Horse manure

[HL B123]

Would like to hear any information on putting horse manure in vegetable gardens as opposed to commercial fertilizers. I would like to apply it now? thanks hlb

[FarmI]

I use horse manure on veg beds as I seem to recall does David H-S.

I use it in all stages from very fresh to old and rotted, but it depends on the stage of the year and the plants I'm putting it on as to how fresh it is. There are some major cautions on the use of horse manure and it's sources that relate to where on the planet you are and also some seasonal hints. You don't say where you are on the planet and what season you are having so I won't go on without that info.

[HL B123]

I am in Arkansas U.S.A. thanks hlb

[HL B123]

It is freezing here

[David Hare-Scott]

I use it all the time. As well as supplying nutrients it improves the soil texture. I raise roses that grow to twice the expected height and pumpkin vines that envelope small buildings and slow animals. However if it is freezing cold nothing much is going to happen until spring. It takes warmth for your veges to grow and for microorganisms to get working to break down the manure. Why do you want to apply it now?

David

[Billy]

Night time temps below freezing for the next 8 days.

[Una]

Do you know what amendments your garden needs? That's the key to a good decision process.

Una

[Billy]

Now would be a good time to apply fresh manure to a garden or a compost pile. Normally, you want your manure to be 4 to 6 months old when you apply it, which it will be when planting time rolls around. The manure breaks down slowly to release its plant nutrients. Chemical fertilizers (chemferts) are water soluble and run off with the runoff, polluting ground water, water tables, and waterways. Chemferts are responsible for a giant "dead zone" in the gulf of Mexico at the mouth of the Mississippi. In "organic" gardening, the idea is to feed the soil, and let the soil feed the plants. Chemical fertilizers kill the soil and cause erosion, but I'll save that for another time.

[Dan L]

I am not positive on this one. I know there are laws of some sort some where. Are their laws for commercial food crops for WHEN to put down animal manure down for crops. Like: cannot put manure down 30 days before planting? Or 90 days before picking? Do not put down manure on snow or after it rains?

Trying to find such information on the net, but get bogged down by tons of legalese reading. Not just treating manure.

[Una]

In the United States, for Certified Organic growers there is a standard from the National Organic Program. The NOP standard allows application of fresh manure under most circumstances. Note that NOP defines fresh manure as any manure not subjected to controlled aerobic decomposition.

Early winter is an excellent time to apply manure.

Una

[songbird]

Billy wrote: ...

no it wouldn't. the ground is frozen.

anything on top is likely to wash away.

if you can't bury it i'd wait.

songbird

[Bill who putters]

Might depend on you soil micro environment. All we ever did was toss it about in fall and work the soil in spring light tillage. Shit breaks down due to other like forms. A small pile is gone in no time. And we don't have any scarab beetles. I grew up watch Ott's /Disney time lapse photography. Sure it was beautiful to see a plant sprout but so was a mouse being taken apart by maggots. Talk about team effort!

[songbird]

...

if the ground wasn't frozen it would be a different answer from me.

if it weren't frozen i'd dig trenches and bury it (preventing run off pollution, wind erosion and giving the soil microbes the most surface area to work on).

and i agree that it is fun to watch nature at work. i've often watched ants.

songbird

[Billy]

As Una says,"early Winter", not late "Fall", when you might encourage late growth, waste of plant reserves, and perhaps kill your plant(s).

The main thing to remember about "fresh" manure is to keep it away from the edible parts of the plant. You don't want watering or rain splashing the fresh manure up on the parts of the plant that you will eat.

Then there is that other stuff about not adding too much for fear of burning the roots of your plants.

[Una]

Good point. That applies to horse "manure" in the sense of straw or wood shaving stall bedding. Urine is very high in available nitrogen. Urine-soaked stall bedding can burn plant roots by delivering a surge of excess nitrogen.

Horse feces have an ideal C:N ratio and by themselves will not burn plant roots. Many horse farms and stables pick feces daily and strip bedding weekly, so by knowing their cleaning schedule you may be able to select "manure" that has relatively more or less nitrogen.

Una

[newb]

One other thing to consider is weed seeds from the horses normal diet. What do they eat? If they're free range and eat whatever grows in the pasture, that's what you'll get in your garden.

We get ours from a local Appaloosa farm that breeds high dollar animals for sale. Their diet consists of grains (oats) and a kentucky blue grass mix in the pastures. It's the cleanest horse manure around, weed wise. We have enough weeding to do already, don't need to introduce more ; )

Newb

[DogDiesel]

I did it a long time ago. The wrong way. I'm still paying for it. Make sure its barn horse manure. If the horses are eating in a field. Weeds will overrun your garden.

[FarmI]

I add it to the top of any beds mostly in winter or autumn by preference but I can do it any time of the year because it depends if my poo supplier has a pile and needs it removed.

I never dig it in until it's sat there for (usually) a season (so about 3 month) and even then I might not dig it in but scrape it away and shove it elsewhere. I live in a climate that gets 40C+ summers days and -9C mornings but snow is as rare as rocking horse manure. Basically I use it as a mulch and the worms do a lot of work.

Make sure the horse poo hasn't got any aminopyralid in it as that has caused major problems in some gardens.

[FarmI]

I've begun to think that 'burnign' story is an urban myth. I've yet to kill anything with horse poop and I'm pretty sloppy about the way I spread it and sometimes the stuff I spread has come from the insides of a horse less than a day ago.

[FarmI]

Only if you don't weed often enough :-))