Horse Manure

[paddy]

I have just by chance been given the offer of around 10 trailer loads of Horse Manure which contains shavings and straw, some of it fresh and some up to 2 years old.

How much of this do i apply to the ground as i am thinking of getting a great veg patch ready for next spring.

The ground at the moment is clean soil that is ready for grass reseeding so i could get upto half an acre of it for veg.

[Thurston Garden]

Take it all! If the soil is clean from weeds, I would be tempted just to spread a good layer on the surface and let the worms do the rest.

If you are feeling energetic you could then dig it over in the autumn ready for planting in the spring, but if the base soil is in good nick then I might be tempted to leave it and then hoe off any weeds in the spring time (dig out th roots of any perennials) and rake it to a fine tilt and get planting!

Mahoosive veggies next year!

[paddy]

Thanks i am having it all but how much or how thick do i put it on??

Meaning can i over do it and end up with damaged veg next year?

How big an area would i need for spuds for 2 people for the whole year?

I am guessing that half an acre would maybe be too much for 2 people for all our veg so has anybody got suggestions on how big an area to plant for the other veg such as.......parsnips......carrots.....small pickling type onions to eat not pickle.......runner beans....leeks.....sprouts.......and peas.............my aim is to fill the freezer.

I would also like to grow food for chickens, i know they love sweetcorn...........can that be grown and would i have enough room???

[Thurston Garden]

Although others may have different ideas, I doubt that you can have too much.... I might be tempted to spread a 3 to 5 inch layer over it. You could have the soil tested - what was it before hand?

As for how much ground to cultivate - as said in another thread, don't do too much and put yourself off! As for how many tatties, it depends on if you are going to eat them every night. Last year we ate 100kg though the winter (2 of us).

I would be tempted to plant as much as you have time/energy for. You can never account for that won't grow/die/get eaten by rabbits/dogs/labourers... You can always give away the rest, or barter it for labour from friends! There's a huge amount of satisfaction on having a complete meal you grew yourself, but it's even better to have friends or neighbours over for a meal and share your bounty with them.

As for hens - I don't grow anything specifically for them - they get bolted lettuces, and other things that have gone over - if I had sweetcorn, I would be eating it myself

[ina]

I would stick all the well rotted manure on - as thick as you like, and leave the fresh stuff in a pile to rot down a bit more. You can plant your pumpkins, courgettes and so on on that pile next spring. If it's well rotted you can also use it as mulch between rows of planted stuff; use it to earth up potatoes etc. However, if you put manure down before winter without planting something in it, a lot of the goodness will just leach out. It's actually better to then grow a cover crop on it, which will bind the nitrogen from the manure, die down in winter, and you can work that in in spring, giving it even more organic matter.

[paddy]

Well i dont eat pumpkins and cougettes stuff or infact that gone on sweetcorn but i know chickens are and it must be better than layers pellets etc.

But one of the reasons for these questions is that i was led to believe that when you got spuds and they were hollow in the middle or brown in the middle i thought this was because the ground was too much manured..........or is this totally incorrect???

[Jack]

Gidday

Hey mate, I guess you have realise by now that I am abit different to most. I say just bung that crap straight onto your garden and let your livestock (soil mico biology) to sort it out.

Look out in a paddock at any horse poop and see if it has burnt much grass.

[paddy]

Common sense a Jack........your right i will dig the lot in and let nature sort things out.

[ohareward]

Hi Paddy. Are your chooks for eggs or meat or both? Corn is good for chooks but you will have to give them other stuff as well. That is why layer pellets were made, to give them what they need. If you want to plant green stuff, my chooks love swiss chard, cabbage, stellaria ( common chick weed, this could be grown in a spare patch of ground) and comfrey. The area that I want the chooks to go over I have fenced it off temporarily with fowl netting.
My veg patch is 13 x 7 metres where I grow stuff for three. My spuds are grown in a separate area, as well as pumpkin. We have more of one thing and not enough of other.
The horse poo that I get is rotted down and I put it through a shredder and into powered form. It is more work, but I find it breaks down into soil quicker. And I have the time.

Robin

[Millymollymandy]

I put half rotted horse manure in my veg patch and some of it is still in clumps, which I find quite annoying on the surface, but it is better under the ground where it has been dug in as it really holds the moisture. You won't be able to rake it to a fine tilth as it takes ages to break down.

I had a problem with one of my plots which I wonder could have been too much manure/not rotted enough/too rich. It was pure stallion poo straight from a field, rotted for 6 months to 1 year but still clumpy. Most of those plants that looked yellowed and a bit 'burnt' are coming good now though. So I personally would not put down fresh manure.

[ina]

Look out in a paddock at any horse poop and see if it has burnt much grass.

Jack, around here a lot of horse owners go over their paddocks with a poop scoop to prevent just that... I think in your slightly different climatic conditions it might be OK to do that.

And as to hollow tatties on too much manure, I think that again that happens mainly when the manure hasn't been composted properly (i.e. rotted down). Organic farmers here often let their manure compost for two or three years before they use it.

[Peggy Sue]

Hi guys,

I have a horse so my garden has benefitted every year from the stuff. Some years I've had time to rot it , others it has had a few months in a bag at best and never had burnt plants. I have used it neat as seedraising as well as on the plot. It does introduce weeds, like nettles especially if you don't rot it.

By the way the reason we poo pick our paddocks is to prevent the worm cycles in horses not the manure burning the grass. Ifd left the horses don't eat that grass (who can blame them for not wanting to eat around their own poo!) and so you lose alot of grazing area too.

I'm a big poo fan- can't have too much of it!!

[ina]

By the way the reason we poo pick our paddocks is to prevent the worm cycles in horses not the manure burning the grass. Ifd left the horses don't eat that grass (who can blame them for not wanting to eat around their own poo!) and so you lose alot of grazing area too.

Thanks for that info - I don't know that much about horses! And as you don't do it for other livestock - well, I suppose that's because other livestock owners tend to have more land, so they can circulate their animals around, and prevent pests building up plus loss of grazing...

[Peggy Sue]

True, but also horse owner do ttnd to really care about their loved ones not having worms, especially since they want to ride them not just kill them for food!!

Good point about horse manure v other types- horses have very inefficient digestive systems so hence there's alot of undigested goodness in there that has been nicely mashed up for you- teh start of your compost process, how kind!

[ina]

True, but also horse owner do ttnd to really care about their loved ones not having worms, especially since they want to ride them not just kill them for food!!

To be honest - exactly because it is an economic question, farmers do care very much about their livestock... Which is why they worm them regularly! And looking at a lot of the fields that are used by horse owners, well, the best I can say about that is that they haven't got a clue about how to look after the land... Overgrazed, full of weeds... As I say, not all of them, but a lot more than I'd like to see.