but it depends on where you get it. If picked up from the field or from a bare floor, it is pure and rots very quickly. The quality of manure from a heap varies greatly, depending on what the horses are bedded on. If straw, it makes a great addition to your soil or compost heap, but not many people use straw now. Wood shavings are far more common, and manure with this in takes much longer to rot down. If you use it too soon it can rob nitrogen from your soil. However, if you can get manure with shredded paper, shredded straw, paper pellets, (LIke cat litter), or Aubiose (shredded hemp stems), these are all excellent.
I know all this from working with horses, BTW, and always try to get manure when I can. Most stables will let you take away as much you would like to, as they have to pay to have it removed unless they have a local farmer who will use it on his fields. If you do go to get some, take it from the middle of the heap, as this will be lovely stuff, dark and crumbly, and not smelly, but it may take a bit of work to find. Personally, i find it much easier to go and muck out selected horses at the local stables! I choose the horses with the bedding I want, put it straight into bags and the build a heap at home, add some to the compost, and some to the bottom of pea trenches. I get my 'horsy fix', that way too!
Farmyard manure will usually have straw in it, too, but farmers are far less fussy and more economical than horse owners, so it will be more manure and urine than horse manure, and rots very quickly to a nice conditioner. You may be able to find a farmer who will deliver a lot of well rotted stuff, but you'll probably have to pay him for it.
My landlady and friend who lived here before me (vegetarian, and went off to marry a beef farmer-huh!), kept chickens here in a 16'x10' pen. I turned it into a rasp cage 4 yrs ago, and WOW. The combination of muck, their scratching and eating everything gave me the cleanest, most fertile, weed and pest free soil ever! What crops I had from yr 1, and no weeds until this yr (my 4th)!
My biggest problem has been thinning the canes!
Who says I'm full of s***!!
I would love to know more about using comfrey and nettle feeds. How to make them and how to dilute them, and which plants each is best for.
And I heard somewhere about using LISTERINE, yes, you heard right, Diddy, against some pests, I tnink it was.
Will get back to you on that, if I can find it.
LISTERINE LINK, Diddy. Not quite toothpaste!
http://www.ehow.com/facts_8629914_listerine-harm-garden-plants.html
http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/orchids/2003024142002003.html
http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf115181.tip.html
A couple more, here, but can't find the orig article.
Wonder if the mozzie recipes will stop Scottish midgies?! Gonna try, anyway!
Like gardenjeannie I would like to know more about nettle and comfrey
can you mix the two and how long can you keep it. also seaweed how do you make this stuff
seaweed is £10.00 for 500ml but the next time I go to the coast I would like to pick some free seaweed and make the tea so come on how do you make this mix
James
Thank you for all of your valued information GJ however for those who wish to be organic listerine would be of no use.When in my younger years i.e 17yrs when we mucked out the shippings it went straight into the muck spreader and at the end of the week ig got splattered over the meadows.this was never an issue over nitrogen being robbed from the feild.
Ok i see that not many of you are touching on the green fertilsers. the stuff you grow then dig it into the ground to put nitrates in?.
'Greens' or nitrogen rich ingredients
Other green materials
'Browns' or carbon rich ingredients - slow to rot
Other compostable items
Do NOT compost
Can i also clarify that i want to know which is best poo! or mizuna for instance?
Sure is Charlie
I always ask the man of the house whereever I work to do the honours. Mens is better than ladies!