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Horse manure..
DAN WILSON
Posts: 128
Hi - I have recently made some very large raised beds, in an effort to fill I managed to get my hands on a trailer load of horse manure, some of it is well rotted but there are some newer lumps in it, I wont be using the bed this year as its all a bit new but wanted to plant something on it to improve the structure and consistency.
My question is this - is there anything I can plant on this manure just to improve it? I have some grazing rye (green manure) that I was going to plant just to maintain the bed. Will this be killed by the manure or will it survive? If I cant plant this any suggestions?
Kind regards,
Dan
0
Posts
I was hoping to make a hot bed this year using not completely well rotted horse manure but by the time it was available i had already started planting .I should imagine if you put it beneath a layer of the top soil any of the green maures would be ok as they don't carry deep roots. Next seasons plants will be given a good grounding and the worms will have a great time improving the soil structure .Good luck
Is that cereal rye Secale cereale or rye grass?
It will grow fine in horse manure either dug in or surface-applied, so will a summer green manure such as Sinapis alba or an underplanted trefoil. You'll still be left with manure lumps. You shouldn't need both green manure and farmyard manure though.
You'd be better off breaking the manure up with a spade leaving to rot further and, applying Save the cereal rye for overwintering, sow with common vetch in late Aug. Unless for winter crops or if you're leaving it fallow it's a bit late for it to get established, mown/chopped, established before a few weeks wait to sow your crops.. It'll run to seed this year so the rye once incorporated will be rotted down by next spring. Cereal rye and vetch will fix N and lift leached nutrients.
Sorry didnt read op properly re fallowing
Cheers All - its Just called Grazing Rye on the packet, its labelled as a green manure though. If I understand correctly I will do the Vetch in Aug and Rye overwinter. So im all set for next year, its really that I don't think I will be able to plant a crop in it this year as I am led to believe that its not viable to plant a crop on manure, some rotted some not. So its just something to do with the bed that will supress weeds and be beneficial in advance of next year?