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Using manure
josusa47
Posts: 3,530
in Fruit & veg
Why are we always told that animal manure has to be "well rotted" before putting it on the garden? What's wrong with using it fresh? And what does "well rotted" mean? Is it just a matter of age? Unless it's from your own animals, how can you tell?
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Basically, if it smells like POO and / or it's still hot , it's too fresh.
When it's rotted down, it's not hot and smells a bit more like potting compost, kinda.
If it's too fresh, the decomposition process which is taking place will have a deleterious effect on plants with which it comes into contact, either foliage or roots.
Fresh manure contains stuff like ammonia and urea. If you could see my lawn where my dog wees, there are so many brown patches of dead grass, from an upstairs window it looks like a join the dots game.
So if you put fresh manure around your plants, it's a bit like watering them with bleach - it will burn the stems and roots and may kill the plant.
If the manure is left to rot, them zillions of bacteria and fungi break down the bad stuff like ammonia and turn it into good stuff the plant can use, like nitrogen.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
This may be a stupid question but where do you get well rotted manure from? Is the stuff you can get from equestrian centres ok? Or is it safer to buy from a garden centre? I wouldn't know well rotted from fresh, apart from possibly learning the difference of smell as above.
The stuff from stables is usually fresh.
I got 4 loads of 40 x 75L bags from here-
https://www.cpa-horticulture.co.uk/well-rotted-horse-manure
And I was pleased with what I got. I will probably get the same again this year, but may go for mushroom compost (from the same company) to help with the clay soil round here.
I did buy a load of Levingtion well-rotted farmyard manure in bags - I wasn't impressed - almost all wood shavings
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Most horses are bedded onto woodshavings nowadays ... not a lot of straw used.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
The Westland gro-sure stuff in 50l bags is also good stuff and manageable - I get mine from Wickes.
Last edited: 18 June 2017 09:59:24
All horse manure seems to have wood shavings instead of straw these days. The CPA stuff had good identifiable dollops of the real thing though. The levingtons was almost all wood shavings.
I'll probably get some mushroom compost solely for the reason that it's straw based and will help break up the clay I still have in parts of the garden and some of their horse manure for the other areas where the soil is good
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
We are very lucky here, the farm just along the road sells it for a £ a bag, too heavy for me to lift and it's purely poo, no bedding, they must pick it up from the field. Gets the compost heap steaming in no time??
Lots of manure is free from stables but you have to have room to store it for seasoning. Cured manure is usually available from garden centres and online.
Fresh manure will burn the roots of plants...