Do you recall that a few weeks ago you and I had a disagreement about the use of fresh manure?
Well, since then, I've decided that I needed to do some research on the topic of manure and the injunction that "thou shalt not use fresh manure as it burns". As you know, David and I both reported that we'd used it very fresh and had had no ill effects from it's burning but then I wrote that you have to pick the place you use it. I can't recall what David wrote about that. (Toxics and zoonoses weren't what I was interested in so I won't address that at all).
After you and I disagreed, I wondered where this 'rule' on fresh manure came from and why it came about.
I wondered if it was just an old husband's tale that has just been repeated since the year dot and we all just now think that it does burn therefore we don't use it fresh. I've got a very extensive gardening library and I've scoured it from top to bottom reading to find out a reasoning behind this "don't use fresh" injunction. It's astounding how silent the whole library is on the whole subject.
I've found not one useful reference on the 'why' of it. I did find one cite on usenet that may be useful and will give that below.
I did find some references in one book to the NPK levels of different fresh vs (presumably aged) manures and thought you might be interested.
The book this info is from is called "Soil Food 1372 ways to add fertility to your soil" by Jackie French (an Australian writer who I have come to trust) but I note that the figures she gives are different to others in other books I have for the (presumably aged) manure. But they differ all over the net too, so I'm ignoring that. NPK by weight (depending on quality of fodder) cattle fresh 0.29, 0.17, 0.35 cow 0.6, 0.2, 0.5 hen fresh 2.1, .88, 1.85 hen 1.1, .8, .5 Horse fresh 0.5, 0.2, 0.13 horse 0.7, 0.3, 0.6 rabbit fresh 2.0, 0.62, 0.05 rabbit 2.4, 1.4, 0.6
Now, having seen those figures it seems to me (based on those figures) that the aging process gives it more ooomph rather than less.
I came across this cite:
It says of fresh vs rotted/aged manure that: i) in the composting process, manure can lose up to half it's moisture content and thus concentrate nutrients ii) nitrogen in composted manure is fixed whereas in fresh, it's soluble iii) solubility of P and K is greater in composted manure and on P.125 it says that 'when manure is added directly to the soil, it generally releases highly soluble nitrates that behave similarly to chemical fertilisers, as well as ammonia, which can burn plant roots and interfere with seed germination.'
Now, having digested all that and much, much more, I'm left wondering very vaguely and very mildly about the use aged manure or fresh. So, now it's time for you to express your opinion, but first I'll set the scene.
I garden on land that was first cleared in the late 1960s. The natural 'soil' here is extremely poor (which is why it was never cleared for farming since European settlement) - it's unimproved colour is a pale yellow. The uncleared areas round here have the same type of trees that would have grown here - stunted natives - no big forest trees, all small, sparsely growing Eucalypts with limited understorey. My soil is clay like (no topsoil profile at all) and has a lot of small stones (mainly quartz but with other small stones that I can't classify). Neither my house garden or my vegetable garden had any soil improvement done when the house garden was 'landscaped'. I started my vegetable garden by cutting a roughly quarter acre chunk out of rough pasture that was full of native grasses. My first veg bed was coffin sized and it took me more than a week to dig that - use the pick to get about 1 inch depressions, water, next day go back over it with the pick and get another inch down and water again - the soil is (or was) water repellent and there was not a worm to be seen. If I plant direct into the unimproved soil, the plants sit there and either die or just cling to life.
I scavenge, gather and use in my garden anything that has once lived. This includes leaves, grass clippings, kitchen scraps, dead chooks, old hay and even my dead pets. I spread old manure, fresh manure (cattle, horse, chook and sheep) and organic stuff like blood and bone and ash from my fire place and I pound up the unburned carbon chunks and use that and also soot from my chimney. I give my chooks my weeds and then add them to my compost after a season. I try to make compost but can't turn it in a conventional heap (2 lots of major surgery in my mid 50s which has left me more feeble than I'd choose to be) so I have 2 big upside down bins and 2 tumblers. I tend to sheet compost more than anything and especially in Autumn/winter when I spread as much manure as I can all over the place. We also encourage wild birds as much as we can too given that they leave behind their fertiliser as well.
My garden would be about 3 acres I suppose but I've never bothered to measure it.
I measure my success by my worms and the colour of my soil. I've gone from pale yellow and wormless in my veg garden to dark brown and worm ridden. That applies in some of the rest of the garden too.
So, any views or known facts on the possibility of fresh vs old being an old husband's tale? And what would you do in my situation?